- Introduction -
All the reflections of the first and second part of the book Reflexiones latinoamericanas - El proceso creativo y Germina.Cciones... (RL) *buy here*, invite to propose a specific methodology, to apply it in the development of the different phases of a creative process, while we share their path.
The Method for Shared Creative Processes, in successive stages, explores and gives importance above all to the world that lives between the emotional-imaginative moment (which is personal and from which the expressive-communicative needs arise) and the technical realization of the work.
After living in depth the own imagination and manifesting it - also helping yourself with the redaction of free and spontaneous texts and drawings - the successive Narrative Elaboration clarifies step by step the dynamics and the elements involved. It is explored them one by one and defined them with progressive precision that causes the need to use a determined technique to represent them, the last phase of the process before the feedback of a public fruition.
Thanks to the clarity of intentions that a detailed elaboration allows, it is possible to manifest, through the technique, those situations that were born in the previous path to their entrance in scene, in the most precise way that the own knowledge allows. If we first choose among the tools that we have available thanks to past experiences, then it becomes indispensable to experience other options. In this functional approach to technique and tools, the expressive need contributes in the task of perfecting them throughout the creative life, making them more and more personal.
During all the stages, it is very important to take pauses of reflection and share with others - including the eventual interpreters - their own perceptions and intuitions, involving them in their own creative way as soon as possible.
A common, collaborative and shared space that develops the ability to listen, to respect the ideas of all participants and reciprocal help, favors this dynamic.
Read the texts in group and look at the drawings and graphics planned by this Method, inviting each member to opine about what they perceive, allowing to see things that perhaps whoever wrote or drew was not seeing. Therefore, as soon as someone feels that his path is blocking, he can ask for help from others, counting where he is and which are his difficulties, without masks or fear of judgments and taking into account any suggestions that may arise.
Conversing, listening, contributing to the processes of others, helps to clarify more and more ideas, sensations, intuitions; to learn; to live more consciously the elements that appear, the decisions that are taken. It finds answers and glimpses solutions.
It is useful to accompany each stage with sheets ready to receive all the doubts and questions that arise along the way, in order to have them always present and answer them step by step, also with the help of the others.
It is important to be ordered and keep the documentation of the whole process, listing each sheet used with the number of the relative step, followed by eventual progressive alphabetical letters, in the case that for each step it was necessary to use more than one sheet. It is better not to correct or modify in the same paper what has already been done, but to use new ones in case it is necessary to complement something. That is, leaving traces of each stage, preserving the different versions of what is being prepared. This documented binnacle will allow you to reflect after concluding the work, see it at a distance and relive the experience in successive creative processes.
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In the case of common creative processes, involving more than one person in decisions, it is important to consider a Collective Dynamic.
Before starting the path, each member of the collective is invited to follow the following steps, without fear of judgment or to seem ridicule:
- look at the eyes of the others, from close up;
- try to perceive the energy of the others and perceive yourself in their bodies;
- after embracing them, do everything they ask, with extreme confidence;
- try to perceive the expressive needs of the others, as well as their fears.
After this preparatory phase, everyone writes their initial Free Text of the process, at the same time and place, following the suggestions proposed in the relative chapter. While the texts are confronted and analyzed together, each one tries to see and revive the perceptions of the others.
The path follows with the stage and the steps predicted by this Method and explained in the relative chapters, not individually but as a collective. All the members write, draw, compare their texts, drawings and graphics, finding affinities, differences and considering them, making decisions together
It is also useful to consider a Collaborative Dynamic for the relationship with the eventual interpreters and with all those who will have a role in the realization and presentation of the work, involving them in the process already from its initial phases. The work in a true collaboration multiplies the perspectives and the possible solutions, allowing a mutual learning (see Reflexiones Lat., Part I, chap. V.4: Collaboration, sharing and the group).
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Although it does not seem complicated to understand and follow the steps of this Method, the presence of an expert guide and with a good knowledge of the group dynamics, helps to go in depth and to make the most of each stage.
To favor the objective, the Method considers different levels of application, with progressive deepening. Because in the first approaches it is difficult to relate to everything it proposes, the invitation is to stay before on a more superficial level, and then try to detail it as far as possible, on a path to deeper levels. By realizing our own unknowns, which prevent us from moving forward with fluency in exploration, a solution is to settle for what is possible to apply in the moment in which one finds oneself. However, we should never abandon the will to go more and more in depth in successive applications, also considering the precious help of the others.
All of the above contributes to develop the true character of oneself and progressively approach the own creative essence. Therefore, in addition to guiding creative processes, the Method is a good opportunity for personal growth.
First, it feeds a path of creative "decoding". All the stages, especially the Emotional-Imaginative Exploration, allow to relate to the own unconscious world and the own masks, to try to become aware of them and to reflect them (see Reflexiones Lat., Part I, chap. IV.1: The unconscious). In this task so determinant for the life of each human being, listening to the others is a great help to evidence mechanisms, labels and roles to which we are subject.
The idea is not to break unconscious mechanisms with an action of force, taking the risk of creating another type of dependencies - even towards the person who puts in act that action -, but to make evident them to provoke the need to overcome them. Despite this progressive path, it is possible that someone may give in under the weight of an excessive emotional load. For this reason, it is important the "containment" and the understanding in a healthy group dynamic, which is manifested through the development of the ability to listen and respect. In a common space with these characteristics, the problems and themes that arise can be addressed directly, without avoiding them for fear of appearing invasive, thus bringing the group members together and amplifying an empathic attitude.
A creative act, besides that consciousness implies knowledge. The dynamics of the Method feed a learning path, thanks also to the shared dynamics, which allow giving value to the previous knowledge of each one and integrate them to those of the group, through a horizontal learning given by the contribution of the experiences of all (see Reflexiones Lat., Part I, chap. III.7: Towards a possible path).
Considering being subject to cultural and social codes defined by others as a "disease", being aware of them invites to undertake a possible path of "healing", and therefore of personal transformation, another milestone of a sincere creative act, together to consciousness and knowledge (see Reflexiones Lat., Part II, chap. II.4: The creative act: consciousness, knowledge and transformation).
In the stage of the Narrative Elaboration of the own creative process, each one has the freedom to define the path of narration, has the power to describe reality or decide to modify it, with the objective of "exorcising" what it hurts, directing it towards places longed for. So, it transforms the own reality and finds possible solutions to one's existence. In fact, imagining different possible paths for the same narrative and knowing how to choose according to the needs, can allow to resolve internal conflicts, to glimpse alternatives to tensions present in real life, exploring them through the own decisions.
Therefore, it is important to consider a conscious creative process as well as an opportunity for self-knowledge in function of a possible therapy. For example, when we tell what we are living in a certain situation that affects us, we should avoid falling into a mere description of our reality, presenting it literally, but try to "manipulate" it. Simplifying, what would happen if, instead of just describing it, we decided to gradually reduce during the narration the great anxiety that dominates us, until transforming it into a simple crumb? And what would happen if we suddenly make a bird appear that, after approaching, eats that crumb before flying towards the horizon?
By the way, the presence of an expert guide and the others, helps to see more clearly the mechanisms that dominate us and make consistent decisions. The common energy that is fed in a group dynamic, allows winning the fear, to unblock and to find with more facility the strength to face those mechanisms and to remove them from the unconscious world, towards an effective solution that transforms our reality.
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The ideal place to create fertile situations for the application of the Method is the "Taller de Creación Compartida" [Shared Creation Workshop], one of the main proposals of Germina.Cciones... - primaveras latinoamericanas (see Reflexiones Lat., Part I, chap. II.5: What kinds of activities are organized?).
It is an instance addressed to creators and interpreters of all ages, without distinction of discipline, formation or experience. It focuses on the development of creative projects of new works proposed by the participants, with the purpose of promoting interaction and exchange between the processes involved, with emphasis on shared and collaborative work. Its main objective is to promote reflection on the creative act as a process of consciousness, knowledge and personal transformation, sharing creation through dialogue, respect and mutual listening, in a group manner.
It foresees a concentrated dynamic in the span of some consecutive days. During the activity, a practical experience of perception, inquiry, reflection and elaboration is carried out, which is invited to be channeled through personal or collective projects, sharing the creative process with all those present, establishing collaborations and developing, as a result, tools and plans that allow concluding works that respond to the communicative needs of its creators.
The conversation and the group analyzes feed the understanding of each step of the Method, in progressive levels. In fact, the experience that is acquired in successive participations, helps to go more and more in depth in the proposal.
Given the importance of concentrating in the shortest possible time the first two stages, the most transcendent of the whole process, they are given as much space as possible during the Workshop. The objective is to complete them within it, although they are always open to the possibility of successive deepening. On the other hand, the third stage, of Technical Realization, needs more time for its completion. That is why, even if it is faced at a theoretical level and all its steps are activated, it must necessarily follow its path during the successive regular meetings of the different local Groups of Germina.Cciones...
Before the first stage of the Method, of Emotional-Imaginative Exploration (with its exercises, steps, conversations), it is proposed to apply the following dynamics, to begin the reciprocal knowledge and to glimpse the masks of which it is intended to become aware.
a. All the participants, sitting in a circle, close their eyes for a few minutes and imagine themselves. Projecting to observe themselves from the outside, pay attention to how they look and what they see of themselves.
During this exercise, several situations can be presented, depending on the character, the level of personal conscience, one's own experiences, worries, fears. For example, there are those who seek to visualize themselves through memories, photos: mirrors that live in their memory. Some people imagine how others see him, perhaps a close friend, what they say about it, or are worried about how they look at him. There is also space for self-criticism, seeing positive or negative things of oneself, among many other options. Whatever the situation is, it is undoubtedly a stimulus to reflect and thus try to know itself more in depth.
b. Each one tells with sincerity how he imagined himself and presented himself to the others, in a synthetic way. When finished, invite another of the group to do so, pointing it out.
This allows entering a first level of harmony with the other participants, to begin to approach them, to trust. If space is given to listening and respect, the state that is created invites one to express with more freedom about what others are expressing and to converse, favoring the possibility of reaching a good level of empathy.
c. To continue this path of reciprocal knowledge, the basis for the successive co-participative dynamics and the possible collaborations, now everyone gets up, approaches and continues to converse with a closer physical presence.
It is important to leave all the time necessary for that contact to feed. If the previous steps managed to create a spontaneous emotional environment, thanks to the suggestions of the group guide to try to remove mental worries, it is possible - even more if they are stimulated in a not too direct way - that some begin to embrace each other and thus get to perceive all more in depth.
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Following, the stages of this Method and its relative steps are presented (*). Each of them is related to a chapter of the book Reflexiones latinoamericanas - El proceso creativo y Germina.Cciones... (RL) *buy here*, where we reflect on the creative process from different points of view. Therefore, since the text is systematic and exposes the dynamics without deepening the decisions that caused them, we invite to refer to those specific chapters.
(*) It is advisable to have a "kit" of basic materials for the realization of the "Taller". This would include: sheets, roll of continuous paper, transparent paper, graph paper, pencil, lead pencil, eraser, colored pencils, ruler, calculator, scissors, tape, stopwatch with partial times.
