Not the outcome but the process

#100dayproject2026, days 8-14

Where and how do illustration and research meet? This week is about looking into, and reflecing on the encounter between academic thinking and creatve practice. Not the outcome, but the process.

The second week of the #100dayproject was all about reflecting on the “Workshops on Workshopping” in Utrecht - an event, organised by the Skagen Institute on Transgressive Methods and the Futures+Literacies+Methods Lab. So, I got my papers and art supplies, and arrived to meet a most amazing crowd of colleagues old and new - and a room full of more art supplies. It was not a typical academic conference, nor was it an art retreat. It was a weird, buzzing, inspiring mixture of the above and much more. We crafted visions, explored literacies, imagined futures. We cut papers, built legos, wrote poems, took turns talking, sat in a circle, lay on the floor, stamped and folded, put together and took apart, exlored and imagined some more. My cards for the second week of the#100dayproject2026 is a tribute to this amazing event. A visual answer to the question: what could I/ we do? And how does the process look and feel like?

Illustrate

This is the first thing I can, and usually do. We brainstormed in a group and the first thing I did, intuitively, was responding visually to the ideas in the group. I am not - and have never been - a graphic recorded, but the very first session felt like a mixture of concept illustration and graphic recording. With paper and scissors, of course.

Inspire, facilitate, touch, play, ask

The rest of the workshop was beautifully different to how I normally work - in isolation. Here, by contrast, the main feeling was that of community. A community of intentional practice. A community of transgressive researchers. A community of creative intellectuals. A community of dreamers. What we did was inspire, facilitate, and play; touch the art materials, the air and the ground beneath our feet; and ask questions. Where is your academic home? Why does the world need this knowledge? What ligts you up? Can there be Humanities without the human?

Imagine

During the book folding and collage workshop that I had facilitated, I began putting together scraps of paper, left from what the participants had cut. I finished the collage when I got home.

I think it will take time to fully digest the intersections of theory, creativity, in-depth conversations, new friendships, future collaborations and unexpected possibilities. Week 3 of the #100dayproject2026 will slow down to reflect on that more.