“The Joy of Learning Things and Things that Don’t Make Sense”

A seminar titled ‘The Joy of Learning Things and Things that Don’t Make Sense’ was held on September 28, 2020 for the course. The event was sort of an informal gathering of students representing different programs yet sharing the course among themselves. During the first half of the session, we were introduced to Peter Christensson, a lecturer of architectural theory and methods at the Chalmers Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering. Apart from introducing himself, his background, and the work he does, Peter focused on the joy of learning things.

According to Peter and as experienced by almost all of us, learning things — especially new things — are hard. I have my background in software engineering and entrepreneurship. Although I am cognizant about fields such as sustainable development and urban transformation, I am, by no means, an expert in them. I am merely a person looking from the sidelines, albeit with a keen enthusiasm. It took some courage for me to decide to pursue the course as I was well aware that I would be dabbling into a sector that I have less idea about. However, there is a very simple explanation on why I took this course — I, simply, want to learn new things. My notion fits right with what Peter said in the seminar — one should have fun while learning new things as exemplified by his desire to learn to play accordion.

In the second half of the seminar, Anna Kaczorowska, the course lead, showed us around different art pieces in the physics building and explained the idea behind of most of them. All in all, the two-hour event was a nice differentiation as many students of the course got to meet each other in person. It felt like a temporary reprieve from the virtual class we have been having due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Reporting by Sha Pradhan, September 28, 2020