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People round the table

People

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 | People round the table | 5 Comments

The Venn diagram of art, technology and social change produces complex sets of relations. Projects that bring together people from two or three of these areas can have many stakeholders - those who hold the stakes in a wager, in an event of uncertain outcome, a gamble. My all time record was 17: me and another artist, the computer programmer, the commissioning agency, the host organisation and various funders including municipalities and state agencies. And the 10 or so participants, beneficiaries, who were not allowed to the table. I ended up drawing a diagram to work out who everyone was and what they wanted from the project.

We have all talked about the difficulty of taking into consideration - or even acknowledging - these different agenda. They may seem to limit more than enable. We can feel uncomfortable taking their dollar. But it is not all bad. It can be interesting to see how these people work, it can lead to unexpected opportunities and it can help to have people reveal their agenda. I would rather hear it from them face to face than reported. And in the end you can always walk.

We all expend our energy trying to define success and failure in a way which is meaningful to us and then negotiating them with the others round the table.

Who should sit at that table?
How do they know if I am succeeding?
How do I know?
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