Talking from that spot

Use

Radical introspection. Portrait of places. Teleportation.

Protocol

1st round

Practice in couples / use your mothertongue

Come to a spot. The spot you want to talk from. That spot — is a place that makes you speak.

About what? That nobody knows yet, not even yourself.

Finding that spot can take seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, a lifetime… Finding a spot can be a more or less intense experience. For the sake of practice today, start with letting go of thinking too much about the right spot. The spot you ‘choose’ will be always the right spot. And even when it turns out to be the wrong spot, you can just decide to leave… and find a better one…

Once you are at that spot, be there for a while as you are… Sit or stand or lay down there for a while…

Imagine now what you could tell, not yet start talking. Is there something that concerns you? Right now, very recently, lately, in general, urgently, professionally, personally, relationally, politically, socially, spiritually… Sensing a concern can be a more or less intense experience. For the sake of practice today, start with letting go of thinking too much about a specific concern. If there is one, it will show. If there is none, very fine too.

Imagine now what you could tell, not yet start talking.

What can be said by you about that spot? What brought you here? What comes up in you here?


Silence can always be part of your talking…


Set a timer. Setting a time gives structure. 10 min for example… (And you also don’t need to be busy with ‘how long you are already talking’…)

Start talking with the three mentioned steps as structure that guides you.

What can be said by you about that spot? What brought you here? What comes up in you here?


Record what you will say… Open your microphone now…

When the timer rings, continue talking to conclude the thought in progress… Then send the recording to… the person with whom you agreed to do this exercise.

Silence can always be part of your talking…


2nd round

In case you don’t understand the recording language of your exercise partner.

Find a third person who understands your partner’s language and as well a language shared by the three of you. Ask the person to listen to your partner’s recording, then to summarize it and to record the summary in the language the three of you understand.

Credits

Talking from that spot – intimate publications developed by Heike L. with students in the context of teaching at KASK School of Arts throughout the Covid-lockdowns in 2020, and adapted to the current version in the context of Post/Pandemics — Summer Refuge at De Markten / Brussels with visitors and users of this practice-space.