It takes (at least) two to Tango!

It was an interesting and varied conversation last night about how we communicate ideas.

For me the process is always an open process. In the hermeneutics of play, communication involves openly bringing your ideas and preconceptions 'into play' with another (be that a text, a person or an artwork). We are active in the process; the play happens as the ideas are shared and new understandings emerge. (Gadamer, 1960)

Roland Barthes claimed 'The Author is Dead' back in 1967. He didn't mean that we are no longer responsible for the ideas we are communicating, but to impose a single interpretation of a text based on the author 'is to impose a limit on that text'. (Barthes, 1977)

Our pre understandings; through culture, education, class and gender will bring a different mix to any shared communication. Our interpretation of the meaning of the text will differ. In play all understandings are reached by coming openly and willing to hear another's position and in so doing risk our own. It is through the process of openness, and willingness to risk do we gain understanding.

Lucian eloquently described how he incorporated other 'languages' in his communication to allow the other person a way in. This is a very generous tool and starts from the premise of finding a mutual ground to 'play in'

On a course like this we can't hope to already understand everyone's line of inquiry; our backgrounds and interests are all so varied. What we can do is listen openly and attempt to find a 'mutual playing-field'.

Sometimes a position may seem a long way outside our own understanding. We may feel we have nothing in common. In these moments, just by listening and staying open to the ideas means we offer support to the speaker. Everyone on this course has reached a stage in their own professional practice, when they felt research at MA level would help their understanding and development. That to me is a really exciting place to start a conversation, imagine if you could bottle all that knowledge!

And to the Tango... It is my new plan come January and I have no more words to write - Argentine Tango lessons - I can't wait to experience a whole new world of communication.

• Barthes, R., & Heath, S. (1977). Image, music, text. New York: Hill and Wang.

Gadamer, H.-G. (1960), Weinsheimer, J, & Marshall, D. G. (2004). Truth and method. London, Continuum. London