PAL launches A Pedagogy of Curiosity Research in Chicago
PAL will launch its research programme, A Pedagogy of Curiosity, at the international symposium ‘Claiming Creativity’ to be held in Chicago 21-23 April. The conference is hosted by Columbia College Chicago in partnership with the European League of Institutes of the Arts. PAL’s Founder Artistic Director Susan Benn is co-directing the research with Professor Kerstin Mey, Director of Research and Enterprise at the University for the Creative Arts in the UK.
A Pedagogy of Curiosity is an emerging body of cross-disciplinary sensory research, originated in the UK in 2006 by Susan Benn. She was joined in 2008 by Professor Kerstin Mey. Together they are co-directing this international research programme. Research partners will include molecular and neuro scientists; artists and designers who use the senses as their medium; and environmental scientists and educators who are experimenting with sensory approaches to learning and teaching across disciplines. The experimentation is focused on human needs, engaging members of the public of all ages with the aim of sensitising society.
The co-directors of A Pedagogy of Curiosity research are currently developing site-specific case studies and opportunities for collaboration and partnerships with like-minded researchers, policymakers and funding bodies in Europe. Asia and America, where interest has been expressed in this work.
The Vision
Sense perception is fundamental to shift the value base that determines our behaviour, individually and collectively. Influencing the values by which we live and relate to our environment and to other human beings has never been as important as now. In the face of the precariousness of our existential conditions - given the threat of global climate change and projected mass migration, accelerated population growth and the scarcity of natural resources - a change of relationship to nature and the environment, as a value and not as a commodity, as well as a shift in attitudes and patterns of consumption in the developed countries and beyond, is essential for human survival.
We explore the undervalued embodied knowledge of our senses and their contribution to a full and fulfilling sentient human existence. We look at sensory possibilities in the 21st century in relation to resilient living, urban planning and public pedagogies. We encourage a new body of 21st century sensory skills and competencies to emerge from our research to contribute to a major shift of values to foster an imaginative re-engagement on a day-to-day basis with each other and our natural and man-made environment.
