WHAT is Holistic Research?

“Holistic research” engages the head, the heart, & the hands; by bringing all three together (insight, connection & experience), we can build something greater than knowledge -> we can cultivate WISDOM.

 

...and WHAT are we building?

This is an intensive, immersive, and collective Holistic Research Exploratorium resulting in the publication of a Co-Created Book investigating LOVE as it can be understood through fostering FIRE - in active research with:

• our hands (physically & experientially),

• our hearts (intuitively & relationally),  and

• our heads (analytically & symbolically).

 

...and WHY fire?

Fire is the primordial gathering place - what better subject could we choose to begin our adventure into collective Love- Studies Research?

Since the beginning, people have come together around the fire for warmth, nourishment, storytelling, song, and for light in the darkness. After the Winter Solstice on December 21, the darkest day of the year, the light will slowly begin to come back. Let’s welcome the light together, and learn more about Love through sharing space with Fire.

 

Why Collective Construction?

Aside from the great satisfaction of watching the fruits of shared labor ripen into visible form - collective construction provides a ground for many important love-learning opportunities:

skill-sharing, cultivating patience, communication, dedication, creativity, resilience, group problem solving, and much more.

 

As a methodology of research, spending time to create spaces that will hold and harness fire creates an opportunity to intimately understand the needs, behavior, and generosity of fire.

 

Love is deep, intangible and vast.

Fire is immediate, physical and concrete -

but it is also symbolic. 

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Constructing homes for fire creates a bridge, a concrete circumstance for asking larger questions about love through fire’s intricate world of qualities & associations, for example:

• Does love purify and transform in the same way fire does?

• Fire needs oxygen and fuel to thrive; it breathes and eats - How does love breathe and what does love eat?

• Fire is dangerous if uncontained - is love? Fire creates and destroys - what does love create and destroy? What do fire and love evoke for you?

 

...and HOW does that look concretely?

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WORKING with our HANDS:

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Cooperative Construction Projects

(20 hours/ week) on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings from 8am - 1pm

 

Projects include:

• Building an outdoor wood-fired kitchen (with bread/pizza cob-oven, rocket stoves, mass-heater, etc.)

• Creating a fire-circle space for story-telling, music-making, and sun-gazing

• Installing a wood-fired sauna & botanical fire bath

… as well as other smaller, ongoing tasks & projects to support our human, animal, vegetal (and mineral!) community members.

 

CONNECTING with our HEARTS:

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via tuning-circles, heartstorming sessions, workshops & collective practices (proposed by both coordinators & participants).

 

REFLECTING with our HEADS:

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through collective brainstorming sessions, spontaneous interviews, & independent individual inquiry - always returning to the subject of Love, with Fire as our guide and teacher J all resulting in a co-created book on Love as Fire, slated to be published before the end of Summer 2022.

 

Participants will have at least two full days and two additional afternoons completely off and unscheduled each week to make space for excursions, relaxation, and reconnection to nature or oneself. Exact workdays & times may fluctuate based on weather conditions.

 

Additionally, participants are asked to assist with the daily life of the community - we all cook 1 collective dinner a week and assist in the cleanliness of shared spaces.

 

This exploratorium is fully funded (if selected, participation is free of charge and includes food & lodging - following a similar exchange structure as WorkAway, WOOFing, or Volunteer-Tourism models).

 

...and WHO is this for?

8 - 10 RESEARCHERS =

[4 coordinators] + [4 - 6 collective research participants]

 

...and WHO are we looking for?

Any gender, age, & origin; diverse backgrounds, skills & talents; varied beliefs, practices & experiences …

with a strong sense of respect, curiosity, openness, and an intense enjoyment in cooperative construction, connection & reflection.

 

...and WHERE does this happen?

La SOURCE Center of Research & Creation

Saint Thégonnec, Brittany - France

 

...and WHEN?

Spring 2022

Block 1 - Sunday Jan. 30 - Saturday Feb. 19

Block 2 - Sunday Mar. 6 - Saturday Mar. 26

Block 3 - Sunday Apr. 3 - Saturday Apr. 23

 

Participants will be accepted for only one block.

Selection begins December 21, 2021

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APPLY as soon as possible to ensure a space is still available.