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Ralph Windle’s Blog on Science & The Arts

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ARTS/SCIENCE ‘ENCOUNTERS’: a Review

VII     POSTSCRIPT

‘ Let’s all move one place on …’
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: Lewis Carroll

This report was not required as a means of establishing the success of the Sheffield University `Arts/Science Encounters 2009´. There is, and was, an unusual unanimity about that, freely expressed by all concerned.
So the significant question for me was to try to discover more precisely why this was so; and to divine the lines of strategy latent in the success, both as a guide to the future and for any light it might throw on the wider, national Arts/Science dialogue.

For this wider dialogue has a crucial significance for our educational futures, in schools and universities; and I believe these `Encounters´ also registered positively on this bigger agenda.
Beyond the selection of such fascinating topics and people, which owes most to Rachel Falconer’s drive and vision, it became increasingly clear to me that it was the presence of a (relatively small) discerning and involved audience which made the initial, very positive, difference. They were not, from the start, mere `spectators´ at a show; they were also predominantly `local´ and quickly embraced the notion that this was `their´ university, sharing something important with them. They became, as I have tried to describe it, one of the three equal constituents (citizen, scientist, artist) in a novel process of shared learning. This is magic, and something important to build on.

Second, the process was sustained and concentrated (16 key events over 3 months) which created an accumulating sense of continuity, strong enough to survive the obvious change of faces in both `public´ and `presenters´. There was an increasingly shared ethos; a palpable sense of new relationships in the making.

In fact, all the constituents were experiencing change; but who would have predicted that the University itself might be the most affected? Here’s the comment of one, very distinguished, professor involved:
“I took part in one Encounter and attended around half of all the others. Few events have opened my mind to other approaches to problem-solving and idea generation as much as the Encounters. They were completely liberating and effective at unlocking the shackles academics often wear….

“So, to answer your question, yes I think that conversation was not only stimulated but `let loose´ in a way that renders operating within the confines of a single discipline a nonsensical approach to academic life.”
And another:

” think I that what’s been done here is one of the best things that’s happened in the University for years as regards making a community of scholars, rather than a set of isolated specialists…”

And the `public´…?

“I think I should warn you that lots of the `general public´ are asking `what next?´!!”

My analysis suggested that, viewed overall, the strategic balance of topics met the needs of all the `constituents´ - scientist, artist and citizen - to approach the realities and hard choices of science by way of an informed sense of wonder at its achievements and potentialities, and within a shared and common intellectual tradition.

Long experience teaches me that once the Arts/Science genie escapes the bottle, no cork will ever again hold it in! Sheffield University has made a vigorous entry on this stage, and many consequences are likely to follow – for research, but also teaching and both internal and wider community relationships. All are good but necessarily imply change.

The good news of the 2010 series will help consolidate current gains; meanwhile minds should begin to refocus on some big, longer-term, strategic implications of this success.

Ralph Windle

Creative Value Network
Oxford, 2010