Practising Possibility in Preston with Warm Data

What is possible when people meet people as people, not as roles, titles or experts?

Come and join us for rich community conversation. All you need to bring is yourself, your curiosity and your stories. Everyone is welcome.

The world we share is complex and constantly changing. In our lives, work and communities we find ourselves facing interwoven challenges that can leave us feeling stressed and isolated.

How do we meet the situations we find ourselves in?

Who can we be with each other?

Today’s challenges need to be met with our full selves. If we want to create the conditions for a healthier future for all of us it is vital we pay attention to our senses, our relationships with one another and the interactions we have.

On Tuesday 8th October we’ll gather together, meet each other and share stories. The format is called a Warm Data Lab. These explorations are open to anyone, of any age or background. Participation is not dependent on knowledge or skill. You are invited to step out of your familiar labels and into the full living complexity of who you are, in shared humanity with others, creating space for new possibilities to emerge.

We will hold 2 events; Lab 1 from 12:00 to 16:00 and Lab 2 from 17:30 to 20:30.

Please come along to one or both!

The space will be gently hosted by trained Warm Data Hosts, who will invite you to explore a shared question across multiple lenses through chatting in small groups. People may share ideas, personal stories, or whatever comes to mind. And when you feel like it you can move to a different group and context. After a while, we will all come back together where we will be invited to share what we are noticing.

There is no attempt to come to a shared conclusion or to impose one perspective. This is about learning together. Everyone will learn something, it will be different for each of us, and we have no idea what it will be.

Nora Bateson, the originator of Warm Data has said: “One of the most profound experiences of Warm Data is the observation that ‘Your story changed my story’. How these changes show up is both completely unpredictable and profound. There is no way to know what will change, when, or with whom.”

Food and drink will be available to purchase in the University Social space canteen, and you are invited to bring your favourite lunch and share it if you please.

Limited kitchen facilities are available for people to use.

This is a non-profit venture, hosted in conjunction with Preston University.

While the tickets themselves are free, please consider donating what you can. All proceeds will go to support Preston Homeless Shelter (Foxton Centre). Your time and presence will also be received as a gift - we would love you to join us.

Preston University - Foster Social Space

58, University of Central Lancashire, Kendal St, Preston PR1 2HE

Google Maps copy plus code - Q76R+MH Preston

https://maps.app.goo.gl/WG8nhfbr49Se5hu97

The Foster Social Space is on the ground floor with accessible entrances, toilets and facilities.

For those coming by car, there are the following local carparks

Walker Street Carpark, North Road PR1 1BA

Trinity Square Carpark, Market St PR1 2HB

More information is available here

https://www.uclan.ac.uk/articles/advice/preston-campus-directions

https://www.uclan.ac.uk/assets/campus-maps/preston.pdf

Can I bring someone?

Absolutely! Please bring your mum, neighbour, colleague, date. Just send them this link and ask them to register, so we know who to welcome on the door!

I can't make this date, will there be more?

We don’t have any more scheduled right now, but will be planning more for the future. Email [email protected] to keep informed. If you've registered and find you can't make it, please cancel your ticket so we can give your space to someone else!

Do I need to come for the whole time or can I drop in?

As the Warm Data Lab follows a carefully designed process, it is best if you can stay from the beginning to the end. We'll be kicking off lab 1 around 12:00 and finishing by 16:00, and lab 2 around17:30 to finish by 20:30.

I love this and I want one to happen in my world!

Great! We're keen to do lots of these and to follow the curiosity. Email [email protected] or speak to a host at the event.

What is ‘Warm Data’?

Think about your family. You can measure everything imaginable about every member of your family, their blood type, height, weight, qualifications, job, whatever...and it won't tell you anything about the relationships that make you a family. Those relationships will be seen differently by every member of the family, and while there will be patterns to the relationships those patterns will change over time and circumstances. That relational information is Warm Data - information that is alive

There is much more to you, to others, to our surroundings, than meets the eye. When you meet a stranger and talk about the weather, there is a lot more going on just under the familiar words, the gestures, and the space where you are interacting. You might like this person, or sense some fear in them, or lack of trust, or boredom, or…? Yet it is difficult to grasp – it seems to shimmer and change, it connects to things you remember, or it creates a weird twist in your belly.

Facts, explanations, numbers; they’re all snapshots, flat, from one angle. This is cold data, as in ‘cold, hard facts.’ Reduced. Inanimate. A passport, an NHS record, or a ‘personal statement’ in an application. All snapshots, yellowing in a drawer as soon as they are made. But you are not static, not flat. You are different in different relationships, in different contexts, and at different times. You move and learn and change. You are full ofWarm Data.

A Warm Data Lab is an opportunity to meet people without expecting anything; exploring the ways in which contexts, thought to be compartmentalised, marinate and overlap into each other; offering an introduction to the complexity of life in each of us and in the ecology of which we are a part. There is no goal in a Warm Data Lab and they are not about solving identified problems. Instead, they allow movement through many aspects of memory and perception that can alter the underlying assumptions about who I am, who you are, and what life is.

A description of Warm Data, as contained on the Host training page

https://warmdatalab.net/warm-data-host-training-information

Some short films:

https://vimeo.com/423221840

Find Nora Bateson's (the originator of this work) latest book here:

https://www.combining.life/

and previous book here

https://combining.life/small-arcs-of-larger-circles/

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

UCLan Foster Building, Kendal Street, Preston, United Kingdom