Reimagination Workshop & Student-Led Exercises

In the Rote Fabrik, doctoral candidates took part in the Reimagination Workshop, co-facilitated by Mira Heikillä and Philippe Vandenbroeck (Newrope, ETH Zurich). The workshop aimed to cultivate a “practice of imagination” as a layered and collaborative process, not just an individual act of envisioning. Drawing inspiration from Philippe’s PhD research in a former mining territory, participants explored how imagination can infuse spaces and bodies with vitality, curiosity, and creativity, bringing new possibilities into the world.

The workshop began with three morning sessions focused on primary experiences of breath, body, contact, and thought, creating a generative environment for collective creation. Inspired by Joseph Beuys and Tim Ingold, participants engaged in exercises that emphasised inhabiting the moment of incipience, experiencing newness as an active, collaborative practice rather than mere novelty.

Following this, doctoral candidates had the opportunity to design and test their own workshops with each other. These student-led sessions allowed participants to experiment with ideas, methods, and formats, translating the principles of the Reimagination Workshop into hands-on learning experiences while receiving feedback from peers.