EXPERIENCE
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What is this tool?
This tool is loosely based on the metaphor and symbols work of Carl Jung (and many others) and the play-based methods developed by David Guantlett (and many others).
It encourages people to use symbols, metaphors and other forms of representation as a way of helping them to see the different levels and structures of their experiences. Rather than reflecting on an experience as something purely subjective, the tool also encourages people to understand them in relation to other people, and to the social contexts in which they take place.
The EXPERIENCE tool can be used individually or with groups to explore one or several experiences. It can be used to explore shared experiences, or something that was experienced individually.
The tool is designed for people to represent their experiences using, words, pictures, sounds, symbols, or any other form of representation as they see fit. There is not a need for everything to be explained via the interpretation of a researcher or other interpreter.
As always we encourage you to have a look at our ethics statement before getting started.
Why would I use this tool?
It feels like we carry all our experiences in our heads and they feel very individual to us. Experiences are at the same time conscious narrative memories (i.e. stories we tell ourselves and others of what has happened in our lives), and subconscious emotional stores (i.e. emotional responses to stimuli that sometimes we feel and other times we don’t).
It can be helpful to reflect on some experiences to see if we can make some of the subconscious elements conscious, to explore if this is shared with other people, and how it relates to the times, places, and social settings in which different experiences take place.
This tool could be used to help a group of people to understand an experience from a range of different perspectives (e.g. a shared learning experience, a challenging or rewarding period of work, a pandemic). It can also be used to help an individual explore and share an experience they feel has moved them or changed them in some way but that they can’t find the words to describe or articulate just using speech or text based methods.
How can I use this tool?
As with all the tools we want you to use it in an ethical way that makes sense to you and anyone you’re working with and for you to share your experience using the tool with the tialt community. What follows is something we have tried that worked well, but we’d love to develop it further with you.
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STEP 01
Decide whether you are doing this as an individual, a self-facilitating group (i.e., collectively following the steps), or as a facilitated individual/group session.
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STEP 02
Decide the parameters of the experience you would like to explore. It could be a shared group experience (e.g., a semester of learning that has taken place, a particular arts or social intervention), an experience that you have in common but that happened separately (e.g., a going through a divorce or having an illness), or something very specific to one individual that they would like to understand a bit more.
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STEP 03
Ensure that those taking part feel comfortable representing their experiences with you and/or the group (e.g. based on the composition of the setting). Establish and provide reassurance of consent and confidentiality.
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STEP 04
Position a large sheet of paper on a table, asking each person to initially work on separate blank pieces of paper (or using individual and shared online whiteboards), ask each person to draw a large rectangle. This represents the experience we will explore.
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STEP 05
Draw three diagonal lines across the rectangle. These lines represent ‘self’, ‘relationships’, and ‘context’. Starting with ‘self’ draw, write, or attach photos/pictures/clips, of how you felt during the experience.
This should be loosely connected to the ‘self’ line, but doesn’t need to be in chronological order. For the ‘relationships’ line repeat this process but with representations of how the experience involved anyone else apart from the self, and how you experienced these relationships. Repeat this with the ‘context’ line, representing all the other things that were happening in your/the world at the same time as the experience.
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STEP 06
Draw connections between the different elements represented within the rectangle. You can use words, symbols, arrows, or other diagrams to connect things.
You don’t need to connect them if it feels like they are not connected.
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STEP 07
If you are trying to create a shared experience diagram (e.g. on a large piece of paper/online whiteboard), draw the experience rectangle on this and go round the group asking people to add elements of their own experiences to the shared diagram one after the other. If participants want to talk to or explain what they are adding they can, but if they don’t this is also not necessary.
Consider how much or how little you want to talk through what is represented and how this process is owned by the group.
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STEP 08
Decide if you would like to store, record or distribute the shared experience diagram in some format and ensure that everyone is happy with and explicitly consents to what is decided.
Some important elements to remember in this exercise are:
Engaging in the creative process itself is the point.
The focus here is not on the quality of the output. If some people are fantastic drawers, painters, musicians or comedians, that’s great, but the interesting part is exploring how to represent the thoughts and discussions taking place. These can be totally abstract or totally representational and literal. The interesting part is thinking about, discussing and creating something that you wouldn’t normally be doing in day to day life.
There are no correct answers and no ‘output’ will be judged more superior than any other.
It’s a cliche, but the point here is how learning and understanding is produced between people. No one perspective or creative process or product has any more value than any other in this exercise. It’s all about learning from and relating to each other.
Make plenty of time for people to take part.
This could be over a few hours, or even days or weeks. We are interested in broad and deep conversations about people’s experiences and this takes reflection, safe spaces and time to discuss things openly and in a mutually respectful way.