One of the privileges of being a grandparent is learning about and from new and other worlds.

Yesterday I returned from Sydney after an excursion to see two music groups I have never heard of, so a 16-year-old could see her favourite band.

It’s rare to be given access to observe another world and participate in it. This is what Dr Craig Ashhurst wrote about in his wonderful research: One Team Where Worlds Collide (https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/items/7931fab2-5104-4752-9119-fdf9b25fa224). It is certainly a PhD worth the read.

So, back to other worlds.

We rocked up to the Enmore Theatre in Sydney, a place I went to as a kid to see ‘the flicks’ and later a Midnight Oil show. This time we were here to see Wave to Earth (South Korean indie rock band – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_to_Earth ) and Yung kai (a Chinese-Canadian musician – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yung_Kai ). Both bands were amazingly talented and reminded me of music I loved 50 years ago.

The crowd of about 4000 were all 16-30 in age, I was the odd one out. What I loved was observing every Poetic in my face: dress, language, style, habit, heuristics, myths, semiotics, every cultural nuance indeed, everything in the Culture Cloud (https://safetyrisk.net/culture-cloud-tour-myths-symbols-semiotics-and-religion/).

So, whilst my 16-year-old was at the front row, I was at the back taking it all in.

When I was 16, my bands were Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Eagles, AC/DC, The Beatles etc. and when we saw a band there were no iphones. And, I never thought of taking a grandparent to a show.

Now when you see a band, you see and hear with your phone. See Figure 1. Phones at Concert.

Figure 1. Phones at Concert.

What an Education.

However, when you hear the music (sounding a little like Pink Floyd) the themes and lyrics are very familiar: falling in love, broken hearts, human desire, emotion, metaphor, poetics etc. Their hit song With Love is an example:

Between people

Between the wind

Each person has their own desires

painted together

 

When it becomes firm enough to stand on

Then it becomes my world

 

My small heart

and the good things in it

Break and harden

Melt and fall away

And only then can I see my eternity

 

Love between people

Everyone gathers together

Hoping for eternity

If we bury our bodies and hearts

 

Then our world becomes perfect

With love

With love

 

My small heart

like small waves inside

Break and push towards you

Melting and falling away

And only then can I see my eternity.

 

When you are in another world, it’s sometimes hard to find a language to express what you feel, learn and know. This is the mystery of Poetics (all that can’t be measured), the power of language and Transdisciplinarity.

In Poetics we feel the language of life, the emotions of ‘being’ and how people make sense of risk.

BTW, there was no thought about risk in anything I saw before, during and after the concert. It was all about trust and hope: of the promoter, officials, security team, venue organisers, crowd control and so on. All the stuff back stage and off stage is unseen but that’s another world. See Figure 2. Front of House.

Figure 2. Front of House.

This is the stuff where folks like Dr Aldo Ranieri and a current PhD student of mine (Michael Kent) come into their own. Michael does back stage for huge TV shows like The Voice.  But, that’s another world. The world of back stage is another world and managing those risks is very different to those in a mine or a construction site.

I have been very fortunate in my careers to work across various worlds in: mining, prisons, detention centres, education institutions, public service, OHS, charities, religious organisations, construction and social work. In each world there is a unique culture, language and semiosphere that has to be learned and understood. Each has its own dominant discipline and discourse. Each world demands movement, learning and its own understanding of risk. Much of this cannot be measured nor understood by science or engineering, because it is experiential, phenomenological and felt.

And, when you are in the world of another, the best way to engage is through all the skills learned in empathy, open questioning, listening, feeling and observation. None of this is measureable.

One observation was fascinating. There was a fully stocked bar at the venue and so few purchased alcohol. Very different from the last concert I went to with many over 60s people, where the bar couldn’t keep up with demand.

What I observed with thousands of these ‘kids’ is, they didn’t drink. There’s one risk gone I didn’t foresee.

So, if you get a chance to live in another world for a brief moment, take it, participate in it and absorb it, then you will know more about how Risk Makes Sense (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/risk-makes-sense/).