#10: Prototype Intervention – Paper flower making

I’ve been hoping to have some conversations with people around the theme of connection; what it means to people and how they find it. Initially I thought I would simply hand out my flyers and that would encourage people to share their thoughts with me. But as I came to do it I felt a bit strange approaching complete strangers and asking them to have a deep and meaningful conversation. So I concluded that I would need to offer something to encourage them to open up, then we could make a connection and have a deeper conversation.

I came up with offering a paper flower making workshop. I learnt how to make a simple small flower out of paper in about 20 minutes, I made a sign explaining the details of what I was calling ‘The Connection Clinic’. Participants would sit and make a flower with me one at a time, as we did I would talk to them about connection, how they defined it and how they found it, I would record the conversation for my research.

I set myself up outside Central st Martins on a blanket on the grass, the area was busy with members of the public and students. I thought that I would at least get one or two enquiries. But I sat there for an hour and a half and no one came to join me. This was an important learning curve. I kept thinking of the earlier seminars back in January about the importance of failure.

It seems that strangers are not willing to take a risk on something like this in London. It felt like they needed be invited or somehow enticed to join me, but they weren’t prepared to make that leap into the unknown with a stranger.

Eventually a student from the course came and sat down and we made a flower together. I was grateful for this because although I didn’t get a chance to work with a member of the public, I still had the opportunity to test the intervention. It ended up being quite effective, we had a conversation about what connection means to him, and he ended up sharing some very personal details about his past. It felt good to make this tangible connection between us whilst also talking about connection in abstract terms. The conversation about connection itself engendered a connection.

From him I learnt that what connection has both very universal and very personal elements to it. There are things that are universally important which we need in order to find a connection with another human being: a level of trust in the other person, a level of vulnerability in ourselves and the time and space for that connection to grow. These elements seem to be relative, one can connect in a small way with a complete stranger by making eye contact in the street, or one can make a deep connection with a friend by having a long conversation.

But there are also very personal elements to connection, my participant spoke of a bittersweet memory that comes to him whenever he hears a particular song. We all have a specific place in our memory that is important to us, a place where we found a connection with another person or with ourselves.

Shortly afterwards a group of students from the course all sat down and wanted to make a flower together, I obliged, but I quickly learnt that the workshop is best executed with one person at a time. I was overworked trying to get 6 people, all of a different skill level, to make their flower, so much so that I didn’t get a chance to speak about connection at all.

But upon further reflection I also learnt that I could have been more assertive and insisted that the workshop was best one on one, I said yes to them all because I didn’t want to be rude. Perhaps in the future I shouldn’t compromise the quality and aims of the session because of a need to please people.

I have yet to figure out what my next step is in terms of my intervention, but I would like to pursue this idea further as it briefly worked really well.