🖼️ What's going on here?

Where I share my experience taking the Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) workshop + Let's do an exercise!

What’s going on here?

Could these four bring about a change within us for the better?

I recently took part in a workshop to improve my visual thinking skills. I went in thinking the workshop was going about looking at famous art and appreciating it. But as the workshop started, I realized the goal was much different.

The workshop I attended was a Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) workshop. VTS is an inquiry-based teaching method to help participants improve their ability to describe, analyze, and interpret imagery by observing and discussing visual art.

The structure of the workshop was simple. The facilitator led the conversation around a piece of artwork. Participants had a few minutes to observe the artwork, and then the facilitator would open up the discussion by inviting people to share their observations one at a time.

The same three questions were asked of each participant,

1. What's going on here?

2. What do you see that makes you say that?

3. What more can you find?

After a few participants shared their observations, I found myself trying to keep from making judgments about what they were saying. I would catch myself thinking, "That's not what I see!" or my ego would whisper, "They don't know what they're talking about; my observation is the right one. I know better". Noticing these thoughts swirling in my head, I realized this was a moment of practice for me to stop the conversation in my mind and to listen to what the person speaking was saying and accept it as their interpretation of what they noticed and respect it instead of negating it.

After a participant was done sharing, the facilitator would ask, "What more can we find?" as a way to continue the conversation, invite differing interpretations, and lead the conversation toward empathy and understanding of each other’s views.

As I dove into the VTS method some more, I found out that the facilitator is a critical part and uses specific techniques to help the conversation develop, such as:

• Pointing to the area where a participant is talking about so everyone can follow along.

• Using conditional language to repeat back to the group what the participant observed, for example, "Juan thinks this could be...". This helps the conversation open to different interpretations.

• Encouraging participants to back up their observations with evidence they see in the art by asking, "What do you see that makes you say that?"

• Inviting others into the conversation by asking, "What more can we find?"

• Making connections between observations across participants

Bringing it all together

To say I came out of the workshop a changed person would be an understatement. The VTS workshop opened up our eyes and minds to how we can show up better by being fully present, putting our ego aside, and, most importantly, listening to the viewpoints of others. It also showed me how to listen with an open mind instead of allowing any preconceived notions, presumptions, or assumptions to get in the way.

I believe this workshop has many personal benefits, such as,

• Practicing mindfulness

• Becoming an active listener

• Respecting other points of view

• Being factual, objective, and evidence-based

• Becoming more creative by connecting different ideas

• Opening ourselves to new ideas

I really enjoyed this workshop and have taken a few more since then. I recommend it to anyone wanting to practice their visual thinking skills because I can already see an improvement in both my observation and listening skills at home and work, and now I want to bring this exercise to you.

💥 Exercise Time!

To give you a taste of the VTS workshop experience, let's look at a piece of artwork together, and I encourage you to share your observations in the comments. As this is a virtual exercise, please read the observations other people share to see the artwork from their perspective.

Please keep in mind there is no right or wrong answer to the questions below; it is just an opportunity to practice observing and learning other points of view.

Also, I am intentionally not sharing the title and artist of this piece of art so it doesn’t influence your observations. 😀

Let's look at this piece of artwork.

Take a few minutes to look at the art carefully, and when ready, answer these questions:

1. What's going on here?

2. What do you see that makes you say that?

3. What more can you find?

Share your observations in the comment box below, and remember to read what others share to see this artwork from other points of view.

That's it! I hope you enjoy this visual thinking exercise and experience all the benefits it has.

Peace ✌🏽

Rizwan