The motion of the concentric waves spread out on the surface of the water, to the water lilies and reeds, as if they are suddenly awakened from their sleep and brought to life. As the stone slowly falls, it brushes the algae and perhaps frightens a fish. And when it finally touches the bottom, it stirs the mud underneath and other things most probably forgotten for quite some time.
Gianni Rodari’s metaphor of throwing a stone into a pond.

 When the participants arrived they had the chance to look at the photographs they shot for previous assignments hanging on the wall. It was an interesting process of looking at all the images without names, and scattered in ways that sometimes you couldn’t tell the author from the images. After sharing the experiences of shooting and turning their backs to shoot to the other side and editing, people radomly picked up or choose photographs that they liked for the next exercises. Who was the author wasn’t important anymore.

The first round of collective writing was a warming up of free writing, passing your folded paper to the group and then finding out what everybody wrote. It was meant to loosen up the class and get everybody in the mood. In the second exercise we used the photographs from the previous assignments to use them as catalysts for inspirations and possibilities. Each time someone passed their folded paper, they also passed along an image. The recipient could then use that photo as a source for writing or not, if could influence their feelings, use it as a stepping stone for description or a link for a memory. Things are fast paced so we can all keep reacting to the images and keep an automatic and immediate approach to writing.

The last part of the exercise changed drastically. Now everybody was able to read what the other person had written before. This switched the dynamics, by including certain power of the first person that writes because it might set the tone for the following participants and the added element of responsibility toward the group creation. One thing is to write without knowing, and another very different thing is to know what people have done before and then respond to the previous work. The results were interesting, some writings worked more like stories, others sounded like poems and even some had some one-to-one chat room interactions.

We are very excited to see how people have being solving the challenges for the Replication exercise. Sharlene showed us how she started working with a doll in a miniature scale version of the set of the video she decided to work with. Mary also has being working with some video and sound. We are looking forward to see everybody’s work!

Next week we will have a field trip to Roosevelt Island. It will be fun and a great place to create!

Collective Writing Samples:

Wedding day

Rain Rain Rain go away for today
and come back tonight when I’m asleep.
Because tomorrow is my wedding day.
Please go away.
I have invited many guests, some are my ex-es.
And some might be future adventures.
You’re coming, right?
I shall, with my wings wide open.
Don’t be serious. I’m just joking.

—

Learning

We learn a lot today.
Learning is always not enough.
Sometimes we need to unlearn, as I unlearned to love you after years of solitude.
We do not need to unload some burden and memories instead to reborn.
Reborn and start a new life.
And learning how to walk before running, step by step.
People are growing stronger.

—

The white paper is the beginning of the story.
“It is a free country” he says.
Move your hips and slide to the left and then to the right and dance with your heart content.
It’s a wonderful idea but a little bit difficult.
I must do it as often as I can.