weaving Voices 01.04.2025 issuu - Flipbook - Page 59
were from five different countries, none of them Scandinavian, and
we knew that at a later stage of the project we would work with more
people from even more diverse cultural backgrounds. What would make
kulning relevant to them? As we pondered, we came to the conclusion
that cultural traditions are as valuable and accessible as we make them.
Kulning is de facto a European cultural heritage, or if you want to take
it even further a human cultural heritage, and as such can be conceived
as something we and our participants share. Therefore, sharing the
historical context of kulning as well as the meaning or usage of the call
or songs became an important part of the workshop.
A playful and creative learning environment
One of the sources we drew inspiration from when thinking about how
to create the non-judgemental, playful learning environment we were
aiming for is John Cleese’s famous speech about creativity.96 He points
out that creativity is not a skill, but a way of operating. He refers to
research by psychologist DW MacKinnon on the subject and talks about
two different types of modes: the open mode where we can be playful
and creative, and the closed mode where we habitually live most of our
lives as adults, hurrying to get as much done as quickly as possible. The
open mode is where we can come up with ideas and the closed mode
is where we can execute them. He then goes on to describe the five
elements needed to find yourself in a playful, creative oasis:
• Space: a physical space where you will not be disturbed in your
playfulness and creativeness.
• Time: there should be a specific moment when the space starts and
ends.
• Time (again): there should be enough time for you to play around with
ideas and try them out.
• Confidence: Cleese mentions that being creative is easier when you’ve
got other people to play with, but that your space needs to be free
from the fear of making a mistake. Playing is an experiment and the
best atmosphere for finding the confidence to experiment is one where
whatever happens is okay.
• Humour: humour is essential to creativity and playfulness. Cleese notes
that humour does not take away from the seriousness of the work.
96 Cleese, J. (2017) John Cleese on Creativity in Management. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=Pb5oIIPO62g [Accessed 23 Jun. 2024].
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One of the challenges we attempted to explore with humour was the
Swedish phonetics, which is one of the bases of Swedish kulning, as
well as lockrop and locklåtar. This of course could pose a difficulty
as the participants were not Swedish. Rather than putting a huge
weight on each word being pronounced correctly, we invited the
participants to get familiar with the vowels and sounds. We played
around with these in different ways, through song, gibberish
conversations and improvised storytelling.
We wanted the learning process to be playful, un-prestigious and
to awaken our inner child in order to get away from our adult inner
self-critics. One of our goals was to keep our teaching informal and
to keep the tradition of learning the technique by ear. Therefore, we
limited the use of sheet music and lyrics as much as possible. Instead
the majority of the teaching took the shape of games and exercises.
The Roy Hart vocal practitioners in the group made very important
daily contributions to the workshop by guiding us in ways to wake
up our bodies, voices and our playfulness. These practices helped
create both the element of confidence and the element of humour
that Cleese mentions.
Vallhorn (Eriksson, 1983) 97 – Vallåtsmodus
97 Eriksson, P. (1983) Vallhorn av kohorn [Photography] Kringla. Available at: https://www.kringla.nu/kringla/
objekt?referens=S-DM/object/DM22958 [Accessed 23 Jun. 2024].
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