Nyscaben is an initiative that brings together artists, artist researchers, art enthousiasts and educators. The aim is to support these practicioners to develop their practice in an interdisciplinary and transdiciplinary way, dive into place-based research, intervene, and form connections. 

 The Transformative Learning Hub @ WUR and the Centre for Unusual Collaborations (CUCo) commissioned us, Kristina Mau Hansen, sound artist, and Dafni Petratou, painter and illustrator, to facilitate this 2nd part of a 3-part series exploring the transformative power of different forms of storytelling, creative expression and writing. In this arts-based workshop, we delved into various aspects of how scholars perceive the 'unknown' or 'mysterious'. How do we navigate the unknown and mysterious? What challenges arise in this exploration? Using creative writing, recording, and drawing tools, we transformed our thoughts into a collective artwork. 

Our fascination with this topic stems from the observation that science communication often spotlights existing knowledge and that education focuses mainly on knowledge that has already been ‘produced’. Seeing the value in exploring the mysterious, the obscure, and the enigmatic within an academic multidisciplinary context, this collective journey illuminated diverse perspectives, researchers' interests, and, importantly, was a lot of fun.

RUW stands for: Rural University of Wageningen.  Most importantly, it’s WUR backwards. As a foundation it was born in the 60s by students that wished to bring life to science by involving citizens into research. 

The Jester is a part of this Foundation: an amateurish, satirical, and critical volunteer-driven newspaper. The name was chosen in honour of the professional jokers or ‘fools’ who entertained mediaeval courts, and sometimes were bearers of bad news. They were portraying their observations of the world through witticisms and satire. But the newspaper is not only that: it's also a platform for art documentation, it's a place for people to meet, it's a hub of interviewers, researchers and poets.

I've been one of the coordinators since 2023.