boom saloon x A&DS: Learning to See More

Frazer Macdonald Hay leads Learning to See More, a two-hour participatory workshop at A&DS:SpACE on Tuesday 24 November, from 10:00 to 12:00. It's part of a wider boom saloon x A&DS series at the Edinburgh Futures Institute, run in collaboration with Architecture and Design Scotland, which asks how where you work has shaped the change you make.

Macdonald Hay is a writer, researcher and peacebuilding consultant whose career has spanned architecture, emergency services, education and international peacebuilding. He's worked in Scotland and in the Netherlands, Singapore, Iraq and Ukraine, and he draws on that experience to look at how we see, understand and experience the places around us. The session runs in three parts: an illustrated introduction to his professional journey; a creative exercise in which you draw a postcard of a place you consider home; and an exploration of how ordinary places acquire meaning through conflict, climate change and social transformation.

It's a participatory session, so you'll be doing as much as listening. The postcard exercise is the central bit, and the conversation that follows it is where the session opens up. You don't need any specialist knowledge or drawing ability to take part — just curiosity. The whole thing is built around storytelling and conversation, and it's designed to get you thinking about the relationship between people and the places they inhabit.

A&DS:SpACE is on Level 0 of the Edinburgh Futures Institute East Wing, next to Middle Meadow Walk. You enter from Middle Meadow Walk rather than through the main EFI building, so keep that in mind when you're heading in. The workshop runs from 10:00 to 12:00 on Tuesday 24 November; it's free for boom saloon members and £20 for general admission.