The chronicle of collaboration
By Neil Farelly
Is everything, both inside and outside of us, connected in some fantastical way?
I wonder because I’ve stood in the middle of many a Connect festival – dead centre of a slum, a civil rights museum, a concentration camp – closed my eyes and listened to its life swirl around me followed by small, significant moments when someone suddenly lights up and gets it – ping! – their life has changed and afterwards, they’ll take it all home, maybe sit quietly in their own space and wonder…
It doesn’t seem to matter where it happens in the world, or who it happens to or with, it’s that realisation that we’re collaborating with other people and groups and cultures and conversations and learning it for ourselves. Once that feeling’s been felt, it can’t be undone and forgotten about; the door can’t be closed because we’ll begin to see collaborations and connections everywhere: …walking down a street watching people weaving in and out of each other like a modern dance, standing in a crowded train watching how people lean in to talk to each other or lean away to avoid, dinner with your family and friends where everyone’s reaching for food, filling up each other’s glasses, gossiping about this and that, listening to someone’s story…
Collaboration with a big C, around us every moment of every day. So, are we all in the middle of something bigger than we imagine? Is that what things are all about? ISTA CONNECT.