SCORE #4: Governing the Commons
“Governing the Commons” by Elinor Ostrom
Each collective will be responsible for one or more chapters of the book:
Chapter 1: Meander
Chapter 2: Ensayos-CS
Chapter 3: ODD
Chapter 4: Instituto Procomun
Chapter 5: Ensayos-CG
Chapter 6: Meander or IP if you want to split chapters among members
Read the chapter with a ‘soft focus’ as if it is poetry. Underline or highlight words and phrases that seem interesting to you. When you’ve read the whole chapter, make a list of the words and short phrases that you have marked. Do this on a blank document or sheet of paper. Then, move those phrases around on the page, looking for ‘common’ meanings.
Common can mean: related to the commons, words that are metaphorically connected, words that rhyme or have similar letters, or however you understand that term in relation to your list of words and phrases. Cross out or remove phrases that don’t seem to fit – you don’t have to use everything. Speak your new common groupings out loud, sing them,
repeat them, find a way for them to live in sound so they can be shared orally. Make a recording that is between 1 and 3 minutes.
This exercise can be done individually or as a group. If a group wants to do it together, you may adapt the score so that it can be created collectively. You can split up the pages, for example, or everyone can put the words and phrases into a shared document and follow the score together from there, or each person might do the score individually and then the collective could make an audio recording that layers many voices.
There should only be one recording per chapter. We will listen to the recordings in order and perhaps find a ‘common’ understanding of the text. You can make your recording with the device of your preference and edit however you decide, it can be raw or produced.
Chapter 1 Meander Society
Chapter 2 Ensayos CS