I – We – Forms of Silence

Quasi-object exercise

This performative exercise translates a historical scene into a method, using two wooden sticks to activate Michel Serres’ thinking on mediation, conflict, and dialogue, and the possibility of a renewed contract with the included third. Rather than illustrating theory, the sticks operate as quasi-objects: material agents that reorganise attention, redistribute voice, and modulate participation.

Each stick is carved into three sections - “I,” “We,” and Forms of Silence - functioning as a minimal score that structures how participants speak, listen, hesitate, or withdraw. The guiding question is not fixed content but a situated proposition that shifts through the activation itself. Learning is staged as a negotiated presence, where meaning emerges through interruption, overlap, and moments of suspension rather than through consensus.

The project extends an ongoing inquiry into how theory can be activated through objects as mediators, producing collective reflection through soft protocols instead of explanatory instruction.