All projects, programs, installations, gatherings, and engagements facilitated by the DIA are invitations to better worlds.
WHY IBW
INVITATION. Invitation means that we cultivate an intention and extend an offering that you can choose to or not to engage in/with.
BETTER. Better is a subjective term. What is better for one/some might not be better for others. We commit to being transparent about what “better” means for us within a given context, and invite you to affirm, challenge, and/or build on this definition based on your own lived experiences.
WORLDS. While we may all be residing physically on the same planet, our experiences of it vary based on geography, class status, gender, race, ability, etc. Experientially, we are not all living in or building towards the same world. We choose to see that as a point of curiosity and conversation, rather than a threat. We strive to create spaces where we can critically engage with the gifts, boundaries, and dangers of multiple worlds.
CORE SKILLS WE PRACTICE
- Telling the truth
- Weaving micro and the macro
- Holding contradictions
- Practicing curiosity
GATHERINGS AS PRACTICE
Practice space: This is not a conference or a retreat or workshop. It is a space where we interact with the four core skills (detailed below) by practicing them together. Our rationale practice is mirrored in this excerpt from the generative somatics practice space:
A central component of any change process – personal change or organizational change – is the concept of practice. New intentional practices are those that we choose to do in order to transform the way we show up in the world.
We transform through embodying new practices over time. Through new practices we increase choice and alignment with our values. As we change default practices and engage in new intentional practices the internal terrain of who we are is changed.
Research shows that 300 repetitions produces muscle memory (the ability to purposefully take a new action), and that 3000 repetitions creates embodiment (being able to take this new action automatically, even under pressure).
It is much easier to stay in practice within community.
INSTALLATIONS AS PRACTICE
INSTALLATIONS AT CONFERENCES
Often, conferences and symposiums are designed to stimulate our minds over (and sometimes at the expense of):
- our bodies. Rushing from session to session, hopped up on coffee and pastries, sitting for long periods of time, taking in information and interactions through a fire hose, and checking emails during whatever small breaks we are afforded.
- of what is heavy on our hearts. Arriving with a lot on our minds and then loading up on even more information while attempting to forget our regular scheduled programming, it can be hard to carry alone.
Our invitation is first and foremost, an invitation to pause.
INSTALLATIONS IN PUBLIC SPACES
Often, public spaces like parks, streets, parking lots, malls, schools are designed to be accessible for “everyone” (and sometimes at the expense of):
- stories from community. Instead, these spaces are overloaded with information and distractions, meanwhile we are consumed by our own worlds and phones, we never pause to look up and see what is happening around us.
- stories not like ours. Instead, we are bombarded with stories that are meant to convince us of what “normal” is and what we are supposed to want to be, we rarely see stories that crack us open to wonder what we might be missing from our own perspectives.
Our invitation is first and foremost, an invitation to witness others stories.
ARTIFACTS
Within Invitations to Better Worlds, we are practicing alongside everyone else we invite to particiapte with us. So we leave behind the artifacts of our learning.
Past Programming
Check out panels from our last national gathering.
Navigating Systems that are not Designed for Us
A panel of “recipients” engaged in design processes who are charting their own paths and designing alternatives
Beyond Broken Promises of Co-design
A panel of designers who have adapted their practices and approaches to engagement as they learn from failure
Now what — how do we do Systems Change?
A panel of those leading who grapple with the tension of solving immediate/urgent problems and long-time change