Testimonials
“You get to engage and be present with a whole range of eclectic ideas that may or may not resonate with you, but will definitely allow you to open your mind. You get to play with ideas and then rework your own model of doing things. You are given the space to do that. Which is great. We need more of that.”
- Alyssa Coghlin
I honestly feel like the sessions helped not only my creativity but, also my confidence. Getting a chance to talk to experts in such an intimate setting was very intimidating for me, but through that, I gained a lot of confidence in my ideas and over the semester felt more and more comfortable participating.
This was honestly such a great opportunity and I'm really glad I got to participate this semester.
-Sophie Smith
"My participation in The Silo Busting Seminars has helped me stay committed to my artistic growth, even as the COVID-19 pandemic has hindered traditional forms of connection and creativity. The diversity in the line-up of seminar leaders has forced me to make new connections between disciplines and has expanded the reach of my own creative practice. I would recommend these seminars to those who are interested in creativity in all its forms, and who seek a breath of fresh air and to shake up their thinking.”
- Avery Shoemaker
"The Silo Busting Seminars helps my creative process evolve. The various seminars given twice a week present different aspects of indeterminacy and uncertainty. Some of the presentations were in my domain of expertise, but others were out of my comfort zone, but in both cases I learned a lot. Being part of this program helps me to build my projects with new ideas and to get feedback. I recommend it for creative minds that want to learn from different perspectives."
- Jeanne Côté
"Through presenters from a variety of academic and artistic backgrounds, the seminar series hosted by Dr Vaubel capitalizes on their commonalities to ponder the timely question of indeterminacy. More than an immobilizing force, the unknown stretches frames, and processes to contend with the possibilities it presents. We move, dream, and think differently; feeling our way through the unseen expanses ahead, acquiring a new sense of normal, a more plastic, resilient, and less fearful impression of the world. One that’s hopefully more true to the world as it is, and wiser to the distortions of how we want it."
- Julias May
“With the Silo Busting Seminars I am learning orientation. Intellectual and social orientation in a million different contexts. Each week we are thrown into a whole new field and I am learning how to navigate the material as it is presented to me without needing to have a clear map or a GPS telling me what the next step is. This is a really precious skill. Here, I learn how to orient myself and respond to information in a productive way without having a clear path. That's what indeterminacy is all about and I feel myself getting stronger at that every single week.”
- Mathilde Papillon
"Moving across disciplines between undergraduate and graduate studies has proved a very rewarding, as well as reorienting, challenge. Exposure to scholars who have successfully made such transitions, and who perform exemplary interdisciplinary work, have been greatly inspirational and instructive. The Silo Busting Seminar Series consistently features such scholars, as well as provides an environment in which interdisciplinary work and lateral thinking are encouraged. Programs such as this form an important and necessary space for young scholars willing to take the risk to explore beyond disciplinary lines."
- Damian Artecta
"The Silo Busting Seminar Series offers a unique opportunity to engage with material outside of your own discipline, and often outside of our comfort zone. I have been particularly inspired by conversations around how we experience dis/comfort, be it through social norms of nodding, watching horror movies, or in trying to connect with our body. While I am predominantly interested in the uses of public spaces, I have been inspired by these different lectures as cities are spaces constantly occupied by complex and wholly different individuals – thus, it makes sense to have a lens informed by a range of disciplines or approaches.I would recommend this seminar series to individuals who are both in a process of shifting their scope or interests, trying to (re)orient themselves, and those who are on their path but looking to deepen their discipline by engaging with a transdisciplinary lens – so, basically everyone!"
- Madeleine Hykes
“The program really targets this phenomenon of people coming in with their own limited perspectives, frames, and biases and not necessarily throwing those away, but looking at them as a form of play and as a useful resource for understanding the world from a larger perspective, which I really appreciate. We often have speakers who come in with a very specific focus and then we get to step into that and really try to understand it, and of course their perspective has to do with silo busting and multi-framing, so it’s just a very cool experience.”
- Claire Dickson
“I am surrounded by people who have managed to make ideas work. Every student, every person has an idea, a theory, a project they want to start, but to see someone make a career out of it, to see someone get funding, start it up, get a team, that’s such another layer that you don’t really know how to do until you leave school...Being around professionals who are doing what they love and are constantly innovating their own disciplines is invaluable.”
— Day Cotrell
“Its intentionally jarring, intentionally taking you from place to place, from specificity to specificity without explicitly explaining the links between. With time, the links between these different thinkers and methodologies are made clear through their juxtaposition, as well as through the concept of indeterminacy and improvisation.”
- Daniel Korsunsksy
"The Silo Busting Seminar Series has offered me an opportunity to broaden my perspectives on how to study complexity and indeterminacy. The wide array of processes and ideas touched upon always kept me on my toes, never allowing me to settle in the comfort of a recurring/predictable mindset. This "wideness" not only stemming from a variety of subjects but also a variety of methodologies. From very rigorous and semantical to fully improvised and playful, the spectrum almost seemed contradictory. This impression, however, rapidly vanished thanks to the healthy curation and drive of the director. Allowing for a wholesome and comprehensive approach to such a difficult subject."
- Leo Portelance