Getting to know a thing
Commissions
Conversations
Publications
Services we don’t advertise
What they say about us
Contact
“If we're talking in the language of symbols or images, it was a bit scary at times, a bit disturbing because you didn't quite know how you should navigate in that language or in that landscape. You didn't quite know in which country you were in. But you would always come to places where you hadn't been before.”
Anne-Sofie Norn UN Live - Museum for United Nations
“Being with people you don’t know but who you feel quite quickly related to, without too many barriers but with enough differences to challenge each other, was a very satisfying process. It sparked ideas all the time and generated interesting ways of looking at things. We were addressing complex issues, with different individual approaches. It can feel lonely in a world where only a few people are working on very complex, interrelated problems. And inside this group, we were meeting with peers.”
Olivier Brechard Learning Planet Institute
“Everything was strange ... everything ... the format, the participants, the topics, the expectations – everything was unusual. It didn’t match what I do at my computer every day. That’s what kept me coming back.”
Lisa RobinsonBBC Media Action
“A significant point was how these conversations were facilitated. A great number of conclusions I’ve reached specifically through these conversations, have been anchored in calling things into question. A big part of that is seeing how constructive dialogue can be. In many ways, the process has given me license to step back and not pretend that I know what the hell I’m talking about all the time, and in that, create space for others to teach me something.”
Nick MeehanVVSSL, Institute for Sound and Music
“I became a sponge. And I kept putting drops of everything I soaked up into everything that I was doing. So the effect and the impact was huge – it even impacted the way I spoke about things.“
Diane DrubayWe Are Museums / Blueshift
“Friction can be a vital force for creating something new, but we live in a world today that tends to view all friction as bad. The programme proposed and explored the exact antithesis. That is, that genuine difference matters, even if it creates friction, because if well facilitated, friction is good. That moving slowly and taking time to notice the in-between will be far more generative than efficiency could ever hope. Deepening people’s relationships with themselves and each other is the key to imagining and taking steps towards a world that is more fair, just, and prosperous.”
Dave King Exaptive
“The format presented such a fantastic tool for governments, organisations, and companies: they could present a problem to an amazing group of thinkers and get their problem dissected. In a matter of hours they could have a map of different inspirations and reflections that could help unlock solutions to that problem. That is incredibly valuable. If you put a problem in front of this group, you’re going to get an accelerated understanding of how to solve it. Next problem!”
Kalle Hellzen 180 Amsterdam
“This is an acknowledgement of leadership, of the human. It is the ability to take a diverse set of human beings and have it be a welcoming space. There have been times where I thought, “I can’t believe that person is saying this thing”. But there has to be a willingness to explore and look at the issue from a meta level. That part was particularly empowering.”
Terri GilbertScietific Educator (Brain science)& Shawoman