Creating Codes

I’m beginning to group codes by agents, interactions, and messages. So far agents include individuals, like the organizers and the storytellers; groups, like the audience; and objects, like the venue and the microphone. I am looking at the interactions between these agents. And then I’m looking at messages like, “you are a storyteller” and “you are safe here.” I expect the messages to really develop as I am able to look more closely at the stories I’ve been hearing.

I’ve been thinking about how my coding will serve my final written product and the performance I will create. I really think there is some juice in the idea of a safe space. I plan to propose a poster for an upcoming conference and think I will talk about safe spaces in the poster. I hope that looking at safe spaces for performance is relevant to larger issues going on in the world, like perhaps discussions of free speech. It seems so far like either the speaker or the listener can truly expect to be safe, but there are things that can make the less safe party feel safer.

In thinking about the performance that will come out of this, safe space again could be promising. I like the magic hat also.