GHDR Boot Day 4/12: Vision Break

Tuesday, February 6, 2024.

Continuing on from yesterday's creation of a subsite for "The Colony", I have no reason to day NOT to write something. Of course, that means facing a huge mental block that I have to bust through. Let's go through a list of mitigations designed to break the block.

• List Areas to see if that jogs my memory
• Reread Yesterday's Post to see what jumps out
• Pick a person to talk to about the project to see if that creates an immediate desire to send followup information
• Write free association non-sentences that just throw a bunch of words on the page to see what patterns emerge

Let's see how this goes.

Listing Areas

⊕ caption List of Colony Areas

Here's what we've got. Glancing over it, I'm now remembering that I wanted to try writing a few sentences about the vision and mission.

Rereading Yesterday's Post

There wasn't much yesterday; the area listing above pretty much covers it. That said, I will need to add my vision sentences to the Welcome Center page.

Pick a person to talk to

As it happens, I talked to my friend Noel on the phone today, and I was telling him about the idea of The Colony. I noted that I have neurodivergent traits, and I'd like The Colony to be supportive of our specific "adventurous creative" needs. I also noted that don't want to make it a captive social experience...I just want a place where there's a density of people sharing what they're doing in a very organic way through happenstance. The memory that I hold from grad school was bouncing to the studios of friends in other departments, chatting with them often about what they were doing and giving little demos. I'd like something like that, very informal but encouraged by the design of the currating space.

Write free association non-sentences

Ok, I guess here we go...full stream of consciousness mode engaged!

THE VISION. A place where you don't hide your interests. Your approach is accepted as your own; you can explain. People don't tell you if you're right or wrong, or give you unsolicited advice. Your values are your own, and it's ok that they are different than others. You can be interested in other values and not have to accept them. Discussion. People who don't get that are not invited. Standards for critique are provided. The work speaks for itself. People ask questions to understand the work, not to judge or value it unless they are asked.

This is a place for people with intense interests and the intense desire to have their work seen, used, applied. It is a place for people who have not found comparable levels of interest and drive to master their craft, define their rules, or are finding their version of greatness. It is a place where where missing links and pieces might be discovered through the sharing of lore and stories by other adventurous creatives.

This place has a team of people who are deeply invested in connecting people through their expressed works and interests. This team seeks to understand and document, then showcase the work. There may be people from the outside who come to see what's available, people who are not creators of such intensity but recognize powerful artifacts when they see them. They may know how to bring something to market, or put in an order. An advanced version of this would be a team that can act as liaison for creatives, able to collect intermittent output from creators and package them as unique one-time offerings. They may also be able to come up with ways to help recalcitrant creators make things that help with with revenue for some contractual reason.

This place would have a sense of pride in creative independence, supportive culture, eclective learning and skills, and appreciation for the enormous variety of creativity that exists. This pride is coupled with a humble feeling that there are so many good and wonderful things in the universe beyond a single person's understanding, and that it's a privilege and honor to be among others making anything at all rather than choosing convenient consumption. We make our own paths, however uncertain, and in this place we try to support each other as we can so as a group we will not stumble. We recognize that our pride is accompanyied by a willingness to help make the entire place comfortable for everyone; we accept that we may be told that what we are saying and doing are troublesome to others, and we can negotiate an understanding and modify our behaviors for the good of the entire colony. This is a good place for us, a rarity. We grow to cherish it more as we figure out processes and develop our culture, then find ways to spread these ideas as seeds that others can plant and make their own, perhaps finding their way back to us. We are not the original expression of these ideas, but we seek to be a source for them so like-aligned groups can connect to us and feel whole.

This place is an alternative means to make a living, not quite socialism, not quite capitalism. It recognizes markets exist and the need for profit exists. It recognizes the power of connection, understanding, support, and empathy as the basis for powerful creative community. It recognizes that there are forces out there that would happily exploit us through exchanges not to our benefit. A primary purpose of this place is to provide support and information (not necessarily here) along with unique resources in terms of the people and active community management. I think the uniqueness isn't the service offerings or even the benefits, but a particular desire to live one's life in a harmonious community that is curious and caring in their desire to create the community, or become sponsered to become a contributing member.

I guess that's enough to start! Tomorrow I'll paste this into the Welcome Center Page and start workshopping it into sections.

INDEX of GHDR 2024 POSTS