It was a little challenging to create a contemplative atmosphere within the lively environment of the marquee, with other activities happening around me, but I loved the idea that it was possible to ‘drop in’ to a number of different tables featuring origami, jewellery-making and much more without having to commit to a timetabled session.
Alison shared her passion for fungi with the intriguingly-titled: ‘What mushrooms can teach you about university’. After a mushroom-themed quiz, demonstrating my woeful lack of Mycology (that’s the study of fungi to you and I) knowledge, Alison shared some of her own discoveries and reflections sparked by the magical world of mushrooms and encouraged us to do the same. Different types of fungi require different eco systems to thrive, and much of their growth is hidden away underground: educational analogy anyone?
We often don’t notice interesting fungi lurking in dark corners unless we actively look for them, even though they may be all around us: a nice link to active looking that tied in rather well to my next creative experience of the day…
What mushrooms can teach you about university
I took part in a study by Paul Sowden, who is looking at the link between walking and creative thinking processes. After filling out a questionnaire plus a creative thinking exercise, I was sent out on a walk and asked to send in photos of anything that interested me en route. That was no problem, the tricky part was that I was also asked to complete a ‘creative caption’ for each photograph I sent: that was a little more challenging.
I chose to walk through the beautiful churchyard next to the campus, and found that the exercise made me pay much more attention to my surroundings. I also noted that my levels of wellbeing had increased, and I certainly felt more relaxed about the post-walk creative-thinking exercise, although I’ll leave the researchers to decide whether my creative thinking had been enhanced! This exercise chimed with my growing interest in mindfulness, and will add a creative focus into some planned mindful walking activities.
Spotted on my creative walk
To wrap up the day I was invited to join a collaborative activity involving staff and students, the aim being to build the ‘University of the future’ using only sustainable materials. Tina facilitated this session, where we created structures using newspaper ‘rods’ held together with masking tape (another lovely idea that I plan to steal). Once our structure was built, we added luggage labels highlighting key aspects of our ‘Future university’, using the institution’s strategic priorities as prompts.
Building the University of the future
This festival had a lovely, relaxed and collaborative feel: it was great to see students and staff working together on this creative endeavour. I came back with lots of new ideas, reflections on my own practice, not to mention a few interesting facts about mushrooms!
