The collaboration on Grevturegatan – intro to discussion the 23/5 2006

Group work and collaborations have never been my way of work. I’ve always preferred the total freedom of only work under my own conditions, rules and boundaries. Individual work and the responsibility for the results and what is going to happen, is full of different possibilities and problems then work in a collaboration, and both of them has a lot of positive and negative sides that the other hasn’t. Individual work, in the long run, can easily result in the need of some kind of group based resistance, or else the individual thinking will be problematic. However one prefers to work, one need to confront an opposite way of work to keep on thinking clear.

During one week of time I got the possibility to try my group sense. It happened in Carl Palms empty apartment, which was transformed to a working space for an optional number of people and developments. It was a situation I dealt with with great curiosity. I used this time to try a video idea, which builds on a number of participants. The idea was to place a number of people in front of a camera one by one, for one hour each. And let them deal with this time however they want. Even I myself participated in the experiment, which I see as a sketch to an idea I will dig deeper into in the future.

A number of thoughts have struck my mind during and after the collaboration. This is some of them.

Is there possible to collaborate without a goal?

What is the difference between a collaboration and just being together when you don’t have a specific goal to reach?

 Is a collaboration without a goal more like an examination of what a collaboration really is, than a collaboration in itself?

What is the affect on the goal if you have very free/ruled collaboration? Does a free floating and growing work easily result in a free and indistinct goal?

Is a free and growing collaboration easier to carry out than one with distinct rules?

How free should the system be? Is some kind of rules a requirement, or are they unavoidable?

Is a clear leader more important for a collaboration with a distinct goal then for a work free for development?

Is it more effective to choose a leader than to let everybody grow into their roles naturally?

How does the length of time for the collaboration affect on the participants roles?

How does the choice of place for the collaboration affect on the participants concentration?

Should there be any kind of rules for how big space one can take? What should they be, and what would the difference be if there wasn’t any?

Can you consciously affect on your own role in the group?

How do you know when you should change/adapt your behaviour and when someone else should for the groups’ best?

How does a larger group and stronger dynamic affect on the individual?