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BLIND DATE WITH THE LANDSCAPE


PtW Workshop I - 18 January 2026 (Eli)


Part I. The Date (60 minutes, in silence)

Silence is very important. It preserves concentration and contact. No one wants to be on a blind date with someone who’s distracted, talking to others, or busy on their phones.


Note: I understand that the landscape does not necessarily operate with this analogic … this transposition of human-relating. But human relating is where we, most of us, have learned how to relate. So we’re starting there. Please, let it be whimsical. 


… in fact - please consider starting this date with any possible attitude. Silliness, tenderness, seriousness, eagerness, solemnity, intensity, observance, disorientation, hauntedness, resistance, magnetism, sabotage, reverence, receptivity, mischief, despair, giddiness, rebellion, arousal … you choose. whatever’s exciting to you. maybe begin by really imagining it’s an actual blind date and asking yourself how you usually might feel while heading into such a thing. 


Instruction:

  1. Walk out alone.

  2. Find a place to “meet” the landscape.

  3. Read the list of questions slowly.

  4. Mark the questions that feel exciting to you. Carry them with you. Let everything else go.

  5. Don’t try to answer everything, or even anything, unless it feels right.

  6. Let the questions shape how you feel and guide the way you arrive into the experience.


Documentation: (ongoing)

Document whenever something catches your attention -  the way the detail of a person catches you on a date. A movement. A texture. A gesture. A sound.Photo or short video. No perfection. Just a noticing archive.

Like you’re recording in an external memory things you would want to revisit one day if you end up falling madly in love with this being. 


THE QUESTIONS

1) Before the Date

  • How do I feel before? How do I prepare myself?

  • What is my attitude going into it? Do I believe this could be the love of my life? Do I believe it’s unlikely to work?

  • Why am I going? boredom / obligation / pressure? longing? curiosity? desire for change?

  • Am I more focused on them liking me, or on me liking them?

2) First Impressions & Getting to Know One Another

  • What do I notice? What detail catches me the way a person’s detail catches me?

  • Do I want to get closer or keep distance? Do I want to be seen?

3) Getting to Know One Another : NOTICING

Again: document - photo/video. no trying. no hesitation. whatever speaks to you.

  • What do I notice most? the way they move / stand / sit? the sound of their voice? their smell? how they treat others?

  • Do I prefer to sit and talk and listen? Or walk? Or do something together? Or have eye contact or not?...

  • What’s important to me in a relationship? How do I carry my dreams and desires into the date?


4) Revealing Myself 

  • What do I tell them about my life?

  • What do I tell them about my previous relationships and how they felt or how they ended?

  • What do I tell them about what I’m looking for?

  • What do I tell them about what I do with my life? What I’m passionate about? What matters most? What moves me?

5) Asking / Listening (their revealing)

  • What do I ask them about?

  • What do I hope they’ll talk about a lot? or not at all?

  • What do I hope they’ll reveal beyond their words?

6) Trust / Doubt 

  • Do I give them the benefit of the doubt? Or wait for them to prove themselves? (How would/could they prove themselves?)

  • What would make me soften? What would make me leave?

  • Who makes the first move?

  • Do I want to touch? be touched? What feels like “too much” too soon?


Return in silence; find a comfortable place to sit.

Everyone returns without speaking. We find comfortable places to sit for writing.


Part II. Letter Writing (30 minutes, together in silence)

Each person writes a letter to the landscape as if to their date, after you’ve parted ways.


Letter instruction:

Write it like it matters. 

You can include longing, disappointment, attraction, distrust, fear, desire, gratitude, boredom.

(You’re allowed to be dramatic. It’s a blind date.)

Part III. Sharing (30 minutes)

Everyone reads their letter out loud.

Followed by open sharing.



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