As I develop artistic responses to the research into change processes that I am doing at A New Direction, I began to realise that one form an artwork could take could be a walk: a forward directional movement that takes on representations of different aspects of the change process, as identified in our KTP research. We feel that the organisation’s understanding of change is that it is a cyclical, ongoing process, rather than a linear one with a fixed end point. So the movements in the walk needed to reference this cycle. By identifying some of the principles that A New Direction seems to value intuitively in its programmes and how it works with partners, including offering a helpful, supportive structure and connecting the right people with similar or indeed different experience together to form effective networks and partnerships, it became clear that the walk needed to embody some of these principles through gesture, such as providing an offering of support and playing with the idea of connectivity. It is worth stating here that I do not consider myself to be a performance artist. But what I am discovering about both my own practice and the KTP research is that the method for representing something, such as a change process, is as important as the outcome itself and does not necessarily need to be categorised by artform. So while my walk may not revolutionise notions of performance art, it was developed through a process of creativity and research and I am hoping that the subject that is being represented remains true.
As par of my research I have been asking other artists / creative practitioners about their processes. At the opening of the Wellcome Collection’s latest exhibition ‘Dirt’ last month, I talked with my friend Rosie Heafford, who is a dancer and choreographer. She told me about Laban Movement Analysis and suggested I look into this as a starting point for my walking project. This has opened up a whole new area of interest both in terms of the development of the walk, and in understanding a different, physical approach to change that a body responds to. Who would have thought I would be able to associate organisational change with a dance/movement theory?
I am by no means a Laban expert after such a small amount of time spent googling this, but it has informed my thinking about how the walk embodies different types of movement to represent the principles of ‘support’ and ‘connection’. I’ve tried to summarise some of the interesting aspects here, particularly in relation to these principles. There are four categories of movement: Body, effort, space and shape. One can analyse the notion of connection through the body movement of an individual within a group, by how it connects with the different bodies and the patterns of ‘body organisation’. One can analyse both connection and support through shape movement, by the different ways an individual changes shape in response to its environment and the relationship that person has with its environment. Shape change includes different ‘forms’ (e.g. representing a form such as a ball), ‘modes’ (e.g. moving in a forward direction towards something) and ‘qualities’ (changing movements such as advancing and retreating). Finally, which is interesting in terms of physical manifestations of change in addition to an analogy for organisational change, is the analysis of Shape Flow Support: how the torso changes shape to accommodate and support the body as it changes its movements.
The next stage in the development of the walk was to find myself an appropriate platform to perform the walk. In the spirit of asking ourselves ‘what is the alternative’ (see last post) I selected the March for the Alternative on Saturday 26 March in London as my platform. I responded to an open-brief invitation by a collection of artists from a group called AIR, associated to A-N Magazine, to bring an artistic response to the cuts on the march. I brought my Walk of Change. While some people on the march (a very small minority) were there to disrupt, the majority of us were there to support and connect with each other across different groups, unions and sectors, to share experiences and value our differences, and to walk side by side with one another with a shared purpose.
My walk comprised movement, offerings and signposting: I traced the 7-stage process cycle that we had identified in A New Direction’s processes by walking in a 7-step cyclical sequence; I made offerings to fellow walkers in the form of sweets to maintain our energy and moral, to facilitate connections and enable us to continue to walk together; I carried a placard sign with me prompting people to join the debate about sector-wide change on this blog.
During the day I found that my Walk of Change itself had to change. Firstly, repeating the cyclical walk was exhausting and I couldn’t maintain it for long periods. Engaging with change as an ongoing constant requires stamina. Secondly, it needed a certain amount of space otherwise it would become annoying for those walking close by. Environmental factors affect the processes of change and the appropriate courses of action. But, offering sweets to those around me proved effective, people accepted the walk and made space for me. Their gift in return therefore was to support the performance by adjusting their pace to allow me some room. I thought people would think the whole thing quite mad and that I would lose the nerve. Instead, the notion of being surrounded by other artists seemed to appropriate the performance, despite the group itself changing in number – thinning out at times and then reforming. Some had brought large artworks in the form of banners, others were encouraging people to sing campaigning songs that had been adapted from well known tunes such as ‘we do like to be beside the seaside’ (this was extremely well received by those from teaching unions). The group became a small support network within an even bigger body of like-minded people. It was OK to do a silly walk here. We were all in this together, artists, teachers, all of us walking for the same reason. Some commented on the walk, some watched in silence while walking alongside me, one person even learned the steps and joined in. But everyone, young and old without a single exception, eagerly took a sweet and gave their warm thanks for the kind offer.
A video of the Walk of Change, as performed on Saturday 26 March, will be posted here soon.
