{"id":3250,"date":"2015-04-19T13:10:43","date_gmt":"2015-04-19T13:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/impedagogy.com\/wp\/?p=3250"},"modified":"2015-04-19T13:32:50","modified_gmt":"2015-04-19T13:32:50","slug":"creating-ritual-space-in-rhizo15-why-and-how","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/impedagogy.com\/wp\/blog\/2015\/04\/19\/creating-ritual-space-in-rhizo15-why-and-how\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating Ritual Space in #Rhizo15: Why and How"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"typical_cricket\"<\/a>I have been closely annotating my way via the Rhizo15 Diigo Group<\/a> through a rich repast\u00a0of a blog post<\/a> by Sarah Perry on Venkat Rao’s blog, Ribbonfarm<\/a>.\u00a0One of her purposes is to\u00a0explore how identity \u00a0is created or as she terms it, ‘peopled’.<\/p>\n

Perry draws on the writing of Philippe Rochat in his book,\u00a0Others in Mind: The Social Origins of Self-Consciousness<\/a>. \u00a0According to Rochat we create each other’s identities through a recursive process where\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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…each person learns to be aware of himself \u2013 is constrained toward<\/em> self-consciousness \u2013 by other people being aware of him. He learns to manage his image in the minds of others, and finds himself reflected, as in a mirror, through the interface of language and non-verbal communication.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

According to Rochat we see ourselves through the constraining influences of other people, through the ‘peopling’ of others.<\/p>\n

I think this\u00a0idea\u00a0has significance in #rhizo15. How? We are all seeing ourselves through the eyes of others. \u00a0How accurate is that subjective view? \u00a0Sometimes it is off by degrees of magnitude. \u00a0For example, I see some pretty effusive praise for my stuff that by its nature is half-baked. \u00a0I know the negative connotation inherent in the term ‘half-baked’, but I cannot help but feel that what I create has not grown all the way to fruition and that my comments and interactions with others are sometimes just dashed off and ill-considered, certainly not worthy of the work done by those I am responding to.<\/p>\n

Yes, some of our work is very good for a first draft, but most goes little past this initial draft and into further revision. Your mileage might very much vary. \u00a0This shoe I am putting on might not fit you. \u00a0I beg your forgiveness for this if you feel I have been unjust, but… \u00a0I expect further recursion, further refinement through reciprocal action.\u00a0Sometimes I get that social recursion, mostly I don’t. Part of me takes no offense while another part is deeply disturbed that our\u00a0responses are so cursory. \u00a0And the cursory nature of most responses and in the desultory considerations of others,\u00a0we have generated a\u00a0default behavior. \u00a0And, worse, those defaults have\u00a0become internalized as the default mutual mental modeling that Rochat calls peopling. \u00a0We are peopled by shallow necessity, by force of circumstance, and by the barest reciprocal exigency. \u00a0If you feel this is unfair,then just view this as a sample of one, of me ranting and venting and feeling inadequate.<\/p>\n

In our offline social life we have ways to compensate for this–shallowness. \u00a0It is called ritual. \u00a0Perry notes<\/p>\n

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People are able to accomplish this feat of mutual simulation by use of two tools: language and ritual. Ritual allows for the communication of information that language can\u2019t convey \u2013 hard-to-fake costly signals of commitment, dependability, harmoniousness, and cooperative intent.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So how do we play this infinite game of mutually modeling each other’s identities to each the other? Through language and ritual.\u00a0Language for the surface, intellectual\u00a0stuff and ritual for the deep, social\u00a0stuff. I believe that language is so fragile that without the reinforcing social power of ritual it becomes brittle and ‘unbelievable’. We need ritual if for no other reason than that it is the substrate for language.<\/p>\n

That begs two\u00a0questions: what are the #rhizo15 rituals and what should they be?<\/p>\n

I am not sure if we have any. \u00a0Dave’s introductory videos are something we all share, but what else? \u00a0Perhaps folks can comment here on what they think #rhizo15 rituals might be (that #rhizo15 hashtag, for example), but I want to suggest some we might try.
\nThe sparseness of ritual environment in rhizo15 is very painful to me. \u00a0The sparseness of feedback from language is just as painful, but the lack of ritual makes it even more so. \u00a0Dreadfully more so. \u00a0In fact I am on the edge of withdrawing all the time. \u00a0I think it is the ritual that might\u00a0save me.\u00a0So bring on the salve of ritual to rhizo15.<\/p>\n

[Aside: I am patterning these rituals after the work done by the\u00a0Group Pattern Language Project<\/a>. ]<\/p>\n

Here are some of my suggestions for potential ritual activity in #rhizo15:<\/p>\n

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Ritual 1: greeting\u00a0folks as often as possible in familiar digital spaces–I need to make this overt in my own online rhizo15 activities.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Ritual 2: Breaking Bread Together–actually eating and talking online about whatever. \u00a0No, really being seen with each other in a Hangout for example having lunch\/dinner.<\/div>\n
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Ritual 3: \u00a0Share natural spaces through YouTube and \u00a0make part of any group meeting (e.g. Hangout) opening. \u00a0What I suggest here is that you record and upload an environment near you and share it on YouTube. This does not have to be just Nature. \u00a0It can be street traffic, a market, a bus stop, or any place that renders the ‘spice’ of your environs. When we meet we can share begin the meeting with one of our spaces.<\/div>\n
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Ritual 4: “With joy and zest, publicly celebrate milestones and recurring events. Affirming shared history, we nourish community, crystallize a sense of accomplishment, and build group identity by unifying our stories and common goals. Can be planned and ritualized, or as spontaneous as a group cheer.” \u00a0Celebrate | Group Works. (n.d.). Retrieved April 19, 2015, from http:\/\/groupworksdeck.org\/patterns\/Celebrate<\/div>\n
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Ritual 5: \u00a0Feedforward<\/a> with the imagination. \u00a0In other words project your self into the future and ‘recall’ all that ‘happened’ from the beginning of #rhizo15. \u00a0In a way I think this defines what rhizomatic learning is. \u00a0Each of us creates identity for the group by being who we are with the voices we have. \u00a0Why not imagine that forth along with others instead of relying solely upon our individual strivings. \u00a0Feedforwardings would allow us to compare rhizomatic identities and from there decide where we might be drawn to\u00a0as a group as well as individually.<\/div>\n
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Anyone interested in doing ‘feedforwarding” \u00a0might look at a this journaling activity taken<\/a> from the Presencing Institute<\/a>. \u00a0I am working on adapting it for our use, but you can do that just as easily on the fly as I can.<\/div>\n
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Or you might simply stand at the point where #rhizo15 ‘ends’ and reflect on what happened. \u00a0Perhaps if we shared this as a ritual activity, a future prototyping of a kind, then we might be able to see each other’s identities more clearly and pull together in the newly visible harness of shared vision.<\/div>\n
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I plan on doing this later today and hope I can get others to share. \u00a0Here is a common space for storing your feedforward<\/a> and for talking about it as well.<\/p>\n