The Second Thought works towards a society where different perspectives can meet, curiosity can flourish, and understanding can grow.
Perception before opinion
We create space to look together, to think together, and to share what we see.
To hear how other people experience the world. To keep looking, again and again. To ask ourselves: how come I see things the way I do? What shapes the way I think? And how can someone else look at the exact same thing and see something completely different?
Living alongside one another doesn’t happen on its own — it takes work, together. A democratic society needs places and moments where people can think things through, in conversation with one another.
To examine how our views take shape in the first place. Not just with people we already know, or already agree with.
That’s why we run carefully facilitated conversations in all kinds of settings, with all kinds of people, on topics that are sensitive, complex, or hard to move forward on. We start by looking and talking together about images and sources that bring these topics into view.
Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) — a well-researched, evidence-based method — provides the framework for these conversations.
Different people...
Different questions...
Different ways in...
Passing it on
A training in facilitating Visual Thinking Strategies conversations, for professionals who already work with groups and dialogue and want to bring this way of looking and asking questions into their own practice.
Tailor-made
When a theme or tension within your organisation doesn't fit any of our existing formats, we build one from scratch, together with you. Through carefully chosen images, even a sensitive subject becomes safe to explore — and to understand differently.
PhotoDialogue
A locally presented, tailor-made exhibition that uses photography to explore a specific theme, question or challenge. Through close looking and dialogue, participants examine how images shape perception, question assumptions and open up different ways of seeing.
Round table
A professional deep dive into a specific theme, question or challenge, using a single image as the starting point. Through close looking and focused exchange, you examine what you see, what you assume, and what it means for your practice.
Walk & Talk
Step into an artistic environment and use what you encounter there as a starting point for conversation. Rather than explaining the art, the focus is on the questions it opens up — about society, identity, belonging, power, change, or what it means to live together.
Looking to Learn
Explore how information, images and algorithms shape the way we understand the world. Through dialogue and hands-on exploration, question what you encounter, recognise different perspectives and develop the critical skills needed to navigate today’s complex information landscape.
Pull up a chair
A recurring gathering where residents, library staff and local government exchange books, images, objects, stories and questions. The facilitator participates too. Everyone brings knowledge; everyone has blind spots.
The exchange creates a broader picture of the community — and can lead to new ideas about what a library or municipality offers, collects, programmes and prioritises.
Studies about VTS
What do you want to stimulate?
Where do you want to apply it?
Which media are you interested in?
Occasional notes
On our method, our projects, and what we're learning — a way to stay close to the work.
Get in touch
Tell us about the institution, the tension, or the moment that brought you here.
We'll help you shape what a first intervention could look like.
CONTACT
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Partner with us
Working with partners across Europe
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