‘Come to the launch of a toolbox’ they said…
This time last week I was making my way to Oslo for the closing and celebratory days of the CONTRA programme, and the launch of ‘Toolbox for Conducting Drama Labs in Urban Development. I had no idea then that the coming days were going to be such a profound gamechanger for me and place practice. More on that to come, but for now…
CONTRA (CONflict in TRAnsformations is an international research project that focuses on four cases of climate transitions. Its methodology was that of a DramaLab; and that itself formed of a number of processes and practices.
Drama Labs play on the word ‘drama’ to denote both theatre and conflict. They put theatre process of gathering, talking and questioning in the development setting in tangible and playful ways. They bring all stakeholders in a place together to explore different views on what should happen in that place, and welcome and give room for agreement and disagreement.
Together in our room at Oslo Litteraturhuset over two days we took the toolbox apart, got underneath its lid to explore what it could mean for us, and put it back together again in a way bespoke to our own practices and settings.
The ‘we’ here were the cross-sector teams from each of the host Drama Labs – Oslo, Gdynia, Tilberg and Genk, and an assembled cohort of sector experts, Iva Čukić, Tikli Loivaranta, William Hilliard, Hannah Saldert, Bettina Schwalm and Aleksandra Zemke (and me.)
The CONTRA team have created a practice that is truly novel and that has something genuinely new to offer the world of place-based working.
And it did something I haven’t seen before – the Toolbox was launched to the world in a processional ceremony. It gave it the launch and status it deserves. This is something I think should be mandatory for toolboxes, workbooks and toolkits in the future – we don’t give them the stage to then take form in the world.
A huge thank you to Cecilie Sachs Olsen and her team at OsloMet for both the invite and the hospitality; and to all that convened for their candour, generosity and inspiration.