Shaping social innovation in urgent times - World Wayfinder 2020
2020 was no ordinary year. So the SIX Wayfinder was no ordinary event. From the beginning, we aimed to develop and share an ‘artefact’ of the moment, showing a spectrum of what people and communities were going through globally. We wanted a tapestry of different stories, rather than a single manifesto.
We wanted to show how these things connect and try to see the links between them, highlighting what we need to keep and what we need to end. So instead of creating a structured programme and a report, we transformed a 2-day gathering into a 9-month collective devised symphony: an emergent score in four movements. Read our behind-the-scenes report.
SIX Wayfinder 2020 was curated with support from McConnell Foundation, Saputo Foundation, Suncor Energy Foundation and imece.
Tuning in together
All over the world, people gathered virtually and in-person. They shared and listened to music that inspired them; they met on their own terms, in their own languages; they discussed which social innovations they were seeing — and what moved and concerned them.
“Wayfinding”
Wayfinding’ is a response to the sounds of chaos offered by participants of movement No. 1 —Tuning during Covid-19 and reflects the journey of sense-making as we find our way through this chaos.
Social innovation happening now
A “mosaic” of stories, entangled in time and space, helping us to understand our relationship to history, others and ourselves.
Experience “Performance Lectures” [video series]
The series of ‘performance lectures’ responds to the ‘call’ of themes people were talking about in the Wayfinder global stories.
These responses show the power of stories, shared in community, as a prompt for reflection on past, present and future opportunities to learn. In reading the global stories, I was called back to the core lessons of music and dance that help me to ‘wayfind’ forward.
Listen to LUX SONORE (Trans. The Sound Emitting Light) Toward the Accordance, for bass clarinet
and organismic analogue synthesizer Lyra [Instrumental Piece]
My works can stimulate calmness-hunting and way-of-life-finding.
Part I [Poem]
Where is the harmony and dissonance around the world? The world as we know it is changing. Experience the sense of interconnectedness we felt during the Tuning movement.
[POEM]
Listen to The Song of Nature: Meditations to Re-Connect and Co-Create [music & meditations]
Are we listening? When our inner voice of awareness is subdued from stress and overwhelm, what resources can help us wayfind?
Listen to the Folktale of 2020 [story & painting]
What does paying attention look like as a creative action? And how can I make this performative?
The journey to my response to the first movement began with hands, a tree and an energy wave.
Bosco Ng (Hong Kong) and Sanon Sanon Wangsrangboon (Thailand)
Community-led Innovation: Resilient Citizen’s Action
Diane Roussin (Canada) & David Robinson (UK)
Change moves at the speed of trust: The value and loss of relationships in today’s global society
Jayne Engle (Canada) & Javier Guillot (Colombia)
How do you shape different possible futures for cities?
Miquel de Paladella (Spain)
Geraldine Cahill (Canada)
Why Scaling Matters?
Amalia Zepou (Greece) & Hamdan Abdul Majeed (Malaysia)
How to support community innovation through bridging across sectors
Ada Wong (Hong Kong) & Asli Alemdaroğlu (Turkey)
Kiri Bird (Canada) and Francis Petersen (South Africa)
Stephen Huddart (Canada) & Anil Gupta (India)
Jessie Seo (South Korea) & Yanki Lee, Ire Tsui (Hong Kong)
Gabriella Gomez-Mont (Mexico) & Shahira Ahmed Bazari (Malaysia)
Wayfinding Around the world
The world SIX Wayfinder was truly global. This image captures the flows of connection between the many people from the many countries who linked virtually through the Wayfinder.
Our destination changed in 2020 from a physical location to a magic space of sense, sound, ideas, experience, feeling and memory.
Voices of the Artist-Composers
In movement No. 3, we played towards the crescendo of No. 4 — Magic. The devised Symphony gained further dimension and depth, textured with the emerging compositions of the Artist-Composers.
Learn about Artist-Composers’ process and experience with Onions Talk, hosted by Artist-Composer Fié Neo. Together, they share their respective wayfinding journeys through the chaos we live in right now, in the hope that they can offer some comfort through their art and music.
“Onions. We help you discover your many layers. You peel, you cry but you wake up with fresh eyes. This is a podcast about hope and change making.”
The Final Symphony
‘Sounding Together’
A sonic gift, the shape of social innovation in urgent times.
Introduction
This 25-minute piece ‘Sounding Together’ from chaos to catharsis, was created by six Artist-Composers in response to the stories, pain, hope, and actions from around the world, collected during SIX Wayfinder 2020. Their collaboration spanned four months across time-zones, only ever meeting over Zoom, using a collage of iphone recordings and makeshift studio set ups during lockdown, from Singapore, Poland, Greece, UK and Canada. The piece is a collective inquiry into the question: "What is the shape of social innovation in urgent times and what sounds can help us reimagine our way forward together?"
“Our work is an offer of solace and solidarity in sound. The form of a Symphony (sim = together and phono = sound) means to sound together. Therefore, this piece is a demonstration of democratic collaboration and self-organised cooperation. A metaphorical journey from individualism to collectivism.”
Listen
We desire for this sonic horizon of hope to leave you nourished, with new perspectives and awareness for how we transition, heal and rebuild with resilience for where, and what next. We recommend good headphones and a comfortable, inspiring place to sit, lay down, and close your eyes.
Recommendations for listening
This is a circular piece that can be listened to in one cycle (25 minutes) or for full immersion, listen to twice completing the cycle for 1 hour including time to reflect.
Learn the words, sing along, sound together!
“Our hope is for this sonic horizon of hope to leave you nourished, with new perspectives and awareness for how we transition, heal and rebuild with resilience for where and what next.. ”
Credits
Kandice Holmes — Artistic Director, arrangement and co-producer; sonic actions, field recordings, gong, bells, flute, voice in ‘RE’ poem and harmonic choir concept.
Eily Aurora — Co-producer, Celtic harp, Chinese (Guzheng) harp, the voice of ‘Listen’, voice in ‘RE’ poem and harmonic choir, field recordings, sonic actions
Robert Nizinski — Co-producer, writer of ‘Listen’ and ‘RE’ poems, clarinet and gongs and harmonic choir composer.
Voices in ‘RE’ poem — Orode Faka , Fié Neo , Corina Kwami and harmonic choir voice.
Philippe Nash — Mixing and mastering engineer, harmonic choir arrangement.
Amalia Zepou — “Art as a Bridge” quote.
Sonic Actions: Artist Composers
Laughter: So Jung Rim and Leo Howell
Breathing: friends in the UK, USA and Nijohua, Mexico.
Funders
We wanted to give a special thank you to the funders of the World Wayfinder 2020. Without your generous support the metaphorical symphony wouldn’t have come to life
