The term manifest or manifesto is loaded with many different, not necessarily positive connotations and embedded in histories which are expressed in these terms. Whereas manifest is defined as a rather public statement and declaration, the term manifesto is political in the sense of stating political principles or created by political parties. Negative connotations of both terms, such as  dogmatic, oppressive and non-flexible, are also connected to how they have been historically seen and used. 

We would like to emphasize the self-defined perspective we chose by focusing on the power and beauty of co-creating together. In other words, “we say manYfest and we know what it means.”

We see our manYfest as a tool to understand each other, care for each other and to communicate our wants, needs, desires, borders and offers with each other. We understand it like a guideline or a map that we can lean on while constantly readjusting, reviewing and self-reflecting. We manYfest a common language and shared terminology within it, which we understand, define and wish to use. We also view the manYfest as a call for action and transformation, which implies the freedom to always change and be fluid as well as concrete steps of actions growing out of our wishes of what we want to be and become, while at the same time offering a constant reminder of being intentional and conscious. We call it manYfest because we understand this text as the manifestation of discourses processes of the Many.

The Collaborative process is the understanding of the power of more. More people, with diverse skills and expertise, generate fundamental new ideas, synergy and allow creativity to flourish. Therefore, we wish to maintain exchange in three levels: 1. Team meetings, which will take place on a regular fixed time for exchange, updates, feedback, critique, solutions and further planning; 2. Autonomous entities of different disciplines, focused on specific tasks. They develop it according to the new developments reached in the team meetings and share updates/progress there; 3. Individual work, which will be the space to allow for each person to connect the dots of the geschen with the new vision.

We wish to radically detach shame, which implies an understanding that we all can and will make mistakes. This raises the question of how to recognize and take responsibility for one's actions to be able to move on. We wish to not fear our own mistakes, be ourselves, acknowledge and take on our individual responsibility. We want to create a space where you can say anything, having in mind the well-being of others and oppressive structures that also frame our minds.

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Our self understanding is that our ideas grew and developed throughout our lives. They are grounded in the stories which we have experienced or experienced by many others. Stories that are grounded in the stories of many that form the world. Stories, which have been told to us and those we decided to remember and stories we constructed by our desires and imagination. They come to life and are articulated at a specific moment, enabled by the people who surround us. 

We wish to share lived stories from lived experience, knowledge and memories. Stories that are as well impacted by dominant monolithic cultures, religions and necropolitics. Stories of resistance that inspired our views, our actions and our desires. Stories never lived or lived in imagination and fantasy. These stories allow us to evade current realities where some destroy imaginations, while at the same time can offer concrete steps to realize imaginative ones. In our stories and storytelling, we wish to center stories by QTBIPOC and disabled bodies, economically marginalized bodies, visible, invisible bodies and bodies that hold privileges but constantly work on dismantling the dominant system of white supremacy, capitalism, and patriarchy. A system that does not only depend on hegemonic bodies. We wish to center stories of self care, community and radical empathy. 

*note to further develop

Term INFLUENCE in relation to AGENCY and AUTONOMY?

We wish to acknowledge privileges and are well aware that in the production process we will also take positions that come with a certain power in what each one can decide. While we wish to appreciate all contributions and welcome ideas about others’ processes, this must be done with the respect of not taking over and imposing our own views. 

The collaborative working process differs from collective work by mainly the division of labor and fields of responsibilities. In the first, responsibilities are communicated in the early stages of the collaborative work and based on the skills and professional goals of each individual in the group. We agree that our creative process is based on collective work where there is space to share ideas in parts of the project outside of someone’s areas of responsibility. But we are also aware that during the production phase, the individuals holding a specific field of responsibility will have a certain level of independence and be entrusted by the group.

* Feel freedom to responsive for tasks 

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* how would you generate a good and sensitive feedback structure (feedback – critique)

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* commitment – devotion

* How do we want to deal with conflicts?

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* Identify common / personal goals → personla goals and what community wants to reach together and how those 2 could be combined together 

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* what I need, what I offer to help achieve after identifying it

We wish to create a softer working space rather than a safer space, because we recognize that, also in our process, consciously and unconsciously we might cause harm. When this occurs, we wish to hold each other, like a mattress that we can fall back on. While we view ourselves as a full humanity with a harmful potential, the soft space allows us to develop an understanding of ourselves as being not punitive and punishing. 

How do we want to create a soft space, what do we ask for, what do we need and wish and what do we offer to create and ensure such space? 

Our needs, asks and wishes are influenced by our stories, also stories of past experience of working in a commons that have not been pleasant and our wish to change this.  

In the soft space, we ask for honesty, honest communication (also of discomfort), for giving and having time, which creates conditions to be soft. We ask for acceptance that what a person has stated is enough, that there is no need to over explain oneself, and that one may not be ready or cannot share their feelings. We ask for acceptance that a person is not judged for their statements, with the underlying understanding that we all make mistakes and fail, so that everyone feels safe.

To feel our soft space we also need food, water, warm room temperature and the ability to come into the space in a manner that you don’t have to push yourself. Moreover, we wish and need accountability, which is understood as being not institutional but individual. In other words, we rely on individual reflectiveness rather than being imposed from the surroundings. This allows the individuals to move freely and creatively within the working and living structures we share.

To create this space, we want to offer to make a space within us with the capacity to receive discomfort. We also offer radical acceptance by accepting a person with all their flaws and virtues. We offer to listen to each other, to give hugs and have no expectations of performing at a high level all the time. We wish to offer our ability to be flexible with our time by acknowledging and developing an awareness of life's uncertainty. 

We want to offer reflection and space to go root back into love and joy. We wish to create a soft space where we aim for capacity and resources, offered to each other without any pressure, and where one can come resourceless but leave replenished with resources. 

We wish to follow a learning process to develop an awareness that we do not know, accept our imperfections and move towards an understanding that accepting this is the perfect thing that we can do.

*note to further develop

We wish to be honest and reality based with time, capacity and outcome and wish to shift from productivity understood as “bigger, better and more” to “delicate, small and equally good”. We allow ourselves to be “unproductive”, vulnerable, entangled in our outer world and present but with fears and pain.

Health - physical and mental

We wish to take care of oneself and each other and not overwork ourselves. We can use tools like timetables to stop ourselves and we believe that everything can be revisited in the fitting time and the full with care and energy. 

Fair pair

What does that mean and how do we practice it - we can relate to the current project budget, right?

Transparency

what does it means?

We wish to be transparent and reality based with time and resources. 

Accessibility

When we share knowledge we aim to share the understanding of basic terms since we remember that we all are coming from different fields and some terms are not being used in others. We wish for this document to also manifest common terms and language for ourselves.  

Creative part and Production part 

Within our creative and production part we wish to make structures and processes transparent, to check in with each other and to asking to step in to ask for help if you see a person might need. We also wish for punctuality. We wish to think with each other through concepts.

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