Creative Research and Teaching in Radical Environments (CREATURE)

The FUI-group Creative Research and Teaching in Radical Environments (CREATURE) aims to move humanities research and teaching into uncommon settings and spaces. As a creative and curiosity-driven collective, CREATURE brings together scholars from different humanities disciplines interested in rethinking methods of learning, research, and dissemination beyond the written word. We explore questions like: how can our research move into new spatial and cultural contexts, for example from indoor environments to the great outdoors? What new questions do evolve and which new challenges can we address when we develop research in conversation with society? And how can we as scholars transform research and teaching from words to wider actions?

Calendar

From 2025 to 2027, CREATURE will organise workshops and meetings focusing on the integration of creativity into both research methods and pedagogical design. These events are open to UiS employees, but registration is required. If you are interested in receiving updates, please get in touch with Melina Antonia Buns.

Forthcoming Events

Wednesday, 5 November, 10-12, HG O-134

Art vs. Science: dueling methodologies in the classroom

In this two-hour interactive seminar, we will explore the tension between art- and science-based research methodologies, aiming to find productive points of contact and then examine how these can be integrated into teaching. Can “artistic” research be equated/integrated into “real” research? Can art serve as a valid research method in a university course?

To start the conversation, Charlotte Wrigley (science) and Allen Jones (art) will each don metaphorical boxing gloves and fight for a hybrid methodological approach stemming from their respective fields. Basing their presentations on the same poem, each will explore the potential hybridity to be found in the science/art of interdisciplinary research and teaching design and practice. For those who “hate poetry” (Ben Lerner), do not worry: the poem will be quite contemporary and provocative. The workshop will include a science-vs.-art creative writing game to open a discussion and exploration into the potential for fusing art and science in the classroom.

All are welcome, regardless of teaching experience. No registration required, simply drop by.

We shall serve coffee, fruit, and something sweet.

Monday and Tuesday, 8-9 December, whole day event, HG N-106/107

Walking & Writing: A creative methods workshop

What does it mean to write with the ground beneath our feet? The two-day workshop Walking & Writing invites scholars, artists, and educators to discover how the act of moving through space and being in place can coax out stories, textures, and relations that belong as much to soil, stone, water, wind, sound, and light as to human and more-than-human intention. The ambition is to develop a toolbox of playful yet rigorous methods for weaving together bodies, environments, and words, demonstrating that walking & writing can help us re‑imagine how we inhabit and narrate the world.

The first day, artist-researcher Helena Hunter will facilitate close encounters with more-than-human nature. Industrial designer Petra Lilja will then draw our attention to the rock beneath our feet. Drawing on the environment of the Sørmarka forest surrounding the University of Stavanger campus, both sessions blend fieldwork and movement, highlighting how embodied movement contributes to uncovering layers of meaning. On the second day, workshop participants will collaborate in an exploration of emergent methods, reflecting on how walking & writing can foreground more‑than‑human agencies—soil, stone, water, wind, sound and light—as active participants in place‑making.

The workshop is free to attend. We will provide lunch for registered participants. Registration will open in early November.