 Bell tree - Cosanti originals  Wedding party miniatures, Kyoto |  http://hopespringchildandfamily.com/354/e6b/trackback |
Some 25 years after my first encounter with Paolo's sand-cast architectural models, sand-cast buildings and sand-cast bells, I was introduced to sandplay therapy. I began examining Arcosanti from an organizational, educational administration perspective for my first grad degree, analyzing sandplay therapy from a Social Work perspective for my second, It's of natural interest to me, the connection between sand casting and sandplay; therefore no surprise I've been contemplating them while wondering about the links between them.
Assembling a jigsaw puzzle without knowing what the completed picture should look like is a challenge, but what I've come to is this: Beyond the commonality of sand (and water), what sandplay and sand-casting also have in common is that they are also both primary forms of "serious" play. Three-dimensional. Sculptural (qua architectural). Graphic. Kinaesthetic. Dramatic.
Seeing that parallel leads me to consider comparing them as manifest forms on an "expressive arts" continuum. Although I daresay Paolo never considered the possibility that what he was doing was or might be taken for a type of therapy, I suspect that might have been an error of omission. Because if I utilize a Behavioral Health perspective to examine the experiences of the thousands of people who've participated in the 'urban laboratory' experience, all those folk who've contributed their 'sweat equity' to the experiment Paolo initially set out to conduct, it seems to me we should not discount the extent to which Arcosanti - even if has been and primarily still is a "company town," has been/can be construed as a therapeutic environment. Maybe not intentionally, but nonetheless...
I have yet to canvass all those thousands who've helped build Arcosanti (although I'd love to be able to do that) but what I've observed over the years is that people often come to Arcosanti with a pressing problem in tow. They're in transition, seeking a solution to an issue as personal as it is/may be political and/or professional. They're seeking solace or refuge, in a way. They need to sustain themselves as seekers, they seek to maintain themselves as doers. They hope to feel useful, they want their talents to be needed - and wanted.
Why not? Why would an educational experiment not be responsive to such people, to such problems? Moreover: To what end, of what use is such an altruistic physical plant if it sets aside responsibility, even quasi-responsibility, for the emotional, psychological and/or the intellectually material as well as the physical nourishment of its proper constituents?
Those constituents, its people, its builders, are its "tribe," as Jeff Stein, Cosanti Board of Trustees President, suggested. And Arcosanti has withstood - endured, even, for decades - their criical debate pitting "construction site" against "community." No final agreement could be reached as to what the place was since the argument was fairly specious. When has a construction site built itself? A construction site *is* - it simply exists. It takes a community of some kind to gather together the energy and resources needed to construct something - even something simple, never mind an entire laboratory that's meant to house a few thousand urbanists.
The debate continued, sometimes quietly, sometimes fiercely. Consensus was - still seems to be - elusive. Me, I'd like to take this puzzle to my colleagues when the International Society for Sandplay Therapy. ISST, of which I am an associate, meets. Which it does, every second year at a different location. This year's meeting will take place in Venice, in - yikes! - a few weeks. Unfortunately, it's a long paddle or row - or a very long swim - across an ocean.. It's looking unlikely, right now, such a voyage. So I'll muddle the puzzle along with me for a while longer, see where it leads...
Assembling a jigsaw puzzle without knowing what the completed picture should look like is a challenge, but what I've come to is this: Beyond the commonality of sand (and water), what sandplay and sand-casting also have in common is that they are also both primary forms of "serious" play. Three-dimensional. Sculptural (qua architectural). Graphic. Kinaesthetic. Dramatic.
Seeing that parallel leads me to consider comparing them as manifest forms on an "expressive arts" continuum. Although I daresay Paolo never considered the possibility that what he was doing was or might be taken for a type of therapy, I suspect that might have been an error of omission. Because if I utilize a Behavioral Health perspective to examine the experiences of the thousands of people who've participated in the 'urban laboratory' experience, all those folk who've contributed their 'sweat equity' to the experiment Paolo initially set out to conduct, it seems to me we should not discount the extent to which Arcosanti - even if has been and primarily still is a "company town," has been/can be construed as a therapeutic environment. Maybe not intentionally, but nonetheless...
I have yet to canvass all those thousands who've helped build Arcosanti (although I'd love to be able to do that) but what I've observed over the years is that people often come to Arcosanti with a pressing problem in tow. They're in transition, seeking a solution to an issue as personal as it is/may be political and/or professional. They're seeking solace or refuge, in a way. They need to sustain themselves as seekers, they seek to maintain themselves as doers. They hope to feel useful, they want their talents to be needed - and wanted.
Why not? Why would an educational experiment not be responsive to such people, to such problems? Moreover: To what end, of what use is such an altruistic physical plant if it sets aside responsibility, even quasi-responsibility, for the emotional, psychological and/or the intellectually material as well as the physical nourishment of its proper constituents?
Those constituents, its people, its builders, are its "tribe," as Jeff Stein, Cosanti Board of Trustees President, suggested. And Arcosanti has withstood - endured, even, for decades - their criical debate pitting "construction site" against "community." No final agreement could be reached as to what the place was since the argument was fairly specious. When has a construction site built itself? A construction site *is* - it simply exists. It takes a community of some kind to gather together the energy and resources needed to construct something - even something simple, never mind an entire laboratory that's meant to house a few thousand urbanists.
The debate continued, sometimes quietly, sometimes fiercely. Consensus was - still seems to be - elusive. Me, I'd like to take this puzzle to my colleagues when the International Society for Sandplay Therapy. ISST, of which I am an associate, meets. Which it does, every second year at a different location. This year's meeting will take place in Venice, in - yikes! - a few weeks. Unfortunately, it's a long paddle or row - or a very long swim - across an ocean.. It's looking unlikely, right now, such a voyage. So I'll muddle the puzzle along with me for a while longer, see where it leads...
