CONNECTIVE PRACTICES /

FRAMETALKS – Kassel

FRAMETALKS is a connective practice for individuals and groups to uncover and reflect on ones attitudes, values and ways of thinking, and what might need to change if we want to create a humane and ecologically healthy future.

It is a simple and fascinating way of experiencing of how we frame things: of the lenses with which we see the world, and how our attitudes, thought structures, concepts and values, shape our actions.

It is a process that makes one’s own and other different perspectives visible and tangible, so that we can work with them… and think together about how we can and want to live together, and with other living beings on one planet.

It introduces alternative kinds of creative thinking for exploring ‘the future we want’ and for ‘making social honey’.

THINKING & ACTION:  Experiencing and understanding the connection
A key aspect of the FRAMETALKS process involves ‘seeing what you see’ in yourself, and in the world about 5 Realities that are shared by all human beings.

The 5 Realities that we work with are Nature, Human Being, Love, Freedom and Future.

Instead of just living with inherited views, prejudgments and assumptions, it becomes clear that these 5 Realities are also questions that we can and need to think about if we want to make free and conscious choices.
They are individual questions and social questions, and they can be explored on one’s own and together with others.

EXPERIENTIAL ENQUIRY
FRAMETALKS is a social sculpture-connective practice designed to enable this kind of experiential enquiry!

What are our ideas, thoughts and feelings about each of these realities, when we look into our own inner ‘workspace’?

How do we picture, think about and imagine them?

What does this show us about the inner attitudes and lenses we see through?

And what do we see when we look out into the world?

Is it the same as the ideas and images in our minds?

Do we see things – in ourselves and in the world – that we haven’t noticed before?

Exploring the 5 Realities in oneself, in the world, and in dialogue with each other gives one an experience of how our individual and collective actions relate directly to our concepts, attitudes, values, positions and narratives and that thinking and action are not separate!  Becoming more conscious of how we see and think improves the way we can think together about our future on one planet.

THE WEEKLY PROCESS
FRAMETALKS begins in the Neue Galerie on 24 June 2021.

For five weeks – three days per week on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays – we explore one of the 5 Realities  starting with NATURE in Week 1 [24 – 26 June] and ending with FUTURE in Week 5 [22 -24 July].  Then there is an intensive sixth week exploring all 5 Realities from 27 July to 1 August.

FRAMETALKS continues throughout September, but focused only on group processes with schools, youth and other community groups.

THE DAILY PROCESS in the Neue Galerie and on the streets  10.00 -16.30

Phase 1   10.00 -12.15
The process begins in the Neue Galerie space every morning where we work individually to gather our existing perceptions, views and ideas about each reality and share something of these discoveries through the deerskin frame.

Phase 2   13.00 – 15.00
We go outdoors with the deerskin frame and look together in the world at one of the 5 Realities that is being focused on that week.

Phase 3  15.15 -16.30
We return to the museum to share experiences and insights and begin the slow process of ‘making social honey’ from what we have gathered and shared.

DRAFTING A ‘Humanifesto for the Future’
On the last day of the sixth week, Sunday 1 August,  everyone who has participated is invited to return and re-enter the insights and perceptions gathered on one or more visits in the previous 5 weeks.

And we will once again ask the question that we ask at the end of each day in the five week before this:

What views, attitudes, ways of thinking do we need to change – and in what way – if we really want to shape a different kind of future?

Beuys said: “Instead of asking ‘how shall I act?’, we must ask ‘how shall I think?’ ”

TWO DIFFERENT WAYS TO PARTICIPATE IN FRAMETALKS

1. You can use the booklet and small cardboard frame only.

2. You can use the booklet in conjunction with the large deerskin frame on wheels in the Neue Galerie and on the streets.

Both these ways of using the FRAMETALKS’ imaginal thinking process for ‘seeing what we see, and seeing what and how we think’ can lead to sharing thoughts and insights with others.  And this leads to working together to ‘make social honey’ as food for thought and action about the ‘the future we want’!

USING THE BOOKLET ONLY
It is possible to use the FRAMETALKS booklet and small frame yourself, or in a group, without doing the process in the Neue Galerie with the deerskin frame.  You can do this anytime, not only between june and August.

If you like using the booklet, we hope you will take extra copies home with you, and inspire others around you – your pupils, your family, your colleagues, your circle of friends – to also use the FRAMETALKS booklet.

By doing this, you take the special process of imaginative thinking-together about the future, further out into the world.

And contributing to the drafting of a “Humanifesto of Possibilities”!

We hope that everyone who participated in Phase 1, with the booklet, will also join us in the Neue Galerie and on the streets. Through your exploration of the 5 Realities and the imaginal thinking approach in phase 1, you will be well prepared to participate in Phase 2.

USING THE DEERSKIN FRAME and the ARENA in the Neue Galerie
For 6 weeks in the Neue Galerie and on the streets of Kassel you can participate in the DAILY PROCESS outlined above, working with one of the Realities.

You can come to FRAMETALKS once or more often. Some people participate at least once a week to explore each one of the 5 Realities.

YOU CAN PARTICIPATE

1. In the Booklet only process with the cardboard frame:

– as a group, organization or community
If you are participating in FRAMETALKS as a group, organization or community, one of the FRAMETALKS team will guide you through the process of exploring the 5 Realities and exchanges that follow on from this.

– as an individual who wants to explore the 5 Realities
You may receive the FRAMETALKS booklet from a friend or acquaintance, or from your child or other family member. If you have contact with someone who has done the process they can explain how to do it. Otherwise you can contact us and come to an introduction.

 – a multiplier who wants to implement the FRAMETALKS process with a group
We invite people who want to be multipliers to workshops in which the principles and methods of FRAMETALKS are introduced. Once you have experienced the practice yourself, we will explore how you can use the FRAMETALKS process with your group, school or organisation.

2.  With the deerskin frame and the booklet process

as an interested and curious individual

as someone continuing from the ‘booklet only’ process

as a passerby

as a museum visitor

or as a FRAMETALKS team member

You can participate for one day… a few hours…. or longer, coming back to explore each reality, one day a week.

FRAMETALKS in SCHOOLS
Anna Backmund has been working actively and very successfully in a number of schools in Kassel and with other youth organisations. This work will continue after the school holidays throughout September. [We are grateful that the Neue Galerie has extended the time for FRAMETALKS from end of July to end of September.

If you are interested in Anna coming to your school to work with one or more classes, or to your youth or community group, please contact Anna Backmund on frametalks@socialsculpturelab.com 

Current reflections on FRAMETALKS will be posted on the Blog.

FRAMETALKS- Kassel is a Connective Practice by Shelley Sacks, co-curated by Anna Backmund. It continues in the Neue Galerie, Kassel until 26 September.