Danika's two cents
For me, working with a group of people I find myself connecting with is the beginning of collaboration. When the group no longer needs to ask one another questions and "manners" so to speak are not necessary. Everyone involved gets what's going on and does it. Collaboration can also be a solitary experience though. Just flowing in you actions (often multi-tasking) is collaborative for me. When several aspects of myself are working constructively at the same time (one one thing or a few different things) I get into a really great zone of working with myself. All in all, real and complete creative honesty in every meaning of the words either alone or with others is collaboration.
As far as successful or not so activities, I would say some successes were
-the banana ritual. i didn't think too much of it (aside from being fun) until it was all put together. That was really cool. I'd like to see it!
-the m.i.a. tour. what an awesome way to see a museum and get to know each other. really.
-shadow show. This was a hella cool first activity. there were lots of glitches, but it got everyone thinking and laid a good groundwork.
Didn't do it for me:
-the dinner. I wish this would have been something more than it was. I wanted the meal to be more socially wholesome. And yeah, it was probably table set up. regardless, though.
-the bridge walk. though i didn't walk across the group so maybe i shouldn't be one to talk, i didn't like the idea of having to block other people to do the activity. going on top of the bridge was kickass. i do love the idea of going slowly across the bridge though. that is really nice.