Practical catch up sessions - notes

26/10/2023

Catch up:
- Discussing the progress from the internal meeting from last week.
- Side note: A guiding question throughout the research that we can look onto in each session: how to slow down visitors? 



Main points discussed:
- Host folder

This would be ideal to make for future hosts, it could contain feedback and visitor experiences. 



The diary in the showroom could be used as a means to reflect and slow down. There should be a distinct separation between hosting folder (problem solving, schedules and technicality) and the showroom diary (handwritten thoughts, reflections of the day, comments from visitors and drawings). Charlie recently did an interview with metropolis m about hosting and she used a good article as reference (need to find link) 



Continued discussion about the extension of the hosting folder, how can it include reflections? Something to think about (example: new design layout for the hosting folder). It could also include visitor engagement within the showroom. Add new extensions to the hosting folder. 


- Internal meeting

Email address’s and communication: should it be the personal one or new address? Discussing possibilities and issues that could arise from one address but we can’t afford to have three new ones. In discussion - to be continued and possibly tested with the education email in the future. For now, we will use our personal emails as per usual. 



Mid of the month- internal meeting updates - a newsletter format. We plan to keep it concise, straight to the point and not overload it with info for the team. 



In our meetings, we can ask the same questions as the staff meeting: ‘what is our focus and what help do we need?’ It is good to have one focus point for each internal meeting and not sidetrack. 



Hosting folder: we have only access to the old drive. We need access to the new one and make a folder dedicated for the hosts, where it includes our schedule, hours, etc - we will wait until Elaine is back to get a clearer drive. 


- Timetable overview

This would be best to discuss together. We can take a look at each others schedules and plan from there (for example: emailing takes 30 mins, 1 hour staff meetings, 1 hour arranging schedule and providing availability). It’s good to look at these together and see what extra work we are probably doing outside of showroom hours. 



We need to ask ourselves ‘what would you need per month and per show? How many hours in total?’. 



We need to design the role rather than thinking of tasks to fill up extra hours - for example: merch closet needs to be thought through, could be something we do with additional hours or an hour of self study before each show.


Elnaz continues:

-A tour with the Production team & Charlie before each show to know the system and any specific technique we need to know in case of emergencies

-Who to contact in an emergency or especially when somebody is sick or not available, who is responsible for that task?

- Safety ----> trash bines sparkles / the poles / Jiew's show; ceiling falling???

-Trello ( Nadine Suggested)---> Digital sticky note
- for having a better communication system between the showroom and the office

Notes

03/11/2023

- Summarizing the previous session
- Mapping --> subjectivity
- Make the sensory map of Jin's exhibition and stick it to the door (to be seen from the outside)
- Sensory map -> styles -> colures -> simplicity
- Talking about the British Museum sensory map and how generalised the map is.
- sensory map for color-blinded people
- different ways of engagement in the sensory map
- Sensory map for Autistic or hyper-sensitive people: exclusivity or inclusivity?
- different methods rather than just a 2D floorplan map.
- Different maps with data coloctores
- sensory ethnography
- Having a questionnaire/data collector at the opening of the shows
- Virtual sensory map
- Artistic research on sensory map
- Using methodology methods
- Flow sensory map -> about senses - process based
- each of us decides to work on a specific part, for example, Elnaz is working on a Sensory Kit for visitors
- During the next week we all work on research about maps and sensory maps, different methods and gather all the information on the Houglue website.
- Following Elnaz's practice make a Craft map. Installing it in the storage room and working on it. Should come up with an idea how to translate the the emotions, sound, smell and other sensory items to the pattern of the map.

Notes

20/11/2023



We would like to invite the rest of the staff and programme makers to reflect back on the past programme year with us. During this reflection we will use different sensory and embodied exercises.
Ideally this would take place around the end of January, before the build-down of Jin's show.

We briefly spoke about what the goal(s) of this reflection could be:
- to take a moment to slow down and to celebrate all the different things we as MaMA learned from the programme
- to introduce what we have been doing/exploring/discovering in the past months through experience instead of presentation
- to share insights from the showroom 
- to test out things we are developing? 



We spoke about what the 'final' products will be of this research phase. What keeps on popping up are the following three:
- Sensory kit
- Maps
- Object / archive for reflection in the showroom 

When speaking about these different media / formats we realised there are two questions that need to be answered for each of them: 'What is the aim? And for whom are we doing this/ by whom will it be used?' 
This brought us to the following topics: 



- We keep speaking about slowing down, for ourselves, for visitors etc. It can have a negative connotation too. We don't mean: Passively slowing down or doing nothing.
So what do we actually mean by slowing down? Collection of words that came up: 
mindful, sluggish, ethical, reflective, togetherness, bringing people together, exchange, share thoughts, collective, focussed on the senses, subjective, needs based, extending invitations, individual and collective, pausing, invitation to slow down, contemplation,...



This is an expression we spoke about for a while, it helped us to understand what we want to do.
- We want to offer options and tools for people (visitors, hosts, colleagues) to engage their senses and bodies in alternative ways.
- People can choose to engage. Nobody is forced to take our invitation. 
- What may work for one person, might not work for the next. 
- Hospitality / generosity: it feels quite special to receive an invitation

Reflection with MaMA Team

Products / Outcomes

Slowing down

Extending invitations

Notes

27/11/2023

Present: Janel & Felicitas

- Today we met up to discuss further how we could use mapping as a potential tool for (visitor) participation
- We started reading the paper 'Tracing the Map' by Edward Zammit
- When reading about 'Mental Maps' by Franz Ackermann Janel was reminded of 'Invisible City' by Bruno Latour
- Invisible city is a mixed-media photographic enquiry into social theory about the city of Paris. Via a website visitors can access 'hidden' information about Paris. The website doesn't seem to be working anymore, but theres a pdf text about it online.









- Inspired by Invisible City, we came up with the following idea:
- A (digital) map of the surrounding area of the showroom, which features 'hidden' stories and invitations to engage the senses (with the environment)

Aims:
- Inviting visitors to 'perceive differently' and 'slow down' already before entering the showroom
-> Hosting visitors outside of the showroom already
- Shifting attention to the invisible, the ordinary

Pro's
- Doesn't need to be changed each show, but can grow and evolve over time
- Text, image, audio
- A simple first version is probably easily made and can be tested soon
- We can keep adding to it throughout making process
- Responds to the 'issue' of visitors' fast pace when entering from the street
- Map can hold different categories; personal / subjective stories, prompts/ assigments/ invitations
- Can be implemented on MaMA's website
- Relates to many things we have spoken about in the past months


Con's
- Accessibility; could we make a paper version in case people can't access it via phone?
- How to bring in tactility?

"Our photographic exploration takes us first to places usually hidden from
passers-by, in which the countless techniques making Parisians' lives possible are
elaborated (water services, police force, ring road: various "oligopticons" from
which the city is seen in its entirety). This helps us to grasp the importance of
ordinary objects, starting with the street furniture constituting part of inhabitants'
daily environment and enabling them to move about in the city without losing their
way."

Tracing The Map - Edward John Zammit

05/12/23 Slowing down

- Care / slowing down in the showroom (hosts and visitors)
- What do we really mean by slowing down?
- Do we really mean slowing down? 

Descriptors:  mindful, sluggish, ethical, reflective, togetherness, bringing people together, exchange, share thoughts, collective, focussed on the senses, subjective, needs based, extending invitations, individual and collective, pausing, invitation to slow down, contemplation,...

12-01 Planning & Mental maps
19-01 Sensory toolkit
26-01 Sharing & dividing space

Dates for worksessions?