Provocations & Conversations | Appearing

Publishing of research takes on different forms in the RinA community. When the work itself is about human ecologies, material and non-material things, appearance, how things appear, how we appear somehow became the thing in itself. This provocation starts with Still Life. Still Lifes were made as poetic, drawn and material compositions as part of a site specific work where they were interacted with and developed a life of their own as they were placed, re-placed and drawn during a two week experiential learning event. A spreadsheet tracing a precious collection of objects used in the still life compositions became a container for the emotional complexity of bringing still life into a specific organisational setting, a group relations conference in the systems psychodynamic tradition. What appeared, as I shared my sense of still life as a phenomenon of human organising, will guide this conversation. 
Session Host: Juliet Scott is a visual artist, consultant, educator and leader who has developed her work within the Tavistock Institute's systems psychodynamic traditions, notably working with the Institute's archive over an ongoing period. Still Life: A Landscape of Object Relations was be a public and experiential manifestation of Juliet's Schumacher Society Research in Action fellowship exploring still life as a relational art form that surfaces stories about human culture, ritual and routine in the context of organisation. Image credit: Clawed Wrack, twice. With teasel, drawn onto the interior of the box. Box 8, cinnamon pen with bead and label, added. Photographic assemblage, 2026.