The narratives that emerge as a result of reflection upon the exercise tend to be rhizomatic in nature and resist linearity, categorisation or consumption. A variation of the exercise, with the second set of participants, was to create what Gómez-Peña terms an “exquisite corpse” or a simultaneous spoken-word creation and performance experience. Participants are encouraged to hum, add words and phrases to create intimate “shamanic operas”. The attached sound clip is a sample of a tender opera created out of the Working In The Dark Exercise.

Namrata Chhabria