In this weeks edition… ✷ Our next Quest kicks off on 31st March! Sign up here. Details + a discount code are at bottom of this email. ✷ Imagination-themed resources to explore ✷ Creations from our community to inspire ✷Take our reader survey and shape the future of this newsletter
Dear Questers,
Sam here 👋 Some time over the Christmas period, in preparation for the arrival of my daughter - who at that time was an abstract concept - I read a quote about how parenthood affects your concept of time which really catapulted my heart.
It read: ‘the nights are long and the years are short’.
And it really turns out that this is more true than I could have ever imagined.
Not only have I blinked and suddenly have a divinely cherubic two month old - but somehow it’s been five weeks since our last Quest Digest.
It turns out that running a business, discovering a newborn, trying to maintain your own creative life, and telling about it at the same time is… a whole new way to navigate the limitations of time.
There is much inspiration to catch you up on.
Over the course of February we had 71 Questers (!) join us for our latest chapter of our Quest programme - this time, exploring the theme: IMAGINE.
🧭 Here is a small sampler of what we discovered in our IMAGINE Quest - to inspire your own explorations.
✷ A practice: Design Fiction
Design Fiction bridges speculative design, science fiction, and technological development. It involves creating tangible, everyday objects that tell stories about potential near-future worlds.
It’s a physical, prototyped way of imagining that can be an incredibly compelling way to bring a future to life. And it doesn’t have to be high-tech.
Try it out: • Spend 5-10 mins journalling or doodling on the kind of future you’d like to live in. Describe it in vivid detail.
• Take a sheet of paper and sketch or describe one of the following - a household product - a job role - an item of clothing - an event flyer
• Voila! You have created an artefact from the future.
✷ A question
What art or social movements from the past inspire you to imagine beyond the present?
✷ A quote
“Without imagination you live in a small room with the windows closed. Imagination opens the windows and shows us landscapes, horizons that we would not otherwise perceive.” — Maxine Greene, educational philosopher and social activist
Also special shout out to community member Alia Herman who wrote this in our Discord and I am still thinking about it:
“imagination is a substance that can’t survive in the real world unless it takes form through creativity.” — Alia Herman
✷ An oracle: Rob Hopkins
Rob became somewhat of an unofficial mascot for our exploration in February. His message of making alternative futures so delightfully irresistible and tangible, that we can’t resist bringing them to life, is our kind of change making.
He is the author of a few brilliant books on imagination such as ‘From What is to What If?’ and ‘How To Fall In Love With the Future’ and creator of such resources as the brilliant Imagination Sundial and Ministry of Imagination manifesto.
p.s - we are hosting a workshop with Rob next Monday 16th March - and you are invited! Get your ticket here.
✷ A mission: Future Walk
Step one: Imagine that you have time traveled to 2036 and your neighbourhood reflects the world you want to see. Step two: Take a walk in your neighbourhood with this lens. Step three: Imagine where and how your city has changed. What do you see, hear, smell, etc. Step four: Where are you seeing signals of your imagined future in your present? Document and collect them. Step five: Imagine the steps that lead from your present to the future you desire.
✷ A listen:
This episode of the - always on point - On Being podcast with Krista Tippet and Adrienne Maree-Brown delves into ways to the practice of Radical Imagination. I particularly loved the opening framing of ‘looking around the world for “live human signposts” — human beings who embody ways of seeing and becoming and who point the way forward to the world we want to inhabit'.’
Who is a human sign post in your life?
🎨 Community creations: Imagination edition
A Creative Quest is not just about exploring and learning - but making things too. We encourage small scrappy creative acts that express new ideas. Going beyond conversation and into creation help us understand our mutual theme in a more embodied way. Here are some things our Questers made in February.
Claire-Beth Inspired by the mission of ‘taking a walk in 2036’, Claire-Beth created these collages from found words around her local town, which have been reimagined into future neighbourhood destinations. She imagined…
“Local Cake Pit Stops with healthy future cake free for everyone? Karaoke For Adventure, because singing in public is no longer embarrassing and it actually creates energy to power community infrastructure? Groups that fight the Zombie Sea Water with a new tactic of home-grown algaes fed from the collected crumbs off the kitchen floor? Community Pigeons For Everyone that deliver local messages because phones are now only used for long distance calls. Smile And Dream workshops once a month/quarterly in every road, where neighbours get together and share food and stories and learn from each other.”
Hannah Following a group discussion about our favourite imagination-expanding characters from books of our childhoods… Hannah was curious about how she could characterise and make her imagination more tangible.
13 minutes, 29 pieces of gum, 6 googly eyes, and 1 sugar rush later…
Sam (that’s me!) Imagined a future where public spaces are more conducive to curiosity, connection and play. After noticing that notice boards & bill boards in pubic spaces are only designed for information and consumption, I imagined a future where our streets are filled with provocations. So I came up with, printed, and wheat-pasted conversation prompts on empty commercial spaces around the town I live in.
Melanie With a head for learning design and a heart for community - Melanie imagined a future where our education system has been transformed, opening up young people to a whole range of new subjects that prepare them for being more creative, caring citizens. So, she designed a new curriculum! I’m hoping my daughter steps into school like this one in the future.
Emma After learning the practice of Design Fiction, Emma imagined what an all new job role might look like for the kind of future she wants to live in - then created an ad for it.
Does working in the ‘Department of Regeneration and Shared Life’ as a ‘Neighbourhood Lingering Steward’ sound like your dream role? Well, mark your calendars - applications are open in the year 2038!
This really just scratches the surface of the kind of places people get to in our Quest programme.
It’s playfully profound. Wildly communal. And we believe it’s what the world needs.
If you want to learn how to see the world differently, make stuff and Quest with a crew other curious folks from around the world:
Live session times & dates: Tuesday 31 March, 7, 14, 21, 28 April 6.00pm - 7.30pm BST / 1.00pm - 2.30pm EST + a weekly host of creative missions and community connection
£55 standard tier / £30 concessions Use code: QUESTDIGEST for 10% off standard tier at checkout
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading! A lot of time, heart and energy goes into writing this newsletter. If you enjoy what we do at Creative Quests, here is how you can support us or get involved:
