Yellow began in the pandemic, in part as a response to what was going on then. We wanted to explore the possibility of creating a connective, reflective, regenerative space, where people could gather, explore and learn with no particular agenda.

We wanted to be able to hold and examine complex questions or wicked problems and allow the activities and conversations to reflect and respond to the interests and needs of the people participating, not follow a pre-established curriculum (something we called ‘responsive design’). Technology enabled that to happen with people that were geographically remote.

This experiment was more successful than we imagined - in both duration and intensity. What we had thought might last three months lasted three years. Despite the shortcomings of the medium, people formed strong bonds with each other and with us, across distance and difference.

What was possible on-line far exceeded our expectations. We danced, drew, ate things, watched films, stared at art, made models and worked with our bodies and objects. We came to think of our gatherings as ‘screen mediated physical experiences’ rather than online or ‘virtual’ ones – a clumsy phrase, but one that points to the fact that there was a lot more going on than simply sitting in front of a computer.

Over those three years we designed nearly two hundred and fifty sessions each of which was different. Quite naturally, after all that, we exhausted both ourselves and the formats we were using.

Next page: How did this new idea emerge?