Before You Get Started, Read This

While you read all that follows this introductory statement, keep in mind that what is written here is not the truth. It is a point-of-view, set-up as an exploration, with its ultimate goal discovery of what works and what doesn't work in our world through the lens of our relationships.

In this way we have freedom to explore together alternative ways of thinking and experiencing each other and the world. Don't worry - before you leave the website, you can pick up your existing process of your life at the door - all we ask is that you set them aside for a bit and come play with us as we explore what it means to be human.

What is Empty & Meaningless?

In certain cultures there is the notion of a state of "being" where there is no past and no future. The past is simply that which has gone before, and the future does not exist. There is only this moment, now, where we live. It has no story attached to it, no pre-determined belief system informing it. It is simply a state of mind, spirit and body that is the expression of existance itself.

This beingness is not represented by judgment, opinion, assessment. It is neither good nor bad, right nor wrong. It is void of a religious or moral context. It is the experience of nothingness where a person's beliefs are suspended, where there is a moment of complete blankness. It is where pure creation may occur.

It is this notion of emptiness being the well of creation that is the context for the work of an E&M: the Box Project workshop. As such, the boxes in the project always remain empty, void of meaning, representing infinite possibility in the participants' relationships.

>>> back to top

Getting to Empty & Meaningless

Mankind has developed many practices to reach this state of emptiness - meditation, vision quests, and the like. It is said that reaching this state of "bliss" is both the most difficult, and the simplest to achieve. From one point of view it takes the ultimate expression of faith and trust in things outside of our minds - it asks that a person let go of all that he knows - that she be willing to experience not knowing at all. In concept, it might be akin to being a newborn - experiencing the world in all its flavors, sounds, sights and textures without any foreknowledge of what it all is or what it may all mean.

In E&M: the Box Project, we create an inquiry where we propose that Truth is a creation initially individual in nature, and then when agreed upon by several people that Truth becomes cultural (familial, social, societal). As such Truth is simply made up and, paradoxically, not the truth at all. Truth, in the context of this proposition, is simply what we create, and then choose, as our belief. And it is there, where there is no one truth, where we say we have reached a state of emptiness, all our meaning exposed and set aside for a few hours.

And, it is here where we may choose to create our beliefs anew.

In the E&M workshops, we explore our personal truths - our beliefs (opinions, attitudes, judgements) - about ourselves and others. We look at how we say the world works through example and group discussion, completing the individual explorations with worksheets and collage. When the collage work is complete, we share the "beliefs" we uncovered with each other - both the old "inherited" ones (those we create or adopt to survive and function in our world), and those that we create in the process of the workshop.

>>> back to top

The Process of E&M: the Box Project

THE WORKSHOP | WHO LEADS THESE WORKSHOPS? | THE PUBLIC EXHIBITIONS

THE WORKSHOP

The intent of the workshop is to explore our personal truths about ourselves and the people in our lives, and to create new empowering beliefs that change the quality of our relationships and our experience of our lives. We do this by exploring our beliefs - by examining our relationships, acknowledging what we say is and isn't so in them, looking at what happened and what we made it mean, and identifying what works and what doesn't in relation to our stated commitments.

The process of inquiry has the following steps:

To see a full description of a step, just click on the at the end of the step and a new window will pop-up with more detail.

• Step 1: Choosing a Relationship to Explore
• Step 2: Declaring What You Are Committed to in the Relationship
• Step 3: Identifying Existing Beliefs
• Step 4: Choosing to Trust and to be Free
• Step 5: Creating New Beliefs
• Step 6: Using Collage and Assemblage to Experience the Shift
• Step 7: Sharing Boxes with the Group
• Step 8: Giving it All Away: the Public Art Installation

>>> back to top

WHO LEADS THE WORKSHOPS?

Currently only one woman leads these workshops, the founder and developer of E&M, Adrienne Fritze.

Adrienne is in the process of training two new workshop leaders - one person in the States, another in England - with the intent of establishing the process and application of this technique wherever, and whenever, it is requested it be applied.

The training is unique - the leaders are chosen based upon their current or recent work with marginalized or distressed groups, coupled with extensive training from an ontological point-of-view (looking at the experience of our world through our state of being). The ontological training occurs inside the structure of E&M the company and through programs in educational corporations (such as Landmark Education) committed to consistently delivering breakthrough results in people's lives.

The two people who are currently in training as workshop leaders have backgrounds in psychology, as well as therapeutic and volunteer settings. And one of them has completed training in senior level programs in Landmark Education.

If you have questions about the training program being developed, please contact Adrienne at adrienne@urbanesque.com or 503.445.1268.

>>> back to top

THE PUBLIC EXHIBITIONS

The ultimate expression of these workshops is a public installation created as an artistic interpretation of the group inquiry around a particular topic - such as freedom and imprisonment, world peace, individual and family, etc. The installation is designed as a community expression (as informed by the workshops leading up to the particular exhibition) and incorporates the boxes created in the workshops.

It is the final two steps of the workshop that inspire the design of the installation created for public display. And it is this display that opens up an inquiry about the subject to the public - in the experience of the works themselves, in gallery-sponsored workshops and open public forums where all points of view about a given topic are welcome.

Installations are created from a variety of materials and can include recycled steel, acrylic, cardboard, cloth, wood or any number of other materials appropriate to the installation artist's vision.

Current exhibitions include:

• Razor Wire Phoenixes: Through Prison Walls
• Raging Revelations: Teen Perspectives on Relationship
• Cacophony: the First Boxes of E&M

In addition to the above exhibitions, workshops are available for an upcoming exhibition entitled: To the World With Love, a project about peace in the wake of 9/11.

>>> back to top

According to the American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition:

BREAKTHROUGH: An act of overcoming or penetrating an obstacle or restriction. A major achievement or success that permits further progress.

In the case of E&M: the Box Project, we are interested in causing breakthroughs in our ways of being - permanent shifts in our beliefs about life, resulting in how we experience our world and the actions we take out of those experiences.

Although we do not necessarily have control over the things that happen to us (we lose our home and belongings in a flood, someone dies unexpectedly, we are the victim of abuse or other violence, we are hit by a car), we do have control over our interpretation of, and what we do in the wake of, these happenings.

Identifying the obstacle, such as an opinion or deeply held belief (e.g. I am a bad and unworthy person), and getting very clear about the real cost to us in continuing to harbor this belief (e.g. never experiencing love, peace or worthiness, unfulfilled aspirations, lost dreams, continued experience of bitterness, hopelessness, despair, others unable to stand me for very long, worrying about me, being angry or sad or afraid of me, etc.), allow us the opportunity to give up that viewpoint, and in its stead create a belief that will empower and inspire us (I am a talented artist whose work empowers and inspires others to fulfill on their deepest passions and most precious dreams.).

The breakthrough then is the life that is created BY ACTIONS THAT ARE CONSISTENT with that new belief.

For me, the fact that I am regarded as an artist and coach whose work inspires others to fulfill on their dreams is a breakthrough in my life. Before, the out-of-the-closet transformational artist was buried under a plethora of other inauthentic definitions of who I SHOULD BE, versus who I truly DESIRED to be (e.g. one version was as an advertising executive raking in the dough, a compensation for an even more core belief I held about myself as a victim who deserved rotten things happening to me).

And, I love what I do - my baseline mood is happy, and I am filled with purpose and intent, I love and experience the love of others. I see that I am a contribution and inspiration to my family and community. Life is grand, and exciting and safe.

Simply put, I feel whole and complete and fulfilled.

THAT experience is a breakthrough.

>>> back to top

In Prisons | In Schools | In Businesses

IN PRISONS: RAZOR WIRE PHOENIXES

E&M has developed a program specifically for use in prisons, designed to have the box workshop inserted at particular points in on-going counseling and training programs that already exist as therapeutic programs. RWP was developed as an addition to the parenting and drug abuse recovery programs in Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, a women's prison in Wilsonville Oregon.

The works of the inmate participants are the focal point of the resulting public installation, the whole of which is designed to spur on a variety of conversations related to the act and notion of imprisonment.

Topics of the installation include, and are not limited to: Imprisonment and freedom, Responsibility, Acountability, Recovery, Humanizing Inmates, "We have not given up on ourselves so don't you give up on us either!", and more.

IN SCHOOLS: RAGING REVELATIONS & OTHER APPLICATIONS

E&M workshops are powerful tools for exploring any personal or social topic that relate to our children and their experience of the world.

Raging Revelations was the first group workshop lead by E&M founder Adrienne Fritze, and focuses on teens and their expressions - and children as young as 8 years old have participated, telling their stories in a way only young children do - powerfully with little pomp and circumstance, direct from their hearts to yours.

Using E&M workshops can be applied in any number of existing courses - history, health, art and theatre, science, etc. - giving the educator a tool to delve deeply into the topics at hand in a friendly and effective way.

IN BUSINESSES: WHEN CREATING BREAKTHROUGHS IN YOUR COMPANY OR ORGANIZATION GIVES BACK TO DISTRESSED COMMUNITIES

E&M workshops and projects are available to businesses committed to providing breakthrough results in the relationships important to the health and well being and growth of the organization - employees, vendors, clients, investors and stockholders.

Use the techniques and practices of the E&M workshops to break down the belief barriers that get in the way of powerful, clear and productive communication within, and outside of, your organization.

In addition to providing your people with powerful new tools for creating a new experience of your business, you also know that at least 50% of the fee you pay for these groundbreaking workshops goes to support the various community projects serving marginalized and distressed communities such as prisons, at-risk youth programs, etc. under the E&M banner.

>>> back to top

Razor Wire Phoenixes | Raging Revelations | Cacophony | To the World With Love

All of the installations created for E&M are designed to spur open conversations about specific topics of cultural interest. Below are round-ups of E&M's current 4 projects.

RAZOR WIRE PHOENIXES: THROUGH PRISON WALLS

In Razor Wire Phoenixes we are exploring our beliefs (attitudes, opinions and judgments) about crime and punishment, imprisonment and freedom, responsibility and accountability - and taking a look at what doesn't work, and what we can put in its place that will work - for us as individuals and as a society.

There are several parts to this project:

1. in-prison workshops - the E&M Box Project Workshops are integrated into existing therapeutic and training programs at the invitation of the program manager or facilitator.
2. public exhibition - a month long installation combining the work of the inmate participants with the interpretative work of installation artists, adding to the installation from public E&M Box Project Workshops over the exhibition timeframe.
3. the exhibition closes with a public forum discussion exploring our aforementioned beliefs related to crime and punishment, etc.

RAGING REVELATIONS: TEEN PERSPECTIVES

Raging Revelations is all about Teens having a voice in their own world and the world at large. This was the first major group workshop conducted by founder Adrienne Fritze, and is being renewed as a device to give teenagers, their families and communities access to frank and direct self-expression with a view to create empowerment for teenagers and those around them.

Revelations seeks to explore the complexity of being a teenager in today's world, and to provide outlets for the various expressions in which those experiences come. In addition to the ontologically informed visual arts workshops and the resulting gallery installation, other forms of art may be used to give the teenagers a full pallette for expression, including theatre, music, photography, written works, movement and spoken word.

Information about other resources for further exploration are also provided.

CACOPHONY: THE ORIGINAL BOX PROJECT

From time to time E&M: the Box Project is invited to set-up an information table, or do a brief workshop at other events. Creations in these workshops are incorporated into the Cacophony series, with box displays rotated as new work comes in - and you will always be able to see the very first boxes that were created in 1998-9 which remain as the founder's most touching inspiration in maintaining and expanding the E&M work world-wide.

TO THE WORLD WITH LOVE: A RESPONSE IN THE WAKE OF 9/11

This is an ongoing inquiry into what it takes to have Peace exist in our modern world. With Love began the week following the 9/11 tragedy and has been a slow burning project since that time. E&M Founder Adrienne Fritze created what's now called the "Poverty Box" (click here to view the box) as part of this project, and she looks forward to having more people explore within themselves, and as a community, what works in causing peace, those replacing practices that inhibit the experience of having peace be in the world as abundantly as the stars we see in the sky.

>>> back to top

Escape Artists

>>> back to top