Page 15 - To know things we have to have the world inside us

How to proceed?

Loris Malaguzzi sought an epistemology that would privilege relationships and connections over the more

dominant, traditional perspective, which privileges separation and division.

Bateson’s way of seeing patterns of connection attracted Malaguzzi.

The teacher~researchers response to things~objects~materials had been complex. Many were surprised by the
strong emotional and imaginative reactions they experienced.

How to proceed: how can we create contexts where teacher~researchers, who are apparently very familiar with
the things~objects~materials they have brought to the workshop, see them through the prism of connections and
ties?

Through our own experimentation we had discovered the rich potential of the shape (2 dimensional) and form
(3 dimensional) of things~objects~materials as properties that connect, and we decided to offer these contexts to
the teacher~researchers.

The third proposal

We asked the teacher~researchers to play with the materials, looking for connecting patterns and ties.
All the things~objects~materials now escaped from their paper bags. Some were very surprising. A red onion. A

cat holding a sign on a little spring. Small. Large. Colourful. Monochrome. So many different shapes. Who would
have thought such a variety of things~objects~materials would have resulted from such a simple proposal.

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