Looking: Ten Times Two

When to use Looking: Ten Times Two

Use at the start of a museum visit, nature walk or creative session on an offsite, to shift people out of meeting pace and into paying attention.

What it solves

People arrive at an offsite still running at inbox speed and skim everything they are shown.

How to run Looking: Ten Times Two, step by step

1. Show the image or object and ask people to look quietly for at least thirty seconds (1 min).
2. Each person writes ten words or phrases about anything they notice (3 min).
3. Look again in silence (1 min).
4. Each person writes ten more words or phrases (3 min).
5. In pairs or as a group, share what showed up in the second list that was missing from the first (5-10 min).

Materials needed

• An artwork, photo or object
• Paper and pens

Facilitator tips

• Keep it silent while people look and write. Talking too early anchors everyone on the same details.
• The second ten is meant to be hard. Tell people that before they start.

Common pitfalls

• The facilitator skips the second round to save time, which removes the part that does the work.
• The image has too little detail for twenty observations.

Variations

• Outdoors: use a tree, a view or a street corner instead of an image.

Running it online or hybrid

Works well online with a shared image and each person typing their lists privately.

What it produces

Twenty observations per person and a felt sense of how much the first glance misses.

Origin

A slow-looking routine from Project Zero's Artful Thinking project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. — source

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