UNEXPECTED — a forum for innovation work in intersecting areas
At the Unexpected forum, creative people and organizations from all over Europe gathered in Lund to exemplify the dynamics of human creativity. The idea was that unlimited possibilities arise when we break down barriers and that we can thus embrace the unexpected.
By Bodil Malmström/Lund University
Unexpected is the international innovation forum in the arts and sciences which attracted researchers, politicians, officials and entrepreneurs from all over Europe.
“We wanted to show what happens when people get together and work together across organisations, competencies and sectors,” says Charlotte Lorentz Hjorth, coordinator European partnership for innovation, Lund University, Samverkanskontoret.
The mission of UNEXPECTED was to highlight that innovation and the innovation process must be more inclusive, with a particular focus on culture and creative industries. In this endeavor, it is important to create inclusive ecosystems for collaboration. The existing silos between different sectors and industries can be broken down through cross-border collaborations and UNEXPECTED aimed to put the focus on the necessary approach for cross-cutting innovation to thrive. The event was a chance to really dive into the innovation process itself with areas such as a changing fashion, realising human rights and existential resillience - among others. In this, culture can be seen as a bridge builder in innovation as well as in society.
“Innovation happens at the edges where different sectors meet and where they can collide and cross-fertilise,” says Michal Hladky, CIKE, one of the participants.
The EU Textile Strategy 2022 is predicted to revolutionise the fashion and textile industries, forcing the sector to rethink the current fast fashion model and explore new, more sustainable business strategies. A key element in this change is the introduction of product passports, which will shortly be a requirement specification for all clothing items. How will this affect our society, our businesses and end consumers?
“We have students from Lund University collaborating with industrial and academic partners to conduct a test demo of product portfolios of no less than 4,000 garments,” says Lars Mattiasson, coordinator at the Fashion Innovation Center.
Another focus of the event was to showcase the human and cultural aspects as a starting point for innovation processes. That could be developing new technologies, improving health systems or educating the next generation. The concept of existential sustainability is something that Lund University has been exploring for a long time and has raised fundamental questions about our purpose, responsibility and our connection to the planet and future generations. This is a concept that can help us get back to our roots.
“For too long, we have tried to create change towards more sustainable societies by focusing on external challenges that require technological solutions and economic structures. But in order for radical or more radical change to take place, we also need to address the root cause of the problems: our relationship crisis with the living planet, past and future generations, others, and not least ourselves,” says Anna Lyrevik, Rector's Counsel for Arts and Culture, Lund University.
And as Maria Moreira from Cité du Design St Étienne who also attended the event says:
“I came to participate in a regular forum expecting an international experience, but I got something very unexpected. It became a connection to my inner self and it inspired new ideas.
It is by embracing the unexpected that we find the keys to a brighter tomorrow. Charlotte Lorentz Hjorth thinks so:
“The work to create and develop intersecting innovation areas will continue and we will see more of these linkages where the university and society work together. We hope this can be a recurring event, perhaps as a biennial forum, where we showcase and explore new ways of working and collaborating.
During the event, six different areas of innovation drawn from research at Lund University were explored:
Transformed fashion
The Individualized Future of Digital Concerts
Realization of human rights
Existential resillience
Storkriket Biosphere Candidacy
Archaeology and new technologies