RSVP Cycles
The RSVP Cycles are a creative paradigm that organizes and makes clear ways for individuals to collaborate in groups.

The paradigm emphasizes ongoingness and process rather than sequence and goal fulfillment; it is participatory and cyclical instead of hierarchical and sequential. It emphasizes humans as actors rather than as machines, tools, or passive consumers of goods.

One step does not necessarily lead to the next as a result. Instead, access to the cycle can happen at any time and affect how change and growth occur.

Our idea of creativity in groups is predicated on the idea that people have the capacity for creativity and that this capacity may be unlocked and strengthened when they engage in groups. The freedom to act is not restricted, as it normally is when each facet is in action since it is not obstructed by the other three.

An RSVP process framework is used. It gives many individuals a method to collaborate in groups productively rather than haphazardly and to be conscious of the process while they are engaged in it. As a result, the process can go forward and action may be taken. It is cyclical, so rather than rejecting input or change from any individual if it doesn't fit, it embraces it.

The initialism of the name stands for these four components:

R - Resources, which are what you have to work with. These include human and physical resources and their motivation and aims.

S - Scores which describe the process leading to the performance.

V - Valuaction which analyzes the results of action and possible selectivity and decisions. The term “valuaction is one coined to suggest the action-oriented as well as the decision-oriented aspects of V in the cycle.

P - Performance, which is the resultant of scores and is the “style” of the process.
 



︎︎︎from RSVP cycles creative method for collaboration was developed by Lawrence Halprin and Anna Halprin.

Welcome to mapping collaboration, a toolbox for workshopping and creating across disciplines...

In spite of a long history of interdisciplinary creation, from our earliest recorded arts to our present moment, artistic pedagogy has created divisions between disciplines. This has left artists in a "post-Babel" condition where we don't share the same language and definitions. It’s also encouraged artists to develop practices for devising, creating and composing work that are distinct to their disciplines.

The inspiration for this project came from faculty and students at Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts where BFA, MFA and PhD programs in Dance, Theatre Production and Design, Visual Art, Film, and Music and Sound all work together in studio settings and playfully experiment with processes of art-making.

We wanted to create a database of projects, assignments and theory that we collect inside the studio and from research happening in other places. We are curious about how we collaborate and how structures reoccur, translate and deviate from one discipline to another.

Composition is central to these processes and offers a base for our approaches and experiments. We are excited about what our students are doing and inspired by the new languages in contemporary art and performance we continue to see develop.

︎︎︎select a category above to build assignments, learn more about how artists process ideas across disciplines and to create a collaborative process of your own

︎︎︎these tools are collected and used in workshops and classes; some are resources from artists; some are quotes about art-making and how bodies think and listen; others are ideas to expand and disrupt your own training and processes.  


︎︎︎Each idea is intentially short- and not meant to be executed as written, but to be adapted to your own practice and specific project/context. Some may be taken in parts or combined with others to spark new ways of training and making together.

︎︎︎submit your own ideas and tools so we can keep building this site!