Doodling Together
Create wild, weird and often funny postcards together & establish a group's creative confidence.
Additional info
Goal
Establish creative confidence; collaborate effortlessly; build capacity for working together as a workshop-group.
Attachments
Materials
- felt markers, not too thick/thin, one/participant
- paper / blanko postcards
Instructions
Preparation
Sitting around a table or in a circle helps but is not mandatory.
Hand out a sheet of paper or postcard & a pen to each participant. Pens in identical color and size - not too thick & not too thin - cater for better results.
Invitation
We'll create something together in the next couple of minutes.
I'll guide you through a sequence of simple tasks. Please do as directed and - especially in the last two steps - don't do more than as directed.
Instructions for the group
- Draw a form - pass your paper on to the left (or right - stick to one direction)
- Make something out of the form you got from your neighbour (an object or a person, an animal) - pass your paper on
- Add context to the paper you got from your neighbour - pass your paper on
- Add action or drama to the paper you got. Refrain from using text, this will be another step! - pass on
-
Add text
Some additions/riffs after playing with it since three years:
- Do the impro-part at the begin of a workshop and use empty post-cards as paper; let people pick one design at the end & let them write their address on the back; swap again among participants and let them write a postcard with insights/ things they want to share with the person.
- Play a certain music during the doodling; I played Christmas songs once and we ended up with interesting holiday postcards
Background
Eva-Lotta Lamm hosted an Open Space Workshop on visual improvisation at the Euviz / IFvP conference 2014 in Berlin which inspried me to adapt the sequence for team-workhops.
Comments (2)
Some effects of the method: - Allows sillyness or crazy ideas in. - Serves as a subtle way to train people in the use of felt-markers - if you want them to write legible on sticky-notes in your workshop.
Using similar method with putting it in context, eg "Think about (topic of the workshop). Find a form, which is a good metapher for it..." and so on. Speak about results: different ways, different views - how to connect?