BENGALURU: Boredom, if harnessed correctly, can be the mother of many inventions or thought-provoking ideas. That seems to be the idea behind the Boredom Rebellion being organised by the global Science Gallery network for their annual youth symposium. In each edition, one of the eight sister galleries at Atlanta, Detroit, Rotterdam, Venice, Melbourne, Dublin, London or Bengaluru, take turns hosting the event.
In 2021, however, the ‘new normal’ made it possible for all the galleries to come together for a virtual symposium. The three-day event will take place across time zones and have each gallery organising one unique event, besides a range of other workshops, talks and performances for participants.
For the event, Science Gallery Bengaluru is conducting a design lab, which they have named Contagious Ideas. “The pandemic taught us that it’s not just diseases that are contagious – fake news and ideas are too. So this event aims at helping youngsters work on a design challenge, from ideation to execution. Through this, maybe they can develop the skills they need to grapple other challenges as well,” says Madhushree Kamak, programme manager at Science Gallery Bengaluru.
The event is targeted at fostering creative collaboration, and will have participants divided into groups with members from different countries and skillsets. “You might have someone from Bengaluru working with a peer from Dublin and Venice as they tackle common problems,” she explains.
This is the third edition of the symposium involving those in the age group of 15-25 years. The theme was decided after an international survey among youngsters, where among topics like climate justice and racial inequality, boredom reigned supreme as well.
“This was during the lockdown and there was a collective feeling of energy being sucked out of everyone. This led the members of all the sister galleries to go with this issue because we felt there was a need to rebel against boredom in the spirit of creativity and collaboration,” says Kamak. The three-day event starts on Jan. 29. For details, visit sciencegallery.org
In store
Struth!: This is a game of ‘truth or lie’ that can help players confront the ease with which science can be misunderstood or misrepresented.
Radical Access Theme Park: Design a theme park that explores accessibility models
Afro-Rithms from the Future: A world-building game
Making Boredom Disappear: An interactive paper crafting workshop on making and experimenting with recycled materials at home