NEWSROOM

Creative Inspiration and Design workshops hold international appeal

5 November 2020

Covid-19 provided the Business School’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship cause for pause in determining how to continue service during lockdowns. As a result, the team at Unleash Space developed online spaces with a brand new set of pre-recorded workshops designed and recorded then hosted on Canvas, the learning management system used by the University of Auckland. The Unleash Space team also ran 74 interactive workshops delivered live via Zoom. Out of these, the surprise hit was a Creative Inspiration and Design workshop that spun into a series that has had rave reviews and attracted a diverse audience of local and international students.

The Creative Inspiration and Design workshops focused on helping participants redefine their creative capacity through a series of short and fun activities. Ariel Dannenbring who designed and delivered the workshops says “We worked through exercises that involved drawing upside-down, working with limitations, divergent and convergent thinking, analogy-making, looking at an image and deducing what was going on, representing a given thesis abstract using any form, and an oral music listening exercise. Participants were able to connect with other students from different faculties and many personal stories were shared.” Participants were current students of archeology, bird science, biology, mechanical engineering and more. There were students from Spain, China, the Philippines and New Zealand with time zones no barrier to participation. Jerry Jacob said “I am an offshore student in India. I wish I had more sessions like these… It was very self-actualizing.” Stephanie Tjasa Subandi described the course as “very interactive and fun. This has been the most interactive online course I’ve been on”.

Two workshops run specifically for researchers were particularly well received as it was a brand new experience for participants who came away with a different perspective of their creative capabilities. PhD candidate Nick Vale said “The workshop was of value to me because I’m interested in incorporating a creative component into the presentation of my research and I’m considering ways to approach the task.” 

The workshops were also a novel experience for facilitator Ariel Dannenbring who usually acts as the Unleash Space Venue Coordinator. Ariel was a Creative Technologist at Unleash Space while she was completing her studies in Psychology and Writing Studies and has since come aboard as a full time staff member. She has welcomed the opportunity to use her knowledge to help develop students’ creative potential. “Many participants I have spoken to have said they wanted an opportunity to use their creativity, or see if they are creative. I hope participants leave the workshop acknowledging their own creativity and being able to express their ideas in ways that anyone can understand. I also hope having had this experience, participants begin accessing our physical maker space to fabricate. I have loved every part of delivering these workshops. I intend to continue helping to build the community of our space and connecting students and staff from across the university through our collaborative workshops.” 

If you are a student or staff member who has feedback on the workshops they would like to see delivered in 2021, please feel free to email suggestions to hello@unleashspace.ac.nz