TL, DR: New treasure map coming very soon!
As I understood the way things worked at the Really Free School, there was this simple web form which sent event or workshop proposals to an email. These were then scheduled onto a large paper calendar which hung on the wall in the main space. This was then also transferred to a google calendar which was embedded back onto the website under the Events Schedule tab.
This level of digital integration was new. Twitter was only about 4 or 5 years old, and I seem to recall lots of people were tweeting via sms from their brick phones back then.
There was a lot more to it than the digitals though. There was also a whole social infrastructure around it too. Like every other squatted social centre I visited back then, they had a big noticeboard area with at least one main calendar and surrounding it a host of infoshop materials kinda like a mini Freedom Press, and maybe some crafty things and kids’ chairs…
Other key aspects were the weekly open meetings, and in a fractal, meta, synecdochical… hmm what’s the word… way lots of the workshops themselves were about organising and reflecting on what was happening there at the time. Hmm … it’s hard to describe that dynamic properly… It was a fine balance between self-awareness and self-absorption.
Here are some more captures from the Wayback machine. They are nostalgic for me to look at, I could get lost in them for hours! And it’s such a voyage exploring the links that still work… and wondering what the odd empty image frames once held. I think there’s a huge amount to be learned from reflecting on those days. I’d love to organise some meetups and reunions for projects past…
I’m thinking about how far communication technology has developed in the last decade or so. It makes me think of that paradox whereby we seem to be communicating less as the channels or options increase… I wonder if that is just an illusion. Even if it is, it’s certainly part of what makes me feel the need to organise to the extent I do… for example, I now have at least 4 extra messaging services all of which are only slightly more advanced than text messaging… anyway back to the here and now…
Whatever the reason, I think that we really ought to focus on our own personal Space Pirate communication technology: The Pirate’s Code! Especially in its form as a treasure map. I peeked through the letterbox of the Fire Station the other day and took this photo of our old treasure map there! I’m going to put one together for the Sett as a matter of urgency…
I’m also thinking the HASS4AGTE (Holding A Safe Space For A Group Transformative Experience) model will help to frame things. I can start to feel the intensity picking up again as the curve steepens. This is how I think that curve will pan out over the next 6 months or so:
I think we’ll have each place for about a month, but to be on the safe side we’ll allocate 2-3 weeks each so we can allow for setups and pack-downs between.
Maybe it’s crazy to plot HASS4AGTEs onto a HASS4AGTE, but if you do, I found it looks kinda like a dino…
Oh, I love that model! I think it’s supposed to be more like this though:
But it’s also useful to see that dino version – it highlights to me that it could be even harder this time to drop the intensity by July, and while that feels like a long way off right now, I think it’s important to have that ‘end’ in mind… That’s basically what ‘holds’ the space in a way, it’s like the frame for a work of art.
So yeah… lots of nitty-gritty to get stuck in with… we’re gonna need a nifty new treasure map… I’m gonna make one tomorrow. I think it’s gonna get quite advanced…