This is a living document for Playdate, an experiment in creative gathering. In short, Playdate aspires to gather people to "make sense of the world through experimental play." We gather to reclaim the simple joy of creation and celebrate one another.
1. "Playdates" - intimate, intentional and PLAYFUL gatherings with a small group of people (2-5), where the goal is to see where the experimation of creation takes you all. A playdate could look like an exploration into zine-making or experimenting with different types of inks on linocuts. It could look like coding a weird internet art project. Or making stickers. Maybe writing some poetry or making a blog post!? In any case, it takes courage to play and experiment.
2. Inspiration Hunting sessions will be strategies to get "unstuck," be in creative community with one another, skill-building & art workshops (ex. letterpress printing, bookbinding, graphic design, etc.) & COMMUNAL teaching. A time for creative rest. An idea I have right now is "How to cultivate a digital garden with Obsidian and Are.na?" These can be hosted by anyone in the community.
3. The Potluck to end all potlucks - THE FINAL SHE-BANG! Where people reflect, talk about what they have explored, what they want to explore, things they've made, etc. We will all get the immense privilege of reveling in full community. Here, we'll try to gather as many people as possible and have a great potluck.
4. Drop-in Open Hours - Scheduled times for just random play in random places. This could look like me saying that I'll be in the letterpress printing room for a couple hours, and people can drop in whenever most conveinent. These are meant to be flexible and fun.
This way, folks get to know each other more intimately & get involved with other projects - building trust and creating a community that feels tender & supportive. Multimodal forms of gathering feels important to me. lending to the more intimate playdate format. However, there is tons of value creating a sort of "collective" community where we ALL gather, to solidify this belief that being part of this community automatically lends you a support system of unimaginable joy.
1. We are fed with an overwhelming amount of information everyday (especially algorithmic), which is easy to get lost in. It's quite easy to be a consumer, passively engaging with content. We instead ask you, how will you assert that you are “here” in the world? Creation has been a powerful form of meaning-making & confidence for us, and we want to share that agency with you.
2. Community feels like a shared becoming. In a culture of hyper-individualism, co-creation is of utmost importance. Playdate is a space that feels mutually supportive. There is no expectation to collaborate on projects with one another, but being in the same space with people who have the same values can feel quite inspiring. Here, we strive for a culture of gentle mutual accountability. We envision a future of resource sharing, teaching and showing up for each other.
3. We want everyone to think about the immortality of the crab. This means letting your mind wander, something that we don't really allow ourselves to do very much. But there is much to be gained from just experimenting and letting things flow. Ideas emerge. Playdate wants to create a space for that. Childlike wonder and curiosity is SO BACK. Rabbitholes are SO BACK.
4. Democratizing access to knowledge about making and spaces for creating feels important. Increasing the surface area for the potential to create is empowering. We wholeheartedly believe that you should be able to execute all the ideas you have in your head. We will all engage in mutual skill building, learning and growing with one another. We strive to make access to spaces & knowledge about making easier to reach.
Playdate emphasizes a horizontal stucture. This quote defines the structure of how we will function: "Community based and community driven output will always remain at the core. It’s less about bringing one specific vision that I have to life and more about being a facilitator of multiple visions and perspectives, seeing how they come together and inform one another. I consider my role more as a seed planter and a waterer than anything else — it’s not about the tree in the end per say and more about the process of mutual cultivation."
Contact (Brianna Magtoto) at +1 619-706-7564 or brianna@aninternet.farm. Give me your name and contact!
Last updated on November 20th at 8:50pm by Brianna Magtoto