Process and Graphic Artistry for Social Transformation

David Stevenson — Colleen Stevenson

Our idea is that we are at a stage now where we have moved beyond the information age and we need deep, personal and collective transformative processes to face the immense challenges of our generation — global warming, child poverty, the AIDS Pandemic. We need more meaningful and fierce conversations that require deep engagement and the means to record and communicate on intuitive levels across a broad spectrum. These conversations are more than information sharing. The challenges we are facing now require us to honour the past, take stock of the present and approach the future with a spirit of playfulness, spontaneity and innovation. We see the ability to play with ideas and possibilities as a vital component of social and organizational transformation. Visual records make visible the more subtle forces that shape conversations — the emotions, energy levels, and passion behind the project or story. There are tremendous benefits: complex issues are broken down into simpler components; roles are clarified; past events are put into perspective; dynamics are brought out into the open; long-term direction is laid out and requisite steps mapped, and lastly, most importantly, the real purpose and intent behind the conversation can be made visible and therefore conscious.