MODE05

In German there is an expression, "Schule machen", which literally translated means "to make school". You use it to say that an idea will have imitators, thus works as an example, a role model for others. I actually used this term when I described the way mode05 will work with a sort of open source text production that could be useful for all kinds of educational institutions, a reason for this being its independence from space and its shared copy rights within the creative commons license frame. When I said that mode05 could "Schule machen" in this conversation I had I didn't even think of the fact that at mode05 we wil actually not only work on the issue of schools but also work together in a school situation.
So what surprised me when we all met in Potsdam is that even though we had the possibility of using many different communicational tools we mostly chose to have quite an academic set-up in terms of seating arrangement and communication. There were some attemps to break this up ("we are getting too institutional!"), but in general we seemed to be satisfied with plenary situations or talks in groups of about fifteen people.
I think this an interesting fact to look at more closely. It is great if decisions can be made in big groups, but have we really made enough decisions then? Could there have been more detailed research, more "democratic" work, work that goes deeper into the subject if we had had different arranngements? Can a big group maintain a structure that is needed in order to follow up all the topics that we want to work on, a rhizome, subversions of the trunk? Is this the sort of collectivity we need for this project? Are we finally able to structure all the material we produced? And: what do our working methods tell us about the group process, communication and structure of a possible dance education?
I think we have been critical and idealistic (two different approaches that have been named as approaches to a new school model) in terms of the idea of a future education, but maybe not too much in terms of analyze and criticism of our own working methods. This self-reflexivity is needed when we aim for an educational model that looks for and wants to bring up critical, independent, self-organised individuals - and it is needed when we aim for a project that would "Schule machen" in the sense of an example, but also in the sense of a real school as a result of mode05.