By Gerid Hager<\/a>, IIASA Ecosystems Services and Management Program<\/em><\/p>\n
\u00a9Gerid Hager | IIASA<\/p><\/div>\n
In July, Miranda Lakerveld, a music drama artist and founder of the <\/em>World Opera Lab<\/em><\/a>, visited IIASA to run two storytelling workshops with young actors in civil society and youth policy, as well as with YSSP students and IIASA staff. Miranda first came to IIASA in September 2016 as part of the <\/em>Citizen Artist Incubator<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n
After the workshops in July, Miranda and I sat down for a chat.<\/em><\/p>\n
This workshop was part of the <\/strong>Systems Thinking for Transformation project<\/strong><\/a> and we wanted to search for \u201csystems stories\u201d in ancient narratives. We arrived at a very personal story of endurance and adaptation, pondered the power of great nature and cyclical behavior on a very large scale, and discussed economic justice and its relation to sustainable development. How does one story from Greek mythology \u2013 the Hymn to Demeter \u2013 lead to such diverse considerations?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Majnun & Leyla- World Opera Lab 2016- photo by Fouad Lakbir<\/p><\/div>\n
One integral part of systems thinking is to be able to consider and explore multiple perspectives on a problem or situation. How does the embodiment exercise come in to this?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Slipping into different characters from the story is an essential part of the process. It unlocks the creative imagination and is related to action in society. The Greek root-word for drama is \u201cdran\u201d, which means \u201cto act\u201d. Through embodiment we can take the position of another character or force in the system. The performing arts make this possible: we can take on different roles, understand new parts, and at the same time experience the whole system from a new perspective.<\/p>\n
There are other examples of how art and science meet through storytelling. A researcher at Berkeley University <\/strong>teamed up with story artists from PIXAR<\/strong><\/a> to help researchers create better stories about their research. What interests you in working with scientists and what is the role of storytelling?<\/strong><\/p>\n