TASKs for democracy

ACTIVITY 1 “AN ART EXHIBIT… A DISPLAY OF ATTITUDES” – 80 MINUTES
Resources
Cards with the chosen organising principle for the exhibit: type of art, shape, colour, emotion, etc.
Checklist of observable behaviour
Practical arrangements
The room should be set up with a central space for the role play and two tables that seat six each for preparation
and debriefing.
Procedure
1. Preparation
When teams gather to start, the facilitator presents the art (pictures or paintings) and gives instructions
about the organising principle for the exhibit: the art should be displayed following criteria
such as categories of type, shape, colour or emotion (chose as many criteria as you have groups; e.g.
if the role play is played by two groups, then two criteria should be selected).
Important: The teams are privately instructed to pursue one of the categories as the “natural” leading
thread for the arrangement of the exhibition. The groups are given different criteria, but participants
are not aware of this.
The teams work separately and come up with a proposal. Two participants per group are designated
to be observers and take notes as the group works out the proposal and finalises their exhibit plan.
2. The role play
The teams meet and act out the scene: their task is to organise the exhibit all together now.
They continue until they have agreed on the organisation of the exhibition.
The facilitator observes the negotiations among members and takes notes for use during the debriefing
session.
3. Observation results and analysis
Participants go back into their teams. They work individually to fill in the CHECKLIST provided below
and assess their own performance.
The facilitator now pairs participants. Each member of a pair now uses the same checklist to assess
the other’s performance.
Once this is done pairs discuss their results and compare how they see themselves and how the other
perceives their behaviour. They agree on a final checklist (what the observer and the observed can
agree on).
Participants now regroup in their initial teams to discuss the experience and the difference between
their self and peer assessments.
Tips and potential difficulties
This role play models a situation of conflict. The challenge or conflict occurs in the “collision” of divergent
forms of classification (induced by the diverging – and secret – organising principles on the
cards) and hence dissimilar conceptions of the arrangement of the pieces of art.
If the group does not manage to agree on a common organising principle to create an exhibit, the
facilitator may interrupt the role play (20 to 30 minutes of role play should be enough for a group of
24 participants), and thank the participants.
TASKs for democracy Page 306