HOLDING THE BIG VISION
LET ME SHARE A HUGE DREAM WITH YOU.
This vision is about a place that doesn’t exist - yet.
So what IS this place going to be?
An artist’s residency, devoted to experience as art form.
The working title is The Possibility of Wonder HQ.
It is a sacred space in a stunning place in the mountains and forests of Europe that invites life itself to be lived as a creative act.
This page is about the creation of the vision, the clarification of the mission and an invitation to the POW Serendipity Squad whoever they may be.
From possibility partners and playmates to collaborative creatives, from funders and philanthropists to tea makers and treehouse builders - we are putting out the intention to welcome the right people to realise this dream.
So read on, get inspired and if you would like to get in touch, please do.
I’m on a mission.
For 19+ years, I have been creating transformative experiences of all kinds for everyone from organisations to individuals to families.
At the heart of all this work, I have been exploring the possibility of wonder and seeing the magic in the mundane.
The early steps - Eyeshine
In 2005, I founded a successful not-for-profit to connect parents and children through playing in nature, which was granted £238k in BIG Lottery funding.
The non profit was called Eyeshine and we ran fully funded residential weekends for families, reconnecting people of all ages to their ability to imagine, create and experience wonder.
From the first pilot in a treehouse village in a forest, through to the final grant report, filled with testimonials from many hundreds of families, the project was a living - and successful - experiment in the possibility of wonder.
Time and again, the team witnessed increased levels of confidence, playfulness, closeness and connection within the families who attended the weekends and in many cases saw visible transformations in participants of all ages who quite literally left with their eyes shining, experiencing renewed levels of joy, inspiration and imagination.
In terms of how this was achieved, Eyeshine was also a living experiment in how to create a project, realise a vision, manage a team and run a company with creativity and excellence as well as compassion and deep connection.
At the end of the grant, the funders stated that Eyeshine was 'exceptional'.
Eyeshine came to an end in 2014 - but the experiment was to spawn a whole way of dreaming, working, playing, creating and experience in bringing a beautiful vision out of the imagination and into reality.
Experience Design is expanding into a huge field
In recent years, the world of immersive experience design has grown hugely.
The field has spawned its own conferences, qualifications, colleges and communities –
yet is dividing into two distinct paths.
“ Having been through the range of similar workshops in the Silicon Valley tech world, Tiu’s approach is better than any of them.
It was mischievous and thought-provoking. ”
The path of entertainment
One path is about spectacle and big ticket sales, leading to the creation of sell-out theatre productions such as Punchdrunk or site-specific experiences like Disneyworld.
There is a huge appetite for immersive shows such as Sleep No More, You Me Bum Bum Train or Abba Voyage, as well as award winning escape rooms, like Sherlocked. And rightly so.
But there is another way…
The path of connection
The other path is about the creation of a more beautiful, meaningful world, a path being carved out afresh by each creator, or group of creators, exploring the possibilities in their own way.
Within this path, you’ll discover organisations like the Museum of Empathy, Odyssey Works and the Order of the Wild.
The Path of Generosity
Right now, there is no charitable arm within the immersive experience design world.
And yet, experiences – and rituals – unite us all in moments of meaning, honouring our shared humanity.
So what if we were to create a brand new path within the worlds of experience design?
One where the gift of giving is part of the creative process.
Where the people who are holding so many others come to receive their very own experiences - and in turn to pay them forward to the communities they serve, if they so wish?
Ritual Design - the Self Marriage of Grace Gelder
In 2014, I was asked to design a self marriage ceremony for artist and photographer, Grace Gelder.
After giving a talk about ritual design at a festival that summer, where I mentioned the experience of creating a self-marriage, a journalist approached me to ask if he could write about the story and when Grace agreed, it was published in the Guardian.
Within 24 hours, it had gone viral.
The story of her self marriage became a global phenomenon, creating headlines in national newspapers and tabloids the world over. Grace was invited to talk shows in the USA and featured on many radio and TV shows in the UK and abroad, and when the noise died down, it transpired that the ritual she had commissioned me to create went on to inspire many others to marry themselves in turn.
PAST PROJECT
Eyeshine
In 2005, I founded a successful not-for-profit to connect parents and children through playing in nature, which was granted £238k in BIG Lottery funding, and went on to run residential workshops for hundreds of families.
From the first pilot residential weekend in a treehouse village in a forest, through to the final grant report, filled with testimonials from many hundreds of families, the project was a living - and successful - experiment in the possibility of wonder.
Time and again, the team witnessed increased levels of confidence, playfulness, closeness and connection within the families who attended the weekends and in many cases saw visible transformations in participants of all ages who quite literally left with their eyes shining, experiencing renewed levels of joy, inspiration and imagination.
In terms of how this was achieved, Eyeshine was also a living experiment in how to create a project, realise a vision, manage a team and run a company with creativity and excellence as well as compassion and deep connection.
At the end of the grant, the funders stated that Eyeshine was 'exceptional'.
