Social Honey
"Becoming Human is an art" — Novalis
In the Kassel-21 / Social Sculpture Lab, Shelley Sacks created an installation called the Survival Room - hosted by the documenta Archive, the Neue Galerie and the Hessische Kulturstiftung.
In the Survival Room, the online exchanges and the context based ‘Connective Practices’ offered people an approach to working with imaginal thinking, to understanding ‘warmth work’ and to finding new ways of thinking together to make what she called ‘social honey’.
These social sculpture and connective 'practices' really resonate with us, as a small group of practitioners currently exploring a more human scale and dialogical approach to collective 'knowingness' and sensemaking.
We like to continue to work and expand on these ideas, to bring new practices to many diverse communities.
I believe - as in the words of Shelley Sacks - that these practices will "enable a lived experience of the connection between inner and outer action; an exploration of life forces in the social field, and an understanding of ‘the connected self’ that is essential for new social forms of freedom, love and responsibility to develop and be strengthened.
Social Sculpture is art in the widened sense that Joseph Beuys understood it: 'Every Human Being is an Artist' working with 'the invisible materials of speech, discussion and thought' as well as values, attitudes and habits of thinking, to shape a future based on the interconnectedness of all life forms."
A letter written to Jospeh Beuys explores the pressing themes of these times and the ever urgent need for the 'warmth work' to continue at pace and 'save the human soul'.
“Individual bees collect nectar, but it does not become honey simply by bringing it into the hive. It has to be worked on, together. So too with individual insights. We need to develop new ways of thinking together to make the social honey that is needed to create a humane and ecological future.” (Social Sculpture Lab/Shelley Sacks)
[Original post]Al Kennedy / June 2024