Radical Creativity

About

Radical Creativity is one of the three cross-cutting approaches in Aalto University's strategy, emphasising the development of experimental practices that challenge the status quo. This course embraces that spirit by encouraging students to push boundaries, rethink assumptions, and engage in transformative creative processes.

Course leader

Natalia Villaman is a doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki’s Faculty of Social Sciences, where she also teaches at the Faculty of Social Sciences. At Aalto, she is part of the teaching team for the masters level Design for Government and Strategic Design courses; she oversees teacher collaboration and pedagogical approaches at the Aalto University Summer School and is a thesis advisor for Department of Design (ARTS). Ricardo Dutra's work focuses on social design, social arts, artistic research, transformative learning, co-design and practice-based design research. Ricardo works and collaborates in diverse global contexts including Australia, Brazil, China, Finland, India, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Sweden, and the United States. The outcomes of his work are both tangible and intangible, and often co-created. Project outcomes include learning experiences, tools, and spaces—as well as processes, protocols, routines, shifts and pattern languages for the emerging new. Ricardo’s past works have been featured on Fast Company, the Milan Design Week and the United Nations Summer School.

Target group

The minimum requirement for applying to Radical Creativity is a finished bachelor's degree or the equivalent of 180 ECTS completed in the undergraduate degree. However, participants do not have to be a degree student at a university to participate in our course. This course does not require previous experience in the topic, but an interest in diving deeper into the material and experiences.

As the course involves a considerable amount of interaction among peers and with instructions, students are required to have a good command of English to keep up with the planned content.

Additionally, all summer school course students must be 18 years or older, as it is the legal age in Finland.

Course aim

After the course, students will be able to:

- Collaborate in interdisciplinary teams to analyze processes of group convergence and understand collective creativity dynamics.
- Develop an understanding of ‘radical creativity’ as a means to comprehend collective creative dynamics within a group context and an understanding of creativity across various scales, from personal to societal.
- Investigate discomfort, emergence, and novel environments as fundamental components contributing to the creative process.
- Utilise exploration of aesthetics, arts, and design to integrate diverse modes of knowledge acquisition such as sensory, embodied, and visual perspectives.
- Apply acquired concepts to personal and/or professional contexts, fostering a deeper understanding of their relevance and cultivating skills in proposing, challenging, and reframing inquiries to stimulate innovative thinking.
- Acquire competence in studio-based prototyping and experimental practices to foster creative exploration and innovation.

Fee info