At the exhibition, our methods are tested and evaluated by visitors who can hold meetings in the work. The work in the exhibition should therefore not be seen as the finished product, but as a step in an artistic development process towards a working life that reduces stress and creates meaning for the individual, the workplace and society. 


Alongside the work at Kunsten, we did an ‘artist hacking’ at Samsung Denmark Research Centre, where we tested and further developed the concept. 

Our contribution to Work it out at Kunsten is to deconstruct stress-inducing forms of work and the compensatory balance thinking that characterises the treatment of stress today. Balance thinking is where we try to offset too much activity with occasional recovery: For example, too much work (stress activity) - with a trip to yoga (recovery)! With this work, we have used the development potential of art to develop methods and tools to integrate these two states in meetings to increase wellbeing. to increase wellbeing, meaningfulness and a sense of connection with the world around us - and to make meetings more interesting.

We call these tools the AIR method: the Activity Integrated Recovery method.

The project is a performative modelling of the meeting form to create a new meeting culture in relation to stress. On top of a multi-year work process in Kenneth Balfelt Team // Johan August with research and development of concrete initiatives that can prevent stress in society, city, working life and life in general, the project is intended as one ingredient in an artistically developed model for a rethought work culture.

The exhibition was used to develop, test and evaluate new ways of holding meetings that reduce stress, increase creativity and create more meaning for the individual, the community/workplace and society (win, win, win). Specifically, we address the stress challenge with a performative-discursive reimagined meeting space where we let visitors try out artistically developed methods that investigate and influence the mental state in a restorative way and develop new methods for integrating mental activity and recovery - under our artistic direction.

It is a meeting room that anyone can book and use (companies, associations, politicians, institutions, educations, guests, Art's staff), where there are tools for ways of working that reduce stress - in addition to the room itself being designed for this purpose.

In practical terms, we built a meeting room in the 25 m2 organic teardrop-shaped transparent Dråben greenhouse. It was furnished with a bench, cupboard, TV, whiteboard, wardrobe, lamps - and lots of built-in plant boxes that scent, purify the air, create good acoustics, a good indoor climate and de-stress. All built in organic slat shapes of birch plywood.

There were instructions on how to conduct the meeting so that the audience can understand the project and learn the methods. There was a meeting guide, as a handout, with a description of the method. In front of the Drop, there were large boulders and a slat and plant wall, respectively, with instructions on the meeting format.

At Samsung, we invited employees and two teams to participate in the development of the meeting format. We worked with presence, sensing and intuitive reflection. This is where new behaviours and tools emerge that can be shared with others. The study created methods for how we can be active and relaxed at the same time in everyday tasks during meetings. meetings. There aren't many methods for this today, which is why the project has a degree of research and even inspiring utopia about it!

The AIR method

One of the biggest challenges of our time is stress. The causes of stress are complex, but there is evidence that a strong imbalance between our activity (use of the brain) and recovery (relaxation of the brain) is a major cause. Stress challenges our ability to work, focus, be present, function well in and build relationships, our resilience to major challenges and disasters, and not least our wellbeing.

One of the biggest ‘drivers’ in the world is meetings. Just think what would happen if we took ‘meetings’ out of our lives? Without meetings, much of our development would not be where it is today! However, the same meetings that drive our development are also big time wasters, sometimes associated with wasted time, meaninglessness, power struggles and generally increased pressure on us. Therefore, meetings also play a role in our work-related stress.

Our contribution to Work it out at Kunsten is a deconstruction of stress-inducing forms of work and the compensatory balance thinking that characterises the treatment of stress today. Balance thinking is where we try to offset too much activity with occasional recovery: For example, too much work (stress activity) - with a trip to yoga (recovery)! With this work, we use the development potential of art to develop methods and tools to integrate these two states in encounters to increase wellbeing, meaning and a sense of connection to the world around us. We use the developmental potential of art to develop methods and tools to integrate these two states in encounters to increase wellbeing, meaningfulness and a sense of connectedness to the world around us. We call these tools the AIR method (Activity-Integrated Recovery). 

Our research 

We have collaborated with stress and work environment researcher, Hanne Dauer Keller, and a practitioner, HR Director Rikke Holmgaard, Samsung Denmark Research Centre, in developing the content. 

About the exhibition centre

Kunsten is a living art museum for modern and contemporary art from Denmark and abroad, housed in an iconic museum building from 1972, designed by Alvar Aalto. 

In 2018, Kunsten won the Bikuben Foundation's Vision exhibition award with the visionary exhibition project Work it out! The exhibition focuses on people in the working life of the future and the potential of art and the art museum when it enters the world of work - and vice versa. Workplaces are invited into the museum and museum activities are moved to workplaces. 

Sustainability 

The project is about creating social sustainability - avoiding stress, finding meaning, being in integrity - in the context of work.