One day residencies in which I engage members of a team/class in individual and imaginative conversations about mistakes, using their pens and pencils to create a drawing for their work/study place.
“such a simple and great idea with beautiful results!” Katherine Webster, Namasté Culture
09.30 - 18.30 27.11.2014
“This one day art residency was a great success. Everyone appreciated Kirsten’s one to one approach and her dice game led to some really useful conversations about our attitudes to mistakes as a team. We also really like the drawing - it will serve us as a daily and beautiful reminder that mistakes happen and may have all sorts of possibilities.”
Department Manager
I spent one working day drawing in the Finance Department, borrowing pens from each member of the team. I asked everyone taking part to remember a mistake that they had made and then imagine it as something else - colour, food, clothing, transport, animal or plant - as determined by the roll of a dice.
Data gathered was presented as a spreadsheet and formed the text around the frame of the drawing which was then presented to the team for display in their shared office.
10.00hrs – 16.00hrs, 22nd October 2015, Namasté Culture Office, Papworth Everard, Cambridgeshire.
This one day residency introduced HR professionals to the ideas and opportunities that these drawing mini-residencies offer workplace teams to reflect upon their approach to mistakes - supporting each other, learning from them and embracing the possibilities they might offer.
“Kirsten’s residency invited me to engage in a creative process, drawing on my imagination and my innate hunger to connect, that led to a clearer understanding of my own relationship to mistake making and how that impacts on my performance and well being. It was one of those pleasurable moments of self-insight that has since inspired me to engage in more creative processes and dare to admit mistakes.”
David Lynch
Learning & Business Development, Mindfulness Trainer
Title drawn around the frame of the drawing>
Admitting the Possibilities of Error with lines drawn by Helen, Katherine, Jacqui, Judith, Joss, Alison, Caroline, Stephanie, Anna, David, Sarah, Jenny, Claire and Laura. Pens and pencils used included Jacqui’s mobile mind mapping set of coloured pens and Helen’s pencil from Australia. Remembered mistakes were transformed into: a silver high speed train in motion, a raggedy multi coloured coat with extremely grubby deep red lining, a single stinging nettle, a powerful joyfully leaping tiger, a black coat like one worn by Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo with brass buttons, a michaelmas daisy, an unappetising steaming hot stew, a short fat cactus covered in prickles in a brown plastic pot, deep purple, a camouflage jacket worn by someone shooting rabbits, an elephant with big ears in the Namasté Culture office, uneaten cold sticky toffee pudding, not a plastic plant (maybe an ivy), a golden eagle on a flag and a little blue fishing boat with two white chimneys puffing out to sea on a bright and sunny day. Good conversations, much laughter and “time to contemplate the way forward from our mistakes” written on the office whiteboard. 10.00hrs – 16.00hrs, 22nd October 2015, Namasté Culture Office, Papworth Everard, Cambridgeshire. Thank you Kirsten Lavers.
I was invited by Matua Liam to spend a day with his new class of 9 - 10 year olds attending Raglan Area School in New Zealand*. He was concerned that some of his students were reluctant to try new things or stretch themselves and their imaginations for fear of making a mistake.
For the first part of the day I worked on a drawing using pens and pencils chosen for me by the pupils. I played my dice game with each child individually encouraging them to remember a mistake that they had made and imagine it as something else as dictated by the roll of the dice - food, plant, transport, colour, clothing or animal.
After lunch the the children had the opportunity to create their own 'Admitting the Possibilities of Error' drawings resulting in a classroom display which their teacher could refer to when encouraging them to try something new or support them when they were feeling discouraged by their mistakes.
* I happened to be visiting New Zealand at the time just in case you thought that NZ schools have huge budgets for visiting artists!
