Some reflections on my first Warm Data Lab

After more than a year of fooling myself, I finally decided that this ‘I can’t find a suitable location’ crap is just a bunch of excuses. When I did Nora Batesons Warm Data Training for the second time this February and left with the same energy and enthusiasm as the first time, I knew I had to stop putting it off. In the summer of ‘25 Nora had visited Amsterdam and we organised a public lab that she hosted, but apart from that, no labs of my own had materialised. Finding a suitable location that I could afford had been my excuse, and it had worked for too long.

Last fall I had found this creative studio space in my neighborhood that I wanted to rent for a workshop. The workshop didn’t make it, but my contact at the studio referred me to another space, also around the corner, that was very suitable for labs: Podium Genieten. It’s a community café, owned by the municipality of Amsterdam and run by two local community organisations. The space is large, can host about 70 people, has a bar, a stage, good audio and a friendly atmosphere. I’ve walked by this space hundreds of times without noticing it, and now it turned out to be a perfect spot to organise a lab. I picked a date, found several co-hosts (Nina, Monique, Janneke, Maarten) and got on with preparations.

The one condition that I had to meet to make use of this space was that the activity had to be open to people from the neighborhood. I did quite some promotion, created flyers, visited a couple of community events that were mostly frequented by seniors (one of whom asked ‘A warm date, what should I expect?’) and posted announcements on a number of community sites. As the registrations steadily came in, I noticed that they were mainly acquaintances from the warm data community. No neighborhood-elderlies whatsoever.

The Lab

The day of the lab was a beautiful, sunny day. Our team of 5 set up the space, laid out the cookies and crackers and Maarten’s home-made brownies, and we waited. As people poored in I was a bit disappointed to see that no unregistered people joined. But: we ended up with a group of 25, and perhaps because many of the participants knew some others, the atmosphere was warm, open and relaxed from the start.

The lab itself went really well. I had prepared an introduction that was primarily aimed at people who knew nothing about warm data yet. As most of the audience had participated in the warm data training, I felt that my intro might be a bit too familiar. I followed my intro anyway and after the lab some of the hosts told me that they specifically liked it, because it gave them a new perspective on how to introduce warm data. I told my story - a tale of going on holiday with my family when I was 10 years old, asked the question (’What is home in a changing world?’) and off we went into the lab.

The participants were seated in their clusters of three or four persons and were handed contexts (Family, Economy, Ecology, Education, Culture, Health, Identity). The lab unfolded beautifully, with participants sharing their personal stories and moving through various contexts. Time flew by and a bit later than planned we flowed into the symmathesy. I finished with an untitled poem by Sholeh Rezazadeh, of which I’ve included a translation at the end.

What was noticed

During the symmathesy - the final part of the lab where we return as one group and exchange whatever surfaced during the lab - the first person who spoke shared that she had felt this increasing sense of connection to everyone in the room as the lab unfolded. Another person noticed how language somehow has an influence on what meaning is carried in what seems to be the same word (e.g. familie vs. family). She noticed that, as the lab proceeded and as more stories were shared, the meaning of the contexts expanded.

Another noticing regarded how the lab elicits associations that surprise us. It seems that associations can rise from a cluster of memories, and then suddenly move towards a new cluster of memories. And sometimes these associations move beyond language, story and cognition. Stories elicited memories of scents, tastes and smells that had been forgotten for a very long time.

One of the participants had felt that he could share a story in this space that he rarely had shared before. For one of the other participants in his circle this was shocking: she felt directly confronted with the realisation that her life takes place in a bubble that is so separate from his life, his bubble, and she was shocked and saddened to now perceive a life that had been unseen to her before.

Needless to say - the symmathesy was magic.

My noticing

Organising and hosting this lab was a great experience - one that I plan on repeating soon. There are some things I’ve noticed during the lab that are worth sharing here:

• Somehow our promotion for the lab didn’t attract the people for whom this space is meant, and I feel that the title of the event (warm data lab) puts people off. I’m thinking what to call it (and I’ll always refer to ‘warm data lab’ somewhere in the flyer/promo) and any ideas are very welcome!

• Doing this together with Nina, Monique, Janneke and Maarten: apart from it being great fun to do together, I also found how supportive their being there was for me. I was a bit anxious but felt strongly supported and encouraged by their presence. Just seeing them sitting in the room as we started calmed my nerves. I also greatly appreciated the feedback I got from them!

• I learned a lot in doing the lab with Nora last summer. I tried to weave in my personal experiences and stories into my introduction, instead of presenting theory, and felt that that worked very well.

• There is this discomfort that I sense in my body when I’m in the spotlight, that has always been with me, and it was there again during the lab (mostly at the beginning). I used to believe that this was a problem that needed solving, that needed healing, and the experience of this lab confirmed to me that I’m far past that. I’m quite comfortable with the discomfort of being on stage and it serves more as a reminder to just be present.

• Doing the lab in a way is part of my process of coming out as and with who I really am and letting go of masks that don’t really serve me. I explicitly presented myself in my introduction, not (just) with professional roles, but with what drives me, the questions I try to live into, and how I experiment in being and doing things differently.

• One of the participants mentioned that it is difficult for hosts to gain experience in hosting labs, because it takes quite a bit of organisation to make one materialise. During symmathesy someone proposed that we do a regular lab in this location, and the whole room got enthousiastic about that. Part of me was too, but I also noticed another part that wanted to break this off. I recognise this as a part that wants to do things on his own, be in charge, and wants to take the credits for that: it’s mine, my prescious. I noticed it straight away (it’s an old voice) and let it go. I know this voice. I know where it comes from. And I know that I don’t want to follow that path. As I mentioned: I felt so supported by the co-hosts, and this is really not mine to do and carry alone.

• I found that the symmathesy is what I enjoined most and felt most comfortable with. It helps that no one asked difficult questions on things like logical typing errors, but in general I feel really at ease in hosting the symmathesy.

After the lab some of the participants stayed for a while to chat. It seems that warm-data-momentum is building and a lab is emerging in the South-East part of Amsterdam. I’ve also discussed the possibilities of organising another lab in Podium Genieten and we’ve picked a (provisional) date: July 4th. So if you’re in Amsterdam, please join us!

Thanks again to Nina, Monique, Janneke and Maarten for doing this together! I’m looking forward to our next lab!

Untitled poem by Sholeh Rezazadeh

I leave you behind in the hands of the wind
so that your scent can be smelled on all plains, on all mountains

I lay you in the wet hands of the sea
so that all fish can breathe you in and remember your name

I break you into pieces so I can take you everywhere
in the golden thoughts of the wheat grains, in the laughter of the tulips
in the bark of a tree trunk, in the faces of the clouds
in sleeping birds and singing waves, in the silent moon

I hand you over to the wind so that you would always blow around
sometimes lost, sometimes odorless

tell me a story tonight
in which you are a mountain
that never crumbles
big, sturdy, patient
that keeps embracing the soft velvet of the sky

tell me a story in which you are a tree
in bloom, heavy with leaves
a tree that does not push its head against the cold breast of autumn
that remembers the scent of spring and dares to look into the cold eyes of winter
a mountain that does not run away
a tree that does not avert its gaze from the nests between its long fingers

tell me a story that I do not know
a story in which your hand remains soft and warm
on my back, on my forehead, on my cheeks
but not around my cold throat
while I swallow the salty words

tell me a story tonight
that warms me while looking at the snow on your hair
and will make me fall asleep
a sleep like a sweet journey
when I wake up
shall we then tie our mornings together?

Sholeh Rezazadeh - Neem ruim zei de zee