We Are In.Tuition is a think-and-do fieldbook, produced under a Creative Commons licence, to be shared and remixed by anyone!
We are a group of fringe dwelling academics and creative practitioners, raising funds to bring the co-created We Are In.Tuition fieldbook to life. It's the result of 15 months of dojos / gatherings jamming on a loosely defined field of shared practice: intuition and mutual care in leadership, innovation and the future of work.
In February this year, we spent a weekend at Cowra's The Corridor Project, a rural Australian Woolshed to explore the question: what does it mean to be intuitive, trusting in flow, emergence and embodied wisdom when living in patriarchal structures?
We have since, created an Open Value Network (OVN) to practice and support new and ancient ways of being and livelihood.
Why an "Open Value Network"?
The Energy to Collaborate - The Threshold of Possibility!
Organising as a collective starts with the desire to collaborate, following the energy of ideas and sensing into what's possible or needed. To create the conditions for powerful collaboration the space must be open and safe for people to bring their whole selves and contribute in the spirit of honouring diversity, equal participation and innovation. It is here where we tune into who is calling forth the work and ask who has the motivation, commitment and/or mandate to bring it into being!
We want to share our explorations with others-- with you!
Our first 'project' as an OVN is to produce the We Are In.Tuition fieldbook, a resource to share our collective wisdom and methods, designed by Jenni Ottilie.
ABOUT THE FIELDBOOK
We will be making 100-150 limited edition print copies and just 60 early release digital copies, published under a Creative Commons licence, available for all to use and remix.
In three months time we will make the digital version freely available for all. So yes, you could wait, and if funds are limited please do wait, because we want you to have it for free. But if you've read thi far, you're felling the vibe and can't wait to get your hands on it (lest you forget), or maybe you just really prefer to touch and feel your books, you can order 1 of 100-150 limited print copies right now and support us at this critical moment, to bring the We Are In.Tuition fieldbook to life. Note- this crowdfunding campaign is the ONLY way to order a limited edition print copy.
Pre-purchase your copy from the "rewards" column on the right (or below if you are viewing on mobile). To say thank you we will publish your name on the honour roll in the back (unless you prefer to remain anonymous)
THE BACKSTORY (in case you're interested)
Excerpt from "A Wee Genealogy" by Ele Jansen
"Act 3 : Resistance It’s 2017. Monique Potts invites me to design a collaborative something for an Artist Residency at UTS (University of Technology Sydney). I’m thrilled, because such an invitation is a rare gift. I take my van Otis to Gerroa where I walk up and down the long beach, my feet in the waves, dropping into myself. Usually, when I create I start by feeling what’s awake in me. Once the intensity unfolds in my body I identify the feelings: wrath shows me fear, fear shows me needs, needs show me love, and that’s where I need to go.
WRATH: I teach entrepreneurship in an MBAe program and am concerned by the rhetoric and value around speed, competition and productivity while my students’ bodies clearly cry for rest.
FEAR: We treat our bodies like we treat mother Earth. We exploit ourselves like we exploit our planet. And until we begin to nurture ourselves, we won’t achieve the big global changes we’ve been trying to achieve for decades now.
NEED: Harmony, livelihood, health, beauty.
LOVE: We all have an enormous capacity to heal and care. We have the capacity to think critically and find better ways. We have a whole sensory toolbox waiting for us to unleash, and to learn to value our seses for what they are: magic!
I remembered a wild weird collective dreaming that happened at an in 2015 and how it showed me the power of intuition, the knowing that comes with stillness, emptiness, and darkness. I thought of Yin and Yang, and the in-between, the androgynous, if you will. I remembered how I wrote down “We are In.Tuition”.
An then I felt my inner queenwarrior, who wants to see humans thrive in their authentic light, and not for some projected hollow glory. I wanted to resist my own inner boss, who keeps on telling me that I should be more organised, and more strategic, and more networky, and more productive, and more logical… more yang.
I wanted to listen to my intuitive knowing that great good comes from lying fallow for a while; that creativity and collaboration blossom with space for serendipity, that they require their own time and then they come effortlessly (think: kairos).
I wanted to resist a world that doesn’t appreciate my inner knowing. And I wanted to see if others think so, too."
From these dreamings, how does it all shake out? ie... what happened next?
Ele put out a call and group gathered: we called ourselves "We Are In.Tuition".
We researched, experimented and developed content and a community of practice.
We ran 8 Dojos in Sydney, each 1.5hr long with 5-8 participants each week. With 10 participants from different disciplines and academic fringes, both external and internal to UTS, we developed a productive conversation about intuition in a context of political androgyny, and thus as a valuable resource for leadership, innovation and societal development.
By engaging the group with emergent and coyote pedagogy, we were able to both spark interest and utilize momentum to build a kernel of a transdisciplinary Open Value Network as well as voluntary efforts to create a co-ethnographic journal, a think-and-do-book with contributions from all participants. The output of this program is under a Creative Commons license to be shared and remixed.
Our residential retreat, was held in February 2018, at The Corridor Project in Cowra, we stayed in the old Australian Woolshed pictured above. This fieldbook is a result of our explorations there.
Three pillars built the arch of this project.
- Methods: Co-ethnography, creative collaboration, coyote pedagogy
- Spaces: We created and used liminal thresholds, the in-between, transdisciplinarity, nature, a woolshed.
- Practice: we used methods from various collaborative approaches, such as possibility management, Theory U, Art of Hosting, Social Presencing, Non-violent communication, Learn Do Share, storytelling, facilitation, emotional labour.
The key themes explored in the retreat included intuition, power, resistance, transversal skills development, facilitator skill development and creative practice.
The weekend was a sharing of nourishing practices. We prepared food together, had satsangs and walks in nature. Ele prepared a loose schedule and facilitation for the retreat. The content was divided by days and we had open space for others to contribute. We dug a bit deeper into how we use intuition and nourishment in relation to work and teaching. We introduced the Open Value Network approach to help us bring this work into our everyday work. And we dreamt that if each of us would write an intuitive article about a related issue, we'd have a wonderful collection of what we value. And so this fieldbook took shape.
WHO ARE WE
This project was enabled by Monique Potts through University of Technology Sydney, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Creative intelligence and developed and led by Dr Ele Jansen, co-created with a small collective of academics, creatives and innovators.
This fieldbook documents the outcome of the thinking of the group and dialogue, which is also an invitation to others to understand our intention, step in, and utilise the community. From this point on the Open Value Network (OVN) will be an independent community of practice based at UTS (University of Technology Sydney) for open collaboration and social innovation.
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
Pre-purchase a limited edition We Are In.Tuition fieldbook, either in hard copy or as a digital download. You are also invited to join us for our launch party which will be held a Lazy Bones in Marrickville on November 28th, featuring the live music of Touch Noisy, join us for The Grove Dojos or come to our next retreat in February 2019!
Check out the "Rewards" column on the right (or below if you are on mobile) to select your level of contribution and please share the good word with your friends who would be interested in what we've been up to.
GIVING BACK:
Any surplus from this campaign, once design and print are covered, will be donated to SisterWorks, supporting refugee and migrant women to become financially independent and settled in Australia.
CONNECT WITH US:
Oh-kay, so the We Are In.Tuition OVN doesn't have a website yet, but we do have a few places where we gather online and in person and go by other names... ready?
CONNECT ONLINE: We are "The Doughnut Collective" in Transforming Capitalism Labs. We have a community hub through The Presencing Institute Join us here
CONNECT IN PERSON: The Grove Dojos - We don't currently have anything public online about this monthly dojo, but if you're interested in joining send us an email, or simply jump in and pick up "The Grove + Fieldbook" reward. We look forward to meeting you!
Ps It's called The Grove - inspired by a meditation Monique led where we saw ourselves as a grove of trees, with interconnected roots.
CONNECT ON EMAIL - [email protected]
Thanks so much for your support!! We hope you enjoy the We Are In.Tuition fieldbook and will share our campaign with your friends who are into this kind of thing :)
Love from all of us at We Are In.Tuition
