Photos from the exhibit
Vision-casting. Experimental. Research-based. Event-planning and community outreach.
Our physical environment is a part of our embodied reality. It affects our mental state, heightens or takes away from our ability to achieve our goals, and changes the nature of how we interact with others. This exhibit employed a novel format to get its participants to explore the relationship between work and the physical environment. Participants were asked to participate in an interactive, self-guided workshop that was designed around three creativity techniques: Problem-finding, Divergent Thinking, and Prototyping.
Nothing tangible was “showcased” in this exhibit, as usually happens; instead of seeing “made” artifacts, the audience walked in on an empty room with a giant blank post-it note board where they could brainstorm, then a room full of raw “materials” which they could use to construct their own artifacts. Thus, the ideas and products the audience generated were the real “showcase.”
This exhibit was sponsored by the Humanities Council under the Being Human Festival 2019. More on the Being Human Festival 2019 can be found here.
Participants were encouraged to read a brochure before or after the workshop that helped to round out their understanding of the methodology, goals and themes of the workshop.
Click image to download.
How did a history major like me end up creating something like this? The novel, interactive format was based off of psychology and neuroscience research on creativity. Increasingly, we are finding that creativity is something we can stimulate by putting people in certain mindsets or employing certain techniques. For example, this exhibit asked people to prototype their ideas using physical materials. Prototyping is said to get people out of their own heads and help the brain to engage the senses, which can lead to novel, or "creative," ideas.
I conducted this research with Dr. Sheila Pontis, a Keller Center for Innovation Faculty. She asked me to be her teaching assistant and help her craft a new seminar on Creativity. It was in working with Professor Pontis that I learned the concepts that would lay the foundation of this exhibit.
That same Summer, the Humanities Council released a call for submissions to its Being Human Festival, offering grants of up to $3,500 to create the exhibit. After honing my ideas with the Festival's coordinator Ruby Shao, I emerged with the workshop you see above.