At the invitation of Gaia Redgrave, Samina Ali and Lindsey Colbourne are taking part in an experiment with Gaia (meeting over zoom), an embodied investigation into the ‘micro-culture’ of Utopias Bach, in which we hope to better understand Utopias Bach’s welcome to neurodiverse artists (specifically Gaia) and what can be learned to consciously welcome others.

To start with, we have been creatively exploring these questions:

• “What does it take to create a space where it is ok and safe to be vulnerable?”

• “How do/have Utopias Bach created a safe space?”

• “Is the welcome innate due to the people involved… or can it be learned”

• “How can needs, difficulties, challenging interactions and personal insecurities be explored in this space?”

• “Can this be art as well as beneficial to the participants?”

• “How does what we learn feed into other interactions, communications and meetings we individually and collectively do?”

This page sets out some notes from our discussions, between April and June 2022… And moves on to look at what it means in practice. It leaves us wondering “Could this become something of interest for the arts sector?”

Octopus of Omnipotence discussion 1 (27.4.22): “How does Utopias Bach offer such a welcoming, safe space for everyone?”

• Noticing: grounded in equality and space - meditation

• working with the power of the pieces - co-inquiry

• Naming what is going on: Crone energy of the dark goddess! Creative turmoil

• Making human connections: Diversity including difference and embracing variation and needs

• Go with the flow - intention and emergence (acceptance)

• Being present: Ensemble - all parts of us are invited so there is shared vulnerability and no hierarchy

 Octopus of Omnipotence Session 2 (4.5.22): “How does Utopias Bach make a difference in the world?”

Personal:

• Whole self present - owning/releasing our own stuff creatively

• Empowerment through finding our own way

• Finding our unique focus, what is enough, care, embody

Triads (and small groups)

• Working with the strength/safety of 3s

• Sensitivity: learning what we are each feeding into the collective

• Humans - place - more-than-humans (Bruno Latour’s ‘The Terrestrial)

• mind - body - spirit

• Imagine - play - do

Collective - creating the conditions that foster emergence

• Process of coming together (Collaboratory, Experiments) =

  Microcosm of how we want the macro to be

• Co-inquiry

• Changing the power dynamics

Global

• Just transition principles

• Aware of the world, trauma, its roots, its systems

 Notes from our Third meeting (1.6.22) “how to deal with conflict?”

We’ve been understanding more about how Utopias Bach creates a really welcoming place for a diverse range of people with different needs and backgrounds. Part of the background to this experiment was that Gaia wanted to ask how to deal with conflicts that come up (with individuals and often with organisations), perhaps because of mis-understandings due to neuro or other divergence.

In responding to this question, we talked of:

Curiosity

• realisation through doing this work with Utopias Bach is that it is more dangerous NOT to address something than to address it! If you just feel uncomfortable and awful, you want to avoid or run away. Through practice you come to understand that if work through it, comes repair/reparation and a stronger bond

• asking ‘what’s happening here’ - be curious, let’s find out what’s going on… no-one is ‘wrong’ eg what is the ‘top card’ of what you are experiencing/feeling/noticing - just say it or ask it

• willingness = a negotiation of a question/request to do this

Time/timeliness

• conflict resolution challenges power dynamics - personal trauma, power inequalities have many layers, and all can be opened and expanded, the earlier the better

• sorting things on a daily basis - tension/conflict is usual! Its always there! So…

• noticing tension and discomfort - get in earlier and earlier, to avoid the rumbling/reactionary.

• time - we need time to do this, and it is ongoing, not a one off

• when busy/in decision making/getting things done mode, you feel you don’t have enough time and feel overwhelmed. Having processes eg the tension/resolution process in Utopias Bach, means even in the heat of the moment you can acknowledge what is going on and trigger the process which will create the time that’s needed to work it through (at a future date if necessary)

Hearing

• hearing and understanding each others’ story and how they are experiencing things

• sometimes its not even fixing something but hearing each other

Expressing your needs

• by sharing we will find out ‘its not just me that does that’ so we feel less alone in being who we are: Oneness

• Learning how to express your needs: Turn it into a prayer: what would be your prayer for this situation?

• Expressing needs as the basis, as a demonstration, as a way in - where am I, am i OK, what do a need

• Family stuff often gets played out in a group - hurt by someonee elses’s stuff through proujection, noticing if it is your own stuff that is playing out

Compassion and care

• recognising and valuing diversity - how we work with and care for those around us

• Compassion to understand where someone else is coming from: Ask what is going on? Share it to get other perspectives - what is going on with them. What has hurt them. What is their reaction/where is it coming from?

Learning to be resilent and open

• People alive at this time have a level of sensitivity that is different to how conventional dominant society is structured/thinks is acceptable: this is ok! This is the time to birth sensitivity and care. Asking of us to be more resilient - i crumble because of what I’m telling myself but the resilient part is this is the world we live in, the dynamic is complex, everyone is part of this, we are just showing something to each other

• find out what we need from ourselves to be resilient and open - calling for help through prayer or allyship with humans, more-than-humans, ancestors spirits, saying what we are grateful for

• openness - personal vulnerability so others don’t see you as a monster

How do we put all this on the table, in a new relationship?

• it can feel awkward!

• permission to call things, to make time

• failing is ok - positive too

In practice?

In September 2022, some of the Utopias Bach partners took part in a Tension Resolution circle to work through some issues that had arisen between us over the last few months. Sarah Pogoda held our circle for us, and drew up the agreements (see image below).

• Communication Culture - think about how a communication might be received before we circululate a communication. We consult our wisdom and we consult time. If possibly contentious or difficult, we will use communication which allows a conversation and open dialogue, and will avoid email or voice messages.

• Curiosity Culture - We will be curious to learn about where we and others are coming from, how we experience different situations and moments and what we feel. This will help us feel confident, safe and respected.

• Kindness Culture - We share a kind patience towards us. This includes attentiveness to our emotions, anticipating emotional reactions. Sleep on our reactions, enabling us to explore our reactions before acting on them. This culture might require slow-pace processes.

• Multilingual Culture - each person uses a different language to express how they feel about and think or what they need. We respect that we often do not vollkommen understand our words, metaphors or tone. We want to learn what the words we use mean. This requires durational and committed co-learning and a kind humour for, in, with misunderstandings.

Kindness in a gallery setting

Gaia has made this film about welcoming people with autism and sensory processing difficulties, to the gallery setting.