boom saloon x A&DS: Learning to See More
About this Event
How much do we really see of the places in which our lives unfold?
Buildings and places shape our lives in ways we don't always recognise. Some are celebrated for their architecture and history, while others are so familiar that we barely notice them. Yet all can carry memories, stories and meanings that extend far beyond their physical appearance.
Join writer, researcher and peacebuilding consultant Frazer Macdonald Hay for an engaging, two-hour workshop exploring how we see, understand and experience the places around us. Drawing upon an unconventional career spanning architecture, emergency services, education and international peacebuilding, Frazer will share stories and experiences from Scotland and around the world, inviting participants to consider familiar environments through different lenses.
Through storytelling, creative postcard exercises and conversation, we'll explore how places acquire significance, how their meanings change over time, and how we might imagine new futures for the buildings and environments we inherit. From everyday landmarks to extraordinary architecture, Learning to See More is an invitation to rediscover the places that shape our lives and the possibilities they hold.
Open to everyone. No specialist knowledge or drawing ability required – just curiosity.
Presented by boom saloon in collaboration with A&DS.
Agenda
Welcome: A Life Through Different Lenses
Info: Welcome: A Life Through Different Lenses
20 minutes
An illustrated introduction to Frazer's unconventional professional journey, from military service, firefighting and expeditions through Africa to architecture, education, cultural heritage and international peacebuilding.
Drawing upon experiences in Scotland, the Netherlands, Singapore, Iraq and Ukraine, Frazer will reflect on how different professions, cultures and circumstances have influenced the way he observes and understands the world.
An invitation to consider how our own experiences influence what we notice, value and
sometimes overlook.
Send Me a Postcard… I'll Visit, but You Won't Be There
Info: Send Me a Postcard… I'll Visit, but You Won't Be There
30 minutes
A creative and conversational exercise exploring our personal relationships with place. Participants will be invited to draw a simple postcard of somewhere they consider home, identifying three landmarks or places that would help a visitor find their way in their absence.
Through paired conversations and group reflection, we will explore why these places were
chosen, the memories and meanings they carry and how different people understand the same environments.
No drawing ability is required.
An exploration of place, memory, identity and belonging.
The Extraordinary Significance of Ordinary Places
Info: The Extraordinary Significance of Ordinary Places
30 minutes
An illustrated exploration of the significance of buildings and places, from the overlooked
and everyday to internationally recognised cultural heritage.
Drawing upon Frazer's research and professional experiences in Iraq, Ukraine, Indonesia and
elsewhere, we will consider how places acquire meaning and how that meaning changes through conflict, climate change, social transformation and the passage of time.
We will explore the infra-ordinary, thresholds, hybrid places, cultural heritage and adaptive
reuse, including the intriguing possibility of reusing buildings that have already been reused.
An invitation to look beyond physical appearances and consider the histories,
relationships and possibilities that places contain.
Postcard from the Future
Info: Postcard from the Future
25 minutes
A second creative exercise inviting participants to imagine the future of a place they know.
What might it look like in fifty or one hundred years? Will it survive? Will its purpose change? What should be preserved, and what might future generations need from it?
Using the Edinburgh Futures Institute itself as one possible example of a building that has
already experienced significant transformation, participants will consider the relationship
between heritage, adaptation and our responsibilities to those who will inherit the places we
leave behind.
An exploration of change, imagination and the future lives of buildings and places.
Reflections, Questions and Closing
Info: Reflections, Questions and Closing
10 minutes
An opportunity to share observations, discoveries and questions arising from the workshop.
We will return to our starting proposition and consider how our understanding of place may
have changed.
What have we noticed that we might otherwise have overlooked?
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
GBP 11.55 to GBP 22.38
