What happens when students from different countries meet in a virtual world to learn, create, and explore together? Students from Inholland University of Applied Sciences (Urban Leisure & Tourism Lab Amsterdam) and the Latvian Academy of Culture found out during ‘Creativity Connected’, an international education project where virtual reality (VR), creativity, and collaboration came together.

For two weeks, Dutch and Latvian students worked together on an international assignment in virtual reality. Not in a physical classroom, but in a shared digital environment designed as a virtual playground. Through avatars in platforms like VRChat, they explored what a creative space of the future, the year 2050, could look like. The assignment challenged them to think beyond borders and co-create new forms of creativity.

Collaborating across borders
The project took place within a COIL framework (Collaborative Online International Learning). Its goal was to enable international cooperation without the need for travel, while exploring how VR can support intercultural communication, artistic expression, and innovative education.

“VR not only made it possible to work together remotely”, says Farah, a Tourism Management student at Inholland. “It also gave me the freedom to experiment and express myself in a different way.”

The project was initiated by Kasia Głowicka, researcher at Inholland’s Authentic Leadership research group en developer of the creativity curriculum (Comenius Senior Fellow, 2023). For this project she developed a specific series of sessions in VR. She collaborated with her Inholland colleague Esther Bouw (lectorate Design Thinking), Ieva Zemīte (Latvian Academy of Culture), and Avinash Changa (WeMakeVR).

Supported by a VIS innovation grant from the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, the project bridged education and industry. Avinash brought in his expertise in immersive storytelling, which inspired students to explore VR as a sensory, poetic, and expressive medium.

Immersive creativity
The results were both creative and culturally rich. One team designed a virtual “gallery walk” where you begin with antic art collection and follow up to the modern Dutch dance club. Another team build a story-telling theater about the future of art classroom with hollograpic decore. One group even presented an immersive poem in which floating words, sound, and movement blended into a live VR performance.

But the most valuable outcome was the experience itself. Students learned to collaborate in an international context, developed both digital and social skills, and grew in self-confidence. “I was hesitant at first,” one participant shared, “but presenting as an avatar soon felt liberating.”

The sense of connection between students was strong. Many kept in touch after the project, and some collaborations even turned into friendships.

The future of learning
“Connected Creativity in VR” shows how technology, creativity, and international collaboration can reinforce one another. By literally stepping outside their own reality, students discovered new ways of thinking, working, and creating. A project that not only anticipates the education of tomorrow – but already offers a glimpse of it.

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We are currently facing several crises that deal with the disturbed balance between humanity and the earth. To change this, no solutions are yet available and looking for them alone is insufficient to restore the balance. The process of how to get there will also have to change, with not only the interests of people at heart. Our relationship with nature must change.  But how do we do that?      

Symbiocene   
The term symbiocene was introduced by author and environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht¹. The term is derived from the word symbiosis, which in biology stands for the long-term coexistence of two or more organisms of different species. In the symbiocene, relationships and connection of all living things are central. Albrecht's premise is that all living things such as humans, animals, plants, bacteria, fungi, microorganisms, form an integrally connected whole. Man is not at the top of the pyramid, but is an equal part. That gives humans a more humble place. That helps to deal with climate issues differently.   

But what does it mean, living in the symbiocene?   

Summer Research School  
From June 28 to 30, 2023, the Summer research school Symbiocene took place on Zeeburger Island, a collaboration between the Inholland Sluislab and the Centre of Expertise for Creative Innovation (CoECI) initiated by An Kramer. An is a researcher at the Inholland Research group Design Thinking and also the linking pin between the Creative Business Research Center and CoECI. During the Summer research school, thirty participants examined together the question: What does the Symbiocene mean on the Zeeburger Island?   

Co-research   
Ten students from various programs, ten residents and ten researchers worked together in small diverse teams. Precisely the varied composition made that everyone's individuality was in demand. Where one person knew everything about edible plants, another knew about sound engineering, and a third person just had two right hands and could turn an idea into something tangible.  

No fixed goals, but results  
Precisely because of the open approach of the research question, the participants were able to choose their own fascination, such as protecting nature, or, on the contrary, speculatively seek how nature would make devices to communicate with us humans.   

Making and sharing art as a research outcome  
The assignment to the participants was not entirely open-ended. They were asked to work toward an experience circuit: a route across Zeeburger Island offering guests an experience, based on their researched fascination. In between, the teams shared their ideas and showed prototypes they made. The very act of making things together produced different end results.  

Documentary and book  
The search for symbiosis on Zeeburger Island has been recorded in a documentary and a booklet. For inspiration for everyone who, on a small or larger scale, is looking for ways to connect with nature in an essentially different way.  The documentary follows one of the teams. You see how they search together for what the symbiocene could mean and eventually arrive at a surprising idea and result. You also see the joint assignments, and the final experience circuit.  

In the booklet you will read the background of the concept of the symbiocene, and find the different results of the teams and the background of their search. In addition, you will get to know the participants through small nature portraits. 

Follow-up event - Make Place! 
There will be a follow-up to the Symbiocene Summer research school on Sunday 7 April, including a keynote by Glenn Albrecht, the founder of Symbiocene, live from Australia! More information about the programme will follow soon. You can already register via an.kramer@inholland.nl