Our signature is collaboration - no competition. Collaboration will jar you, provoke you, confront you, offer you different ways of looking at the world.
— Red Burns
The Rules of Play represents the ITP/IMA community’s attempt to develop an evolving collective understanding of what it means to work together and use technology creatively, appropriately, ethically, and critically. As members of this community we hold ourselves to adhering to these guidelines, acknowledging when we have failed to do so, and working to address the impact of our actions.
These are ideals and behaviors we pledge to hold ourselves to. We will work to change our behavior when we have failed to do so.
- Speak from a place of personal experience and use I statements. Honor other people’s lived experiences and speak to your own.
- Practice active listening. Focus on hearing what others have to say rather than formulating your response.
- Experiment with new ideas and hold multiple truths. Lean into discomfort and honor emotions, yours and others.
- Be respectful. Disagreement is not an opportunity to attack someone else’s thoughts or opinions. Although views may differ, remember to approach every situation with patience and care.
- Everybody’s starting point is not the same. People come to ITP/IMA with different educations, identities, skills, finances, histories, and more. Maintain an awareness of where you are coming from and how that shapes your beliefs, how that affects your time, and what you have access to.
These are courtesies and etiquettes that may not have occurred to us because the world changes so quickly.
- Practice asking for consent. It’s important not to make assumptions of what’s ok or acceptable especially in regards to physical contact, sharing personal information, and sharing content that could be upsetting or potentially triggering.
- Do not photograph or record someone (audio or video) without receiving permission first. Do not post online, upload to social media, or tag someone without receiving permission. This applies to people’s work and projects as well.
- Credit other people’s work. Whether you are using an open-source library or a classmate has graciously offered you assistance, make note of that and highlight it when presenting your own work.
- Ask questions when you do not understand something. Chances are you are the not the only person in the classroom or group who does not understand or needs clarification.
- Coordinate and collaborate. There will be times when space and equipment are in short supply and needed by multiple people. Work together to plan how those resources can be allocated and shared so no one person is monopolizing the resource.
- Be responsible with your use of materials. Consider: environmentally sustainable materials, reused materials, and materials that do not pose risk to those around you who may have sensitivities to allergies, scents, etc.
These behaviors are completely unacceptable within our community.
- Offensive comments related to gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, language, neuro-type, size, ability, class, religion, culture, subculture, age, skill level, occupation, or background
- Threats of violence and deliberate intimidation
- Sharing sexually explicit or violent material that is not contextualized and preceded by a considerate warning
- Unwelcome sexual attention
- Stalking or following
- All forms of harassment, physical or digital
Students
- Work to create a community and environment that is supportive of one another and invites people to be their full selves.
- Consider if your project, actions, or behavior is causing harm to other community members.
- Be respectful of common space and equipment. Keep it clean, be courteous, be gentle, put things away, and return things to how you found it.
- Be respectful of staff and student workers. Listen to them when they tell you that your actions may be dangerous, that a service is closed, or that equipment is unavailable or out of order.
Faculty / Staff / Residents / Fellows
- Provide modes for student feedback and be open to criticism.
- Provide a learning environment that allows for the full complexity of thoughts and experiences to be shared and heard.
- Listen to and acknowledge perspectives and opinions of marginalized people.
- Maintain a diverse representation of identities and experiences within class syllabi (projects, resources, guests).
- Structure classes and environments in order to allow for multiple modes of participation.
