How it all started

Sharing for Impact is a personal initiative to create community engagement through self-introspection. The project started in January 2021, a year after the COVID-19 outbreak. The original purpose was to prototype immersive experiences for a community event hosted by re:MAKE, a platform I helped build with MAKE Studios Asia.

To read more about the re:MAKE community platform, please refer to this link.

Design-driven purpose

As designers, it is essential to understand the reason behind our decisions in every stage of a project — understanding why is more important than understanding how or what we will design in the first place.

Sharing for Impact is an opportunity to express our passion for design and art. This project challenges us to think differently and use our skills for the greater good. The community I’ve found from enabling these encounters has been extraordinarily gratifying and helpful for my mental well-being and personal growth.

Approach

Every session seeks to generate reflection amongst the group, facilitated by me in co-creation of critical engagement with another group member. Working on personal improvements can potentially cause collective actions to repair our environment.

Every sharing session takes place in my home on Hong Kong Island. Fortunately, Hong Kong is a vibrant city where you can find an exciting variety of personalities and ecosystems for different activities. Surprisingly, thanks to my professional endeavour by re:MAKE and the network of designers I encounter on the way, this project is growing organically. There’s no marketing or advertisement on any other platform; the only communication channel we have is a WhatsApp group to organise the sessions and get more people involved.

The structure and framework for the meetings are very flexible; as a facilitator, I seek to enable and empower whoever feels ready to design one of the monthly immersive experiences. Each session’s output(s) helps us select the theme for the following experience.

…

12 immersive experiences

Developing community engagement needs to be an interactive process. Therefore, we designed immersive experiences involving artistic expressions, spatial interventions, bodystorming, meditative stories and thoughtful discussions.

The project kick-off was on January 12th, 2021; the first meeting was an introduction session where 18 people from different innovation circles showed up. Designers, artists, social entrepreneurs and business strategists shared their experiences, and we started speculating about the possibilities and opportunities of this experiment.

Throughout the first three sessions, we explored different ways to enable self-expression via meditation, culinary experiences and reflection on personal values. Thanks to these encounters, I met talented people who helped me in the organisation for re:IMAGINE, the second largest community event hosted by the re:MAKE platform in March 2021.

Re:IMAGINE consolidated three months of prototyping experiences to deliver a successful event. Kate Okrasinski, managing director of MAKE Studios Asia, facilitated a fantastic workshop that enabled us to find insights, visions of the future, and ‘How Might We…’ questions to ideate ways to reinvent mental-wellbeing at work. Please refer to this link to review the full case study.

After the event, we continued to explore the possibilities of generating new experiences through Sharing for Impact. The following sessions became more articulated and prepared. Each session aimed to work on a specific topic, a challenge, opportunity or simple thought.

On our 7th meeting in August, we explored the possibility of co-facilitating each session. I was lucky enough to have my master’s thesis advisor, PhD Laurent Gutierrez, create a session focused on time and space represented by a map and a calendar.

The following is a section of the introduction and instructions Laurent designed to prepare us for that session.

September 29th, 2021 — The MAP and the CALENDAR, the experience led by Laurent Gutierrez

Those two modes of orientating oneself in the world have been essential tools since a very early stage of humanities. Sailors without the MAPs and the LOGBOOKs could not have crossed the ocean. MAP of the constellations or the map on paper does not matter; they guided the route. CALENDAR/DIARY have served to record and somehow deal with the TIME.

Our proposal for the coming session is to share our TIME and our SPACE.

• SHARING 1 — Choose / Draw / Imagine a MAP of a space. The space or territory, real or imaginary, has a specific meaning for you. You would like to share this meaning with the other, providing navigation of the region through the MAP. [Example includes: a map of a country, a plan of your room, a cognitive map of a daily trip, a map of the universe, a map of your feeling, a map of your breakfast table…]

• SHARING 2 — Choose / Draw / Imagine a DATE (does not include the recent meaning of this word) of a time. The time or duration, real or imaginary, has a specific purpose for you, and you would like to share this meaning with the other providing an exploration of the DATE. [Example includes: a birthday, a specific duration, a historical or personal date, an event, a meaningful date, …]

• SHARING 3 — Maybe a combination of both in a collective narrative.

—-

The results from this experience were various interpretations of a personal map. We shared maps of our thoughts, dreams, bodies and even memories. It was interesting to visualise everyone’s way to navigate the inner-self.

At the end of the night, we did not have enough time to discuss time. Time would have to be postponed. Yet, the night took an exciting shift by examining music and dance. The discussion led to the initiative to pass the mic to the following co-facilitator and designer of Movement, the theme for the next session led by Morgane Parizot, circular fashion education director at Redress.

The following is a section of the introduction and instructions Morgane prepared for that session.

October 27th, 2021 — Movement, the experience led by Morgane Parizot

Following up on the last session, Kaleb, Laurent, and I had a chat, and we’re going to postpone TIME⏱ (Ha!) and explore MOVEMENT 🌪

Laurent is passing me the co-mc chair for this session 🕺🏻 Here is the brief; come prepared!

Reflect and select a movement (of your body) that takes you to a “no-brain” space, soothes you, puts your brain on pause or fires you up — taking you to your essence. **This movement must be executable in an enclosed space (Kaleb’s living room!)

Showcase your movement to the group

Please share with us the what and why of this movement

Invite us to move with you!

See you on Wednesday for MOVEMENT 🌪

(and maybe wear comfortable clothes!)

—-

In this session, the relationship of our body and mind enabled us to share and coordinate specific movements with the rest of the group. We explored dancing, bodyweight training, group hugs, and even moving at the speed of a slug. Yes, a slug.

The night triggered Martina Mok to share how she links the subconscious with moving through space and dreams. She shared the music by Max Richter and an immersive experience called Sleep. The group was fascinated by her insight, and right there, a unanimous vote selected the following theme — Subconscious.

The following is a section of the introduction and instructions Martina prepared for that session.

December 1st, 2021 — Sub|conscious, the experience led by Martina Mok

Just one question to think about or dream about tonight:

How’s your relationship with your sub|conscious?

The experience structure:

1. Clear your mind

2. Observe your mind

3. Submerge your mind

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Martina is a great storyteller; she helped us steer our thoughts, perceptions and decisions made by our subconscious. She enabled us to clear our minds starting with meditation and breathing exercises. Afterwards, she showed us a movie trailer that triggered us to observe how our minds perceive different perspectives based on our personalities and experiences. Everyone had a different opinion and sentiment for the film; this group discussion prepared us for the last part of her experience.

Martina invited us to submerge our minds by writing two things that take our attention constantly and hold us back from being inflow. We later analysed how our subconscious influences our emotions and actions.

The end of this session was powerful. We were moved and surprised by how our minds sometimes make us suppress things we don’t want to face. Yet, we reflected on how the stories we choose to believe can guide us to specific results and decisions. In the last minutes of the night, the conversations about the end of 2021 made us acknowledge we postponed time from Laurent’s session, but time was upon us; this was the perfect moment for Sam to take the lead on our last session of the year.

Sam did not need to send prep work before his session. Yet, the theme inspired other members to share insights about the meaning and value of time. These are some of the comments made in the WhatsApp group.

December 29th, 2021 — Time, the experience led by Sam Cooke

Leon’s sharing for this session:

“Being productive all the time is for machines
not for humans
we need time out to rest, to play, to be creative
not as recharging to do more
not as resting to be more productive tomorrow
not to reach new levels of grinding
but as a right in itself
we don’t have to be obsessed with productivity
we don’t have to be healing every day
checking off goals every day from a to-do list
hustling… building… pushing…
it’s okay to just be
you were born to experience leisure, joy, and rest
human beings, not human doings.”

Laurent’s sharing for this session:

“One recent explanation about the summer break is reconnecting with our hunter-gatherer past, and the seasonal holidays they experienced during the few 100 thousand years of such living conditions. Also, this practice tends to disappear from the colonial and capitalist states pressure.”

“The concept that my self-worth depends on my job title and the amount of money I make leaves a lot to be desired. As well as creates a mindset that everything you do is a race against literally everyone else in the world.”

The ‘end’ of the year is always weird; people get lazy, but everyone is rushing. Somehow, we want to accomplish more and suddenly realise December is the last month to make it happen; is this true?

During this session, Sam used different elements to activate our senses, ground us and be present. He used features such as a curated selection of music to relax, a tea flower that opened up progressively with hot water to stimulate our sight and incense to ease our thoughts. He invited us to be silent and asked the following questions:

#1: Look at your past, take one point from it and stretch it out. Move it forward to where you are going and tell yourself what you want in life? Visualise how that moment has turned you into who you are.

#2: Look at your idea of yourself and the idea that those who love you have of you. Why do you have these ideas?

#3: Feel what is bothering you with all the stress and fear and visualise it as a small ball, squeeze it and let it go. Let it all wash over you and be present when you are not your stress, fears, and anxiety. Why do we give these things so much power over us? Who do you want to be?

Sharing for Impact is about communication and self-expression in a safe space. Yet, this time, Sam suggested keeping our reflections for ourselves. He enabled us to realise how much the past helps us learn. Acknowledging the present to understand that the future will always come; there is no rush.

Once the experience was over, the conversation led to a series of arguments about time representation. Relativity was mentioned several times, and how memories can modify it. Polina shared many insights on how we alter memories every time we remember them, creating a new reality and connection to our present context. The theme was super intriguing, leading her to volunteer and take ownership of the next session — Memory.

The following is a section of the introduction and instructions Polina prepared for that session.

January 26th, 2022 — Memory, the experience led by Polina Sarafanova

Hi everyone :)

In preparation for our upcoming “Memory” session, think about what senses trigger your memory the most? What makes you remember things? Is it sound, smell, image, taste, context, or a combination of several elements?

For the session, bring something that triggered your Memory recently!

See you on Wednesday and have a great weekend :)

—-

This session had a special feeling; it marked the first anniversary of Sharing for Impact. It was thrilling to see how much this social experiment evolved. Memory was the perfect topic for this experience because it made us remember, create and once again share.

Everyone brought something to trigger their memory. Some of the objects in the room were a scarf, lipstick, a notebook, a palo santo stick and even a 2000-year-old pig sculpture made of Jade.

Polina began by asking the story behind these objects and what kind of memory they evoked. Some stories were early life memories from trip anecdotes, accidents and life lessons, to name a few.

One object I found fascinating and dense with memories was Aman’s notebook, which he made himself. Aman learned how to sew leather, and it took him a month to start because of his habit of perfectionism. Yet, he designed every piece with intention. The process taught him many lessons, lessons he would mark on the leather with four amazing quotes. Aman also shared what each quote represents to him; I’ll list them down here as well:

On the front cover: “Whose permission are you waiting for.”
You are the one in your own way.

Inside cover: “Allow room for failure.”
Understand the value of ‘good enough’.

Inside back cover: “Every phoenix must burn.”
We can’t escape the process.

Back: “Don’t accept the illusion of choice.”
Make your own option, choices, and decisions.

After all of us shared our stories, the experience continued with the following sections:

Part 1 — Memory and senses

Polina invited us to build an artifact from an early childhood memory. She provided us with various materials for us to craft and play. After fifteen minutes, we all shared the memory connected to that artifact.

Part 2 — Memory and Interpretation

She later asked us how we interpreted that memory at that moment? She prompted us to think about whether our interpretation changed over time.

Part 3 — Memory and reality (is it your memory)?

In the end, she again asked us — in your memory, are you the observer or the doer (first person)?

We explored the possibility of identifying which memories you modified based on the hypothesis of living them again as a viewer or doer. Is it possible that we can adjust the past to prepare for the future?

We concluded that memories change over time; we reconstruct them and fill them with new insights from new experiences. We change, merge, evolve. We discussed the process to achieve this transformation through education. The method of influencing someone at an early age through culture, frameworks and skills led different education practitioners in the group to have an engaging conversation. Once again, organically, the theme for our next session was selected — Education.

Note: Unfortunately, the February session will be postponed due to the rise of COVID-19 cases in Hong Kong.

Observations, reflections and next steps

Designers are creators of tools that empower autonomous decisions to people’s needs in specific environments. The way this experiment is growing is exciting and fulfilling. After one year, the intention is to continue to explore how the community grows, interacts and activates.

Until today, we’ve had 12 sessions with a recurrent number of participants. The people who come to these experiences bring more like-minded change-makers to engage as a community.

Does this mean the initial purpose to create community engagement has been achieved? I believe it is just starting and we’re gearing up to see its full potential.

Key learnings and takeaways from Sharing for Impact

• Trust the process.

• Embrace diversity and change.

• Enable useful tools, never impose them.

• Be open to sharing but keep some thoughts for yourself.

Thank you for reading this case study.