School of Imagination: stuck in the space in between

A look back at past experiences and wishes for future ones.

Thank you to all of you who have joined us for the second year in shaping the School of Imagination. The trust, sensitivity, and openness you bring to our shared process helps us activate our sensory apparatus and test the possibilities of how we can critically and creatively respond to the world we live in – a world of multiple crises, unequal opportunities, trauma and anxiety, but also so many possibilities for connection and sharing beyond normative patterns and binding identities.

We are sharing a few examples of what has resonated within us during the courses so far, in the form of reflection.

“I will find it. I will not get lost. I know what I’m getting into. I calm myself. I’m afraid I’m going to be late, so I’m going to be too early. I’m getting used to being around people, getting used to being touched. I don’t enjoy it, but the anxiety and fear are gone.”

Stuck in the in-between space
For a long time, I thought in-between spaces were temporary places.
(Or, at the very beginning, I thought they didn’t exist at all.)
I guess that’s why, upon discovering them, I felt such an urgency to leave them quickly.
To define myself by a pole.
But I’m discovering that the in-between space may not be what it seems, but may be a space in itself.
Such a solo individualistic world defined by its general undefinability, only it’s very desolate and more difficult to navigate.
Maps of such a territory do not construct paths of stereotypes, binding themselves to spaces of the obvious.
It is a jigsaw of other cut-up maps with many blind spots where one is likely to guess bridges, footpaths and highways.

Exercise idea: Draw yourself as a shape. I am looking for navigation to orient myself. I cut maps, structures, photographs. I combine them into a unified orientation system, a representation of myself. This is me. These are my parts. And this is how they communicate.

The project is realized with the support of the City of Prague, Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the Municipality of Prague 7 and the State Fund for Culture.