42 Questions is a format for a decentralised workshop designed to encourage community-driven inquiry and creative expression. Its simplicity and flexibility make it a compelling candidate for future workshops, though it is intended as one approach among many in a wider portfolio.
> The "42 Questions" Decentralised Workshop: Uniting Curiosity Across the Globe.
This decentralised, participatory approach turns the act of questioning into a creative, playful, and community-driven exploration—highlighting that sometimes, it’s the questions we ask together that matter most.
### Core Philosophy: Questions, Not Answers Drawing inspiration from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which famously claims the "Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything is 42," this workshop is built around the premise that solutions are less important than formulating the right questions. The concept borrows from Gaia theory by imagining the Earth as a super-advanced computer, using all its biological life forms to uncover the real meanings behind existence by interrogating which questions we should be asking in the first place.
Central to this philosophy is the idea that structuring inquiry in the right way is a significant leap toward meaningful discovery or problem-solving.
# How It Works - **Participants:** 42 people gather for each session. - **Duration:** Each workshop runs for 42 minutes. - **Setting:** The session often begins with selected science fiction clips, particularly those highlighting the number 42 as the "answer." - **Group Dynamics:** The 42 participants are divided, for example, into 21 pairs or 14 groups of three, promoting a mix of perspectives. Groups may rotate, reshuffle, and collaborate across multiple formats.
# The Process Participants are encouraged to voice and record their own questions—ranging from the profound and philosophical to the light-hearted and trivial. Each question represents the richness and diversity of human curiosity. These questions are: - **Collected** in audio format, with each participant contributing their voice. - **Transcribed** to create a text-based archive. - **Categorised and Organised** to reveal patterns, identify common themes, and facilitate further exploration. - **Transformed into Art:** The ultimate goal is to compose all these questions into a monumental audio artwork—envisioned as a 42-hour-long sound piece featuring potentially millions of questions swirling together.
# Potential Output Dates and Events There are possibilities for when and where this collaborative artwork might be unveiled—for instance, on Groundhog Day or during themed events such as "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" on November 5th.
# The Audio Installation The end result is imagined as a 3D sound installation, where: - **Sound Layers:** Listeners navigate a spatial audio landscape. From afar, the effect is similar to the legendary Tower of Babel—a polyphonic wash of languages and tones. - **Zooming In and Out:** As listeners "zoom in," individual voices and questions become clear, allowing exploration by language, theme, or emotion. - **Integration with Other Media:** This sound piece can be the backdrop to live events like a radio show or podcast, where discussions and music are intercut with this sea of questions.
# Global Citizen Participation A key innovation is allowing global participation across all languages and cultures. Workshops can be locally facilitated, with every group’s questions mapped geographically. This mapping highlights which communities have contributed and helps organisers reach underrepresented groups. - **Post-Workshop Engagement:** Participants can continue sending in questions, organise follow-up workshops, or invite friends and strangers to become part of the ongoing journey. The metaphor of becoming a "hitchhiker" invites openness and ongoing discovery.
# Wikis and Collaborative Writing Alongside the audio archive, a collaborative writing initiative—akin to an online wiki—facilitates collective exploration of these questions, allowing communities to dive deeper into specific inquiries, refine them, and potentially propose frameworks for what would constitute a "good" answer.
# Workshop Flow Example Here’s a potential sequence for a "42 Questions" session: 1. **Opening:** Film clips set the tone, introducing the importance of questions. 2. **Discussion:** Brief philosophical overview, relating to themes of Earth as a computational entity. 3. **Group Work:** Participants split into subgroups (pairs or threes) and generate questions. 4. **Voice Recording:** Each participant records their questions. 5. **Cross-Group Exchange:** Groups engage with questions from other groups, debating how they’d approach or refine them. 6. **Culmination:** A visual or audio climax as questions are played back, forging a sonic tapestry of curiosity. 7. **Pathways Forward:** Participants are shown how to extend their involvement, invite others, or seed new geographical nodes.
# Engagement and Representation The project encourages widespread, inclusive citizen participation—mirroring the aspirations of citizens' assemblies—by mapping contributions and identifying regions, cultures, and languages not yet represented in the global question bank. Efforts are made to bridge these gaps and foster an ever-expanding, genuinely global dialogue.
# Simple invite
> Imagine a global citizen assembly where people from every culture come together to ask the right questions, not just answer them. The "42 Questions" Decentralised Workshop transforms curiosity into collaborative art, uniting voices and ideas in a stunning audio experience. Explore the project’s philosophy, format, and artistic ambition in our detailed breakdown!
# See
- 42