Brains On Purpose™

Improvisation, emergence, chaos, and conflict resolution

Partly because the "E" in my CARVE Disputes Model stands for "emergence," I was drawn to this article about an improvisational dance professor cum mediator. Plus, the article once again reminded me of how constrained we are in the way we conceptualize and practice mediation. I continue to hope that this century will see us leaping out of that narrowness and incorporating helpful tools from many arts and sciences, perhaps even including body movement. After reading about Susan Sgorbati, maybe you will join me in that hope?

From "Professor to showcase 'emergent improvisation' at EMPAC" (Times Union):

What do flocks of birds, schools of fish, neurons in the brain and dancers improvising movement have in common? According to Bennington College professor Susan Sgorbati, they are all functioning according to similar principles of self-organization, creating sense and order out of what might have been chaos.

...

"The improvisation work was always very important to me, because it had a connection to real life and to relationships," she said. "When I started talking with the scientists and realized this organic structuring was everywhere in nature, I started seeing everything differently."

...

As an experienced mediator (she developed Bennington's conflict resolution curriculum and supervises a mediation clinic for Bennington County in Vermont), Sgorbati was equipped to recognize the parallels between the way dancers move together and the way people in conflict move over time toward a mutually agreeable solution. That realization has led her to question whether emergent improvisation principles, coupled with the essential ingredient of empathy, could be somehow employed to help humans work out their differences, in the political, social and environmental arenas.

A couple of previous posts about art and mediation:

• Using the arts in conflict resolution: Some more pieces of the puzzle?
• Professional Artistry of Mediation: Accessing more of your brain and the knowledge of your body
• Images can help you paint a bright resolution to conflict
• Play what you know and then play above that: The role of improvisation in mediation
• Conflict resolution through artistry: Music, painting, and shadow puppets

Image credit: EMPAC.

Using games to educate and solve problems: Playing with conflict and brains

Over the years, the decades, I have been time after time convinced of the value of games to teach, and so recently have been researching game design. I want to create my own educational games. The topic is wide-ranging and opinions on every aspect, even the definition of game, are many. Unfortunately the number of books and articles on the actual how-to of designing is sparse. At this blog post, I will post what I find in my search. Do you recommend any resources I can add below?

The book I have found most interesting because it is almost a philosophical take on games is The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses; unfortunately reading it will not equip you to create your own game but will allow you to thoroughly evaluate one you've already designed.

Games focus on health, wealth, contentment, fun, war, much more—and the list grows daily. My emphasis right now is conflict resolution. Many of us have been using games in ADR training for decades and have found them beneficial for learning: Everything from a multitude of versions of Prisoners' Dilemma to Med-Arb. Several people with whom I have talked think it is time for a new crop of games to teach about conflict resolution and a number of people are working on design, myself included.

Let's look at an example of a teaching game. Although not focused on conflict resolution, here's one that looks at our other focus here: brains! From the news release:

AXON offers players a rare glimpse of how the brains is formed and an ‘inside the brain’ introduction to the strange world of neurons, proteins and axons.

Click to play the game.

At Gamasutra, the place where the news release about AXON was posted, you will find much information about game design. I enjoyed the three-part series on timing in storytelling. Story, by the way, is a critical component of many games. I also was glad I took the time to read Improv Acting And Game Development.

More soon. I will continue to post resources here at this blog post as I find them.

• "Interactivity and Reward-Related Neural Activation during a Serious Videogame" (PLoS ONE)
• "A video game that involves killing cancer cells, activates parts of the brain involved in motivation" (CNet)-About the research at the PLoS ONE link immediately above
• "My View: A Game-Changing Major" (CNN.com)-Game design is being taught in college
• "Cognitive Flow: The Psychology of Great Game Design" (Gamasutra)
• Slide presentation on gameification (MPI)-on how game principles can create engagement for meetings and events
• "Adult Learning Theory in Games and Simulations" (LEEF Blog)
• Gamification Wiki 
• "Serious Games Taxonomy: Game Theory Part 1" "...Part 2" (LEEF Blog)
• "All The World’s A Game" (TechCrunch)
• Video: "How to Use Games to Excel at Life and Work" (99%)
• Game Frame: Using Games as a Strategy for Success
• "The Gamification of Education Infographic" (Knewton)
• "Motivations of Play in Online Games" (Journal of CyberPsychology and Behavior)
• Chapter 6 of Art of Game Design: "The Game Begins with an Idea"-The whole book is online here.
• "Are you an achiever, explorer, socializer, or killer: Is conflict resolution a game?" (idealawg)
• "Why Do Games Need Neuroscience? or, The Importance of Having a Theory" (AndrewHsu.com)
• TED Talks on gaming
• "First Steps in Board Game Design" (EDTEC)

Respect mediation? Love it? Prove it, shove it, move it: Mix things up, break the patterns

If someone were to take video tapes (with no audio) of your mediations, how different would one look from the other? We all tend to get into both personal and professional patterns. For example, we typically drive to errands on the same routes over time. Do we drive the same routes in mediations?

This study linked to below, another one about how our bodies may affect our cognition, reminds us that much more is going on in any session than we might guess. To circumvent or drive through roadblocks to resolution, change the routes, change the roads, change the physical positions and environment.

In previous posts, I have suggested ways to get out of ruts and to see the conflict resolution process with fresh eyes, artistic eyes, sometimes even jester eyes. Those new eyes are the hallmark of a 21st-century mediator. Re-spect means look again. Re-spect your methods of mediation.

Try this: Think of a mediation as a game of jacks; they never fall the same way and you and the parties can use lots of ways to pick them up. Positions in the circle around the game can and probably should change; the bodies of the players are just as important as the minds.

And don't forget to change the ball to get a new bounce!

Here's that reminder of how much is going on in the room beyond what's in our skulls: "Leaning to the Left Makes the Eiffel Tower Seem Smaller: Posture-Modulated Estimation" (Psychological Science). Abstract:

John Cleese gives some tips on creativity: How might they help resolve a conflict?

Watch this short video to learn some of Cleese's ideas about encouraging creativity. Then find what he calls an oasis, and be creative in thinking about how each of these can be incorporated into a mediation, or other conflict resolution process. (Do this exercise only if you think creativity aids dispute resolution, of course.)

Cleese's tips (all consistent with what we know about the brain):

• Sleep on the problem
• Let the unconscious help your creativity
• Maintain uninterrupted time for creating, avoiding interruptions
• Get into the right mood, not racing around
• Create an oasis in your life, a tortoise enclosure, with boundaries of space and time
• Give yourself a start and finish time

 

Professional Artistry of Mediation: Accessing more of your brain and the knowledge of your body

The people offering this workshop are on the same wavelength as I am, but they may not know how aligned they are with neuroscience. In the past, I have posted about using images to access different parts of the brain and of finding ways to access the body's knowledge, both of which can add much, including creativity, to dispute resolution.

That's why I was delighted to learn of the workshop Professional Artistry of Mediation [pdf]. It will access the image nuggets in the brain and discover what the body knows, all in service of redefining how mediators see conflict and their roles as resolvers. From the workshop description:

This workshop is designed to challenge and inspire you! The workshop provides an experiential and reflective space for participants to engage in creative processes and conversations to reflect on the artistry of their practice.

Participants will explore in a playful and hands-on way the art of what we do, our identities as mediators, how we think about conflict and its resolution, and where we might like to take our practice in the future.

The workshop will include a range of arts-based activities including improvisation, drawing, storytelling and working with artifacts.

A workshop like that would certainly facilitate the kind of shift I recommended to mediators in my last post, don't you think?

Image credit: ppdigital.

Play what you know and then play above that: The role of improvisation in mediation

A jazz saxophonist decided to see what his brain was doing when he was improvising. Luckily he was also a neuroscientist so he was able to cleverly set up and conduct the research. Watch a short video here about how they were able to allow musicians (jazz pianists) to improvise while undergoing fMRI scans. (Study link at the end of this post.) What did they find?

From "This Is Your Brain On Jazz: Researchers Use MRI To Study Spontaneity, Creativity" (Science Daily):

It appears, they conclude, that jazz musicians create their unique improvised riffs by turning off inhibition and turning up creativity.
...

... “It’s a remarkable frame of mind,” [Charles J. Limb, MD] adds, “during which, all of a sudden, the musician is generating music that has never been heard, thought, practiced or played before. What comes out is completely spontaneous.”
...

The scientists found that a region of the brain known as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex ... showed a slowdown in activity during improvisation. This area has been linked to planned actions and self-censoring, such as carefully deciding what words you might say at a job interview. ...

The researchers also saw increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex ... .  This area has been linked with self-expression and activities that convey individuality, such as telling a story about yourself.
...

Limb notes that this type of brain activity may also be present during other types of improvisational behavior that are integral parts of life for artists and non-artists alike. For example, he notes, people are continually improvising words in conversations and improvising solutions to problems on the spot. ...

That improv place in the brain (actually it is probably more of a "frame of mind" as described above) could obviously be very helpful in both parties and mediators at many times in a mediation. Is improv welcome in your mediation sessions?

After many hours, over many years, of speaking with jazz trumpeter Hugh Ragin, I think jazz musicians have known for a long time much of what neuroscientists and other researchers are now showing. For example, Hugh summed up some of embodied cognition by saying, "Don't worry if you know the song; your fingers know it so get your head out of the way." (Of course, this assumes that the musicians have  practiced.) This get-your-head-out-of-the way advice is one reason why some mediations should be more whole-bodied, but more about that another day.

Hugh also gives some advice to his musicians that I often follow in my non-musical endeavors. Here's Miles Davis giving the same advice to the musicians in his band:

If you put a musician in a place where he has to do something different from what he does all the time, then he can do that—but he’s got to think differently in order to do it. He has to use his imagination, be more creative, more innovative; he’s got to take more risks. He’s got to play above what he knows—far above it—and what that might lead to might take him above the place where he finds himself right now—and to the next place he’s going and even above that!...I’ve always told the musicians in my band to play what they know and then play above that. Because then anything can happen, and that’s where great art and music happens.* [emphasis added]

And perhaps great mediations.

Click for "Neural Substrates of Spontaneous Musical Performance: An fMRI Study of Jazz Improvisation."

Be sure to read Geoff Sharp's post Jazz brings mediation alive in which he links to a great article from Los Angeles Daily Journal titled "Through Jazz, Bringing Mediation 'Fresh To Life'".

*Quoted in Sweet Dreams in America by Sharon D. Welch

Note (added August 3, 2008, 4:10 PM Mountain): "Bold look at the brain on jazz finds creativity soars when inhibition takes 5" (Article from The Associated Press)

Note (added August 22, 2008, 12:30 PM Mountain): "Mental illness 'at the root of jazz'" (BBC News).

Note (added November 25, 2008, 8:30 AM Mountain): "Jazz Musicians Lose Control" (Discover).

Note (added May 6, 2010): Tune In: music with the brain in mind, video of several people talking about neuroscience and improvisation (Wellcome Collection).

Note (added March 2, 2011): Click to watch a TED video of neuroscientist Dr. Charles Limb talking about the brain, improvisation, and creativity.

Note (added March 21, 2012): Article in TIME describes work of Dr. Limb on the brain and improvisation: "What the Jazz Greats Knew About Creativity."

Note (added May 11, 2102): Article from The Dana Foundation: "Musical Creativity and the Brain" describes Limb's work.

Applied Improvisation Network—November, 2007, Banff, Canada

Last post, I mentioned some benefits of learning and practicing improv. In November, the Applied Improvisation Network is holding its annual conference. Here's a quick overview of the sessions (PDF) and detailed information about each session (PDF).

Looks like a great event for both those beginning and those experienced in improv. Are any of you attending?

Hat tip to Johnnie Moore.

Note: Here's the Applied Improvisation Network blog.

Conflict: Is it all in your head?

Since neuroscience is one eye through which we look on this blog, and the brain is in the head, I am glad to be reminded of how important the rest of the body is to conflict resolution. The mind and the brain are important but so are the foot and the ankle and the shin . . .

The latest reminder was in an article from The New Mexican: "Mapping the mind." The reporter Jennifer Strand tells us the story behind the soon-to-be-published book The Body Has a Mind of Its Own: How Body Maps in Your Brain Help You Do (Almost) Everything Better written by science writers Sandra Blakeslee and her son Matthew Blakeslee, and gives an overview of the book . . .

The book explores the concept of “body maps” in the brain that trace their routes throughout the body and beyond. According to the book, your body is actually mapped onto your brain (homunculus). All these maps together create your sense of your body (body schema) and you create your own map with your attitude toward your body (body image).

“Research now shows that your brain is teeming with body maps — maps of your body’s surface, its musculature, its intentions, its potential for action, even a map that automatically tracks and emulates the actions and intentions of other people around you,” the Blakeslees write. “These body-centered maps are profoundly plastic — capable of significant reorganization in response to damage, experience, or practice.”

Practice. There's self-directed neuroplasticity again. Be sure to take a look at the article then don't miss the exercise near the end of that page.

An excerpt from the book was published in Scientific American in an article entitled  "Where Mind and Body Meet." In the article, the