A two day seminar on creativity and multi-disciplinarity took place at Strathclyde recently. Led by Dr Barbara Simpson of the department of Management, the seminar was aimed at staff in all faculties of the university, bringing together chemical engineers, creative writers, researchers in business, management and product design, architects, musicians, education lecturers and literature specialists.
Education secretary Michael Russell, who is himself a writer and film-maker, also gave an address at the Bridging the Gap event.
Dr Simpson said, "Creativity is in all of us but we are not all equally skilled in accessing this in ourselves.
"This seminar has focused on helping academics to develop their creativity in an inter-disciplinary context that brings engineers, scientists, writers, musicians and business specialists together in a creative tension."
The aim of the event was to discuss the notion of creativity and break down barriers between those who work in very different disciplines. With public funding increasingly tied to projects which are multi-disciplinary, it is essential for universities to find ways of enabling academics to work together.
Around 24 academics met over two days to complete a set of workshop tasks designed to lay bare the creative process, and to quiz high-flying invited speakers.
Amongst the speakers were Emma Pollock and Alun Woodward of Chemikal Underground Records, formerly of the Glasgow-based band the Delgados, who described the productive arguments and strains of the recording studio, and John Tiffany, director of the National Theatre of Scotland, who spoke about his series of landmark productions: Black Watch, The Bacchae and the current version of Peter Pan.