Dawn, shadows & anchor links: visualising collaboration in places

9 am. My eyes fluttered. Darkness hugged the room like a Kandinsky painting. We had opened the window to let air in. As I started to lift the shutters, shadows appeared: the yolky orange of sunrise, the green flicker of traffic light reflection, the terracotta pink of buildings opposite.

Each slit in the shutter let in warmth; sunrays darted across my skin. Outside on the terrace, the sky opened in 360 degrees: blue, cloud, mirage of mountains, a haze like Sicilian smog.

Inside, I held a cassata tinted pastel green and white, contrasting against a jet-black espresso. Outside, the city moved: red Vespas darting, elders sitting in repose, markets bursting with anchovies, ricotta and capers. Sicily wears its layers — Moorish, Norman, Roman — not as museum pieces but living palimpsests.

As I stood there, I thought: our places are like that too — layers of institutions, communities, infrastructures, traditions and experiments. We open the shutters of collaboration and let light into the fissures, hoping to warm what’s been in shadow.

Why this image matters for collaboration

• Shutters and light: collaboration often begins by cracking open existing silos and inviting exposure.
• Layers of place: anchor institutions, local groups, economies, histories — they all overlap, sometimes clashing, often unseen.
• Temperature & shadow: some parts of a place are cold, underlit, unconnected. Collaboration helps direct sunlight into corners.