☾ Ål Nik ☾

What did I love about the process of creating the Special issue 16? Mmm...

▶ This was the first time for me participating in such co-creation process - I absolutely loved how our group is super careful about having everyone involved; and no one was really trying to dictate anything. It's unique to be part of a process like this - in real life it could never happen haha.
▶ Learning tons of new things and doing stuff for the first time. From 0 to a special issue! Crazy! It was really motivating to experiment with a completely new language and see how small things work; and how I understand them a bit more and more.

A few things I believe we should keep for the next SI:

▶ Everyone choosing to do parts they are either curious about or comfortable with. Loved how there was no pressure on which roles we're taking and what tasks we're signing up for.
However, I feel like we need some help in finding our roles in a group process of this kind - I felt lost too often and I guess I was not the only one. Everyone has different needs to feel more effective and involved - let's explore them!
▶ Of course, the whole structure of how it is organised. Working with the guest tutor on the subject and exploring it with them; and figuring out what can we do with it.
▶ Creating a group project rather than individual outputs that are put together.
▶ I like how intensive the SI cycle is - we have enough time to elaborate a bit on a new subject and medium, but also it feels quite short when you are into it. It's super nice to try thing without the pressure to dig too deep and be able to mark down things you would like to get back to later.
▶ The day when we played with our functions & presented our projects; but earlier than 2 days before the launch.

What did you not like about the whole journey?

▶ I felt that (I guess because everyone is equally involved and leading the process) we were stuck because unable to take a decision. I am looking forward to us finding a way to do a better decision-making in the next trimester. Maybe we can talk about how to do it.
▶ Not being able to see how the special issue would look like. At times it was too abstract to me and discouraging.
▶ Being depended on one person to move forward with my project.
▶ Many times during the long discussions I was really lost or frustrated: I felt they were really long and what bothered me was that we were not really listening on others' ideas and upgrading them; but focusing on what more/else we can propose on top of other people's comments and ideas. It led to a blockage to take any decision too often.
▶ We realised what need to do a bit late (around 2-3 weeks late) which gave us very little time to act.

What would you like to do differently for Special Issue 17? Feel free to elaborate in more specifics.

▶ Since now we went through the process once and have many things set already, I would really like us to approach the next subject differently: I would really start with choosing a format first + start building up the special issue (website or whatever) from day 1 as a group. Would like to be involved more in the technical part and be able to see what I am doing all the way.
▶ I missed us having more time together to celebrate, discuss our special issue after the launch. If we manage to spend more time together before the launch next time, it might not be needed; but I believe it would be nice to have that time and not leave Rotti on the next day or make other plans for the evening after a launch. I would love us to be together instead.
▶ Start building at least our special issue website from the beginning?
▶ Having a deadline for the content much earlier. And to respect it.
▶ Plan how the event would like from the beginning.
▶ Give our tutors more time for feedback (everything was super rushed at the end and we couldn't really apply their feedback and improve our work).
▶ Plan the distribution of our work better!!!!!!

What was the most challenging thing while working in the big group; and in the sub-groups?

▶ Big group: It took me 2 months to realise the extend of our collective responsibility for the process & the final outcome. I have never been part of such process where it is really up to us to self-organise, decide and deliver. For a very long I was expecting our tutors to step in and navigate us. For awhile I was wondering why it's not happening, hahaha Until I realise - oh, wow! This is how it really works :D
+ I often have a leading role in my previous projects and experience when working with groups. This time I forced myself many times to really trust our group process even though sometimes it was really hard; and I was frustrated. But I am glad I made it!

▶ Working on something I don't understand: this actually was one of the reasons I couldn't lead any process - what we did was completely new for me and I did not have the professional experience to guide the process. It was quite frustrating not to be able to see (or imagine) the final outcome of the special issue; and not to see the page of my showcase until the very last moment. I usually edit my work on the last phase (when it's published/ready but not yet announced) - because I need to see the final result and then polish it a bit :)

▶ In both big & small groups I felt at sometimes that I was not sure if I am not doing something I was expected to do; or that I should know and understand, but I don't. I was a bit anxious sometimes whether I am not missing something because I felt lost at times.

What did you learn during the Prototyping classes (Michael & Manetta)? What will you keep from them?

▶ Everything about Python was new for me. I think I learned a bit about its overall way of functioning. I can now build a simple function and understand how to call it. Looking at tutorials makes much more sense as well. I am curious to develop further my knowledge there. I think I will definitely use it for some parts of my process from now on; as well as for practical things (e.g. to select a random winner in a giveaway, haha)
▶ Breaking functions (tasks) into small parts, describing them and understanding what each line of the code does was a completely new approach for me and extremely useful.
▶ In prototyping classes we also talked about many projects & artists that I had no idea of. That was super inspiring.
▶ A little bit of html and css, too. :)

What did you learn during the Special issue classes (Cristina & Steve)? What will you keep from them?

▶ Various annotating approaches & different points of view towards a text/read. Was really refreshing to see completely new ways to work with text.
▶ Generally, creating publications and using different mediums - we were introduced to many examples and that was really interesting. I hope I will have some time to go back to some of them later.
▶ Creating a reader, writing a manifesto, describing things from a different point of view - all these experiments and exercises were awesome.