During an in-person workshop in Vienna, and after a few years of working together, we took time to reflect on what co-creation means to us personally. To better grasp and illustrate our personal understandings the term carries for us, we agreed to each bring one object that would best represent what we have in mind. Then, we each shared a co-creation story with the larger group and documented our thoughts in writing and through photography. Before publishing the stories online, each storyteller revised their story according to their needs and added or removed details if needed. You can read quotes from those stories below or click on the image to read the story in full.

This exercise shed light on many aspects of co-creation, including relationality, respect, openness, listening, and dialogue, but did not result in a uniform or complete definition. There are diverse understandings and perspectives of co-creation within our collective, and our successful collaboration relies on embracing these differences. We also acknowledge that the stories shared here only offer small glimpses into aspects und understandings of the concepts of co-creation, and that there are voices and perspectives missing, as represented by the blank spaces in the grid below.