White Space. The Enter the Game Too Team has been trying to think out of the box during the process of the project. Following the metaphor of Ine Van Emmerik, we believe that whitespace is a suitable place from where can emerges complexity in a creative way, in opposition to the strong tendency to deal with complexity using ways of control by procedures and systems such as technical and academic knowledge. We want to use the white space concept in order to build a place where social rights become part of an inner experience. White space is a room for performativity, for what is not defined yet. Therefore, for us an open map to fulfill.

We love words and we love people…

We believe that what we usual call “informal” it is just, somehow, a simulation. And we are trying to reach authenticity and an effective infection (contagion) from people to people.

Have we already said that we love people?

I think so too!

Firstly let us enlighten you about our political point of view:

We have the deep conviction that it is worth the Mankind project and with it a full respect of the unity and uniqueness of each human being.

Secondly words, pictures and “maps” about what we have been doing so far…

WORDS…

We have been placing in practice a “kind of personal reinterpretation” following some principles of the famous lesson “Rhizome” of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. Here are some quotes that have been fruitful to our intervention in what we call “The Sessions”.

“Make a map, not a tracing. The orchid does not reproduce the tracing of the wasp; it forms a map with the wasp, in a rhizome. What distinguishes the map from the tracing is that it is entirely oriented toward experimentation in contact with the real. The map does not reproduce an unconscious closed in upon itself; it constructs. “It is itself a part of the rhizome. The map is open and connectable in all of its dimensions; it is detachable, reversible, susceptible to constant modification. It can be torn, reversed, adapted to any kind of mounting, reworked by an individual, group, or social formation.”

“A map has multiple entryways, as opposed to the tracing, which always comes back "to the same." The map has to do with performance, whereas the tracing always involves an alleged "competence.”

Through ENTER! project we have been sharing knowledge and deep understanding about the circumstances of Portuguese society and the need to aware for the social rights as a power to citizenship. With a group that is growing by confidence and trust in each other we intend to disseminate to other young people, neighbours and community the importance of social rights.

During the participatory process, the group has been sharing visions about the contemporary world by following a motto every of Media cultural Education Session. All together we have been creating basic rules such as:

In every session there is a new word to discover applied to a HR/SR

In every session we use the media information as a tool to discuss about what surround us and what we believe in;

In every session everyone has a moment to speak;

In every session everyone has a moment to be heard;

In every session we use a ball to start thinking about the world and its rights;

Everyone runs a part of the session in a way to share leadership and responsibility;

In every session we use the body as a living tool.

Likewise, while the street soccer games are happening the rules are applied taking in consideration social rights. For example, every time someone discriminate other player for some reason, the game stop; the ball has to pass through all players before scoring a goal without considering just strategies to win.

PICTURES STREET SOCCER GAMES AND MEDIA CULTURAL EDUCATION SESSIONS |2014

Seeing the others not as problems to solve but as mysteries to unveil

HOW?

Testing the difficulty of spontaneity and authenticity.

HOW?

Conceiving spaces where we go forward in utopia for real.

WHICH MOTTO?

Practice what you preach.

IMAGINE…

Imagine the floor of a room filled with pictures from newspapers and magazines. Imagine a session where the floor is a huge white page to share doubts. Imagine a boy with mental problems that never get out from his neighborhood, strolling around inside a rubber with a trustful group communicating without words. Imagine a group of people learning the meaning of new words in an old dictionary that we call “the wise guy”. Imagine two weekly street soccer games trainings with a group of young boys and girls that learn by practicing how to respect the others point of view. Imagine the pleasure of reading your first book at 24. Imagine that you are beginning to consider studying again. Imagine just reading the headlines of a daily newspaper and talk about it in group. Imagine a debate after a street soccer game about the richest guys in the world mixed with what is exclusion and poverty for you. Imagine how powerful you become when you dare to establish a humanized relationship with someone else. Imagine a group debating alternative ways to build social rights awareness.

Finally, just a small paragraph about the context we work in and acknowledgements.

Despite its aseptic appearance, the largest disadvantaged neighborhood of the IIberian peninsula it’s a small city of more than 10.000 people characterized by high levels of early school dropout, high levels of unemployment, violence, discrimination and poverty. The project aims to produce positive changes in the construction process of young people identity, so that they can overcome the difficulties and vulnerabilities of their reality.

Thank you to the Enter II project of the Council of Europe, for the opportunity to work in a project that we believe (disseminate the importance of social rights awareness) without the constraints that we normally have in institutional projects that think more about numbers and not in really results of changing young people problems.