In this weeks edition… ✷ Cherry blossom season ✷ An interview with our new Quest Guide: Clarence Kitt ✷ Sign up for our next Quest: Kicking off March 31st ✷ Take our reader survey and shape the future of this newsletter
Dear Questers,
Sam here 👋 Every year at this time of year; as the daffodils dance, magnolia bloom and cherry blossoms burst - I am reminded of a Japanese word.
‘Hanami’ (花見)
It’s a word that doesn’t exist is any other languages; quite literally translating as ‘Flower Viewing’, but more broadly meaning, ‘to enjoy the transient beauty of nature.’ I have been collecting untranslatable words for around ten years - and this is one of my favourites.
Over the next few weeks, Hanami season will sweep through Japan. People gathering to picnic, drink, and even karaoke under the cherry blossom (Sakura) for the sheer enjoyment of it’s fleeting arrival and departure.
Hanami Maps!
It’s such a beautiful honouring of the temporary nature of, well, everything. With human life moving at ever increasing speeds, practices like Hanami are a way to change our relationship to time.
Slow down, pay attention and wonder - together!
It’s what we practice in our Quest programme - and we begin a new adventure on March 31st.
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
Creative Quests: Hi Clarence 👋 Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your creative practices?
Clarence: I am a service designer, data artist and facilitator. I design for wonder and understanding. I work across creative languages to craft participatory experiences that invite people to see and feel ideas through multiple perspectives.
One concept I am particularly interested in reframing is data. Data is often perceived as clinical, emotionless, and invasive. Additionally, growing up in Hong Kong, I noticed a cultural belief that emotions and lived experiences carry less weight than statistical/empirical forms of knowledge.
My practice explores how both stories, feelings, and narratives can also function as meaningful data and that the data can take many shapes.
Sometimes it looks like a map, sometimes a series of portraits, sometimes a dinner table.
CQ: You dived into Questing for the first time last year and fully immersed yourself. What advice would you give to people who are curious about Questing?
Clarence: I’d say: untether yourself from any preconceived ideas of what you’ll make. My first Quest was about Maps, something I’ve explored a lot of before. While I felt super excited, I admit I also felt a pull to revisit unfinished projects and finally complete them. Instead, I chose to approach the theme as if I’m encountering Maps for the first time.
That changed a lot for me as the prompts and activities surfaced new ideas that I don’t believe I would’ve seen had I stayed attached to my past work.
Clarence on Instagram: "It’s been a minute since I've posted! T…
CQ: Could you share some of the things you created while Questing?
Clarence: For the theme of Maps, I was inspired by my breakout room conversations around things that guide us when we feel lost. Living away from my family, Chinese food is my way to stay connected to home. To express that feeling, I collaborated with a floral artist, Sylvia Cheng, (@growingtkaronto) to create a photo story showcasing landscapes made out of Chinese ingredients
For the theme of Letters, I went down a rabbit hole of exploring symbols and sigils. I designed my own emblem to represent good fortune by blending the letter ‘I’ and the Chinese character for jade, a symbol of luck and protection.
CQ: Who are your top 3 creativity heroes? What about them influences you?
Clarence:
Adolfo Arranz is a data and information visualizer whose work I grew up seeing in newspapers. I have vivid memories of feeling amazed how he’s able to make complex subjects feel so engaging. He showed me that the way something is presented can really transform how we connect to it.
Kowloon Walled City by Adolfo Arranz
Greta Gerwig plays a huge role in shaping my connection with storytelling and my relationship with myself. I first connected with her through the characters she played. It was powerful to feel seen in a way I hadn’t before. Following her journey into directing made me believe in the magic of connecting with people through story. I’m particularly drawn to the way she revisits familiar narratives and reinterprets them with different perspectives.
And I have to name my mom. I wouldn’t be who I am without spending so much time with all of her creative interests. She’s a painter, a florist, a chef, a baker and she’s always up for learning any creative new craft. Growing up, she’d stay up really late to help me finish a school project, take me to arts and craft stores. She shows me what’s possible if you’re just patient and sticking to the process.
CQ: If you were organising an IRL field trip for the readers of this newsletter - where would you take us?
Clarence: I’d take you all out to dinner! I love getting to know people through food, I’m fascinated just how much story can emerge through it. As part of the dinner, I’d organize a curiosity buffet. Each reader brings something that sparked their curiosity and that can be represented in a tactile form. We’d lay it all out like a table spread and that would become the night’s second menu.
CQ: Over 2026 we are exploring what it means to be a ‘Citizen of Curiosity’ in our programme (that you are facilitating!). What does that phrase mean to you?
Clarence: Over the years, I’ve often heard people say “I’m not creative” and that often makes me pause. I think creativity often is really tied to a lot of pressure, particularly with social media. There’s so much pressure for creativity to be original, understandable, viral to be valid. Creative Quests helped me remember a simpler core of creativity…to follow what feels warm and to explore what’s possible without needing a definitive outcome. I’m really excited to be able to be part of guiding the next Cohort, and I hope to create a space where people can lean into and tend to that instinct.
Creative Quests: Thank you Clarence! We can’t wait!
If you want to lead a more curiosity fuelled life, bring ambitious ideas to life, and make a difference in your community (just like Clarence!) we hope to see you in April.
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, you can support us or get involved by:
