ENTANGLED BRAINS

“Conturbative—An attitude born out of turbulence, confusion, struggle;
Conturbative—To accept and examine disturbance;
Conturbative—To move within the multitude of the crowd with openness and sensitivity.”

Could you tell us a bit more about your term conturbative and how it came about?

JULIET: At the beginning of our collaboration we were working on several different research projects and looking for a way to combine them. But then we ran into this complexity, I guess you could say an ‘entanglement’ of wicked problems. This was quite overwhelming at first, but then we came up with the term conturbative.
YORI: Actually, conturbative is more of an attitude, to approach things with serendipity, to be open towards others and the multitude of problems.
JULIET: It is a neologism. ‘Con’ means something like ‘knowledge’ or ‘to understand’. And ‘turba’ means the turbulence of the cacophony of the different wicked issues that are clashing together. And then the ‘tive’ implies the action.

And how did inventing this term help your group organise and structure communication among yourselves, given the challenges that come with working together across different disciplines? 

JULIET: I think that inventing, in a way, our own ‘method’ helped us bridge the gaps between different disciplines. We all came from different backgrounds and had our own way of communicating and our own jargon. By coming up with something completely new together, we created this kind of common world, a new playground to try out different stuff. To me, it felt like on this playground, there was never a dominant discipline. Of course, we approached the project with our personal stores of information and used our own sets of skills because ultimately, we did have to create the actual work in the end. But on this playground, as I describe it, it was kind of a free-for-all, where we could just bring in whatever we were thinking. 

Does that mean that your group managed to create a common language? 

JULIET: I feel like we really did. At times it felt like our group was in this ‘conturbative bubble’ together and we were all just super excited and on the same page about what we were going to do. In the beginning, our research project felt very fragmented and extremely difficult to explain to people outside the group. But once we came up with the idea of conturbative, all the puzzle pieces fell into place. Suddenly it was so much easier to understand each other, but also to explain things to outsiders like other students, teachers and the audience of our performance.
YORI: I certainly think we enhanced our communication by coming up with the conturbative approach. It helped us give each other the space to say and do what we needed, and accepting that and taking it into account. I believe it's this sensitive approach to communication that helped us do our work better. 

What main challenges did you experience during this type of "entangled collaboration"?

YORI: I think that, at the beginning of our collaboration, we were just throwing ideas at each other, we were not at all on the same page.
JULIET: Yes, there was this very apparent clash between the scientific side of the group and the artistic side of the group. The artistic side wanted to experiment and go a bit crazy. But then the scientific side, which was in a way the rationality of our group, brought us back to reality. In the beginning, this was a bit hard to balance, and it led to quite some discussions. Positive discussions, though! But I think that the idea of the conturbative brought our group that balance and the acceptance that we were very different, and it helped us work through that in a new way. Another thing that helped us overcome a lot of our challenges is that we had access to our workspace at the Wijkpaleis, so we could be together 24/7. This not only enabled us to work whenever we wanted, but it also contributed strongly to group bonding. So, we didn't only get to know each other on a professional level, but we also got very much entangled on the personal level. This helped us understand each other a lot better. I think it's easier to know what someone is trying to say or trying to achieve professionally when you know each other personally as well, and you get to know their body language and their way of talking and their way of thinking.

What did you learn from these challenges?

YORI: I think this helped me find a new way to cope with complexity and problems. It gave me the headspace not only to deal with the challenge but to really accept it and think about how we can work through it while also learning from it. This also includes setting your own goals aside for a moment in order to develop a common ground. Then, perhaps if you find an opening, to bring in your personal learning goals, and reframe the situation together with the group. This process is really about communicating and choosing your role in the group.
JULIET: It was definitely a moment of personal growth. As YORI said, we indeed learned to overcome these challenges and our very different perspectives on them. To really learn—on a personal level—that we must accept these differences and find a way to overcome them and use our creativity to do so.

And how has this learning journey impacted your own practice or professions as designers since the minor? 

JULIET: To me, it confirmed that the combination of artistic research and scientific research can really open up new ways of thinking and lead to innovative products. I realised that in this way you can get so much further than if you were approaching a problem from only one perspective. So that is something that I want to incorporate more in my future practice. Also, the term conturbative has really helped me deal with wicked problems—to be more open and to accept that I'm not going to solve the issue with just one project. This gives me a different way of approaching the project, which includes involving other people as well.
YORI: I believe I really transcended the borders of my own discipline, Product Design, and moved beyond the mainstream. I also realised that I thrive when working with others and, in fact, I actually kind of need it. Before the minor, I didn’t know any of this. 

From your experience, what factors contribute to successful collaboration across disciplines? 

JULIET: Being conturbative! I think it's very important to communicate,to explain clearly what you are thinking, to know and accept what you are good at and what you are less good at. And again, I think the success of this project was built on the space we had, this neutral space that wasn't linked to either of the institutions.
YORI: And also the possibility to arrange long sessions with the tutors who really made time for us. This allowed us to go in-depth with certain materials and questions. That really helped.
JULIET: I think this shows the difference between the minor and "normal education”, the fact that people were super dedicated. Not only the students but also the teachers are very dedicated to what they do. This commitment and the long hours spent together also helped our group to bond, and we became the best of friends!