The ignite page is an attempt to breathe some life into a dialogue with the world about curiosity and imagination. Rather than just give an account of the life of Curious Planet and ask for feedback, I would like to invite you to take a journey of exploration and inquiry into how we can support curiosity and creativity to thrive across the world.
Each month we will update this page with some ideas about how we might challenge ourselves and the world in this way and we ask our web-friends to try some of the suggestions and let us know how you get on with them
Two ideas for this month:
Below are some questions that were given to party guests at the first Curious Planet Christmas party in December last year - and some of their answers. Some of the questions are taken from Pablo Neruda's Book of Questions.
Does smoke talk to the clouds?
When the atmosphere is right
What is the colour of water on a cold day?
It is often grey, but mostly white
What is the distance between seeing and understanding?
However long it takes your brain to engage
Isn't the city the great ocean of mattresses?
I never thought of it that way before, but yes I can see it, although not as bouncy
How did the owl meet the pussycat?
The 7.43 to Victoria was delayed
How does the colour green turn towards the heart?
Left
What is the space between secrecy and privacy?
42
Is risk about running down the back streets of Rio de Janeiro naked?
No, but it is with pockets full of cash
What do rubies say standing before the juice of pomegranates?
You have a perfect shape. I am sharp
We are interested in setting up a question that goes round the web-world (like a paperchain letter, or the world's longest riddle)
It would work like this
You send an e-mail to all your contacts with the word - Curious? In the subject bar.
You place a question that interests you in the main body
After the question you give the following instruction "To stimulate curiosity and imagination in the world - please think about this question and what it might mean to you. Then use this question to formulate a new question and send it to your address book contacts."
Second idea
I would like to
set up a 21st Century version of the Scouts/Guides etc. So I have put
together description of an Inquisitive Beast to describe young people
who are aged 5 - 18, and who show resourcefulness, invention and
curiosity. I would be interested in hearing from adults who work with
children about how they might use the Inquisitive Beast scheme to
support their work in this area.
- Someone who explores the unknown (not just geographically - this could be a feeling based or internal inspection, finding out about others or researching the past
- Someone who makes friends with new people who have different skills to them (could be someone from a different culture, age group or skill base). Warning - always tell your parents if you are making contact with people who you don't know
- Someone who takes ordinary things and makes them extraordinary (this could be taking a new approach to getting to school, working with your teachers to set up your classrooms in new and exciting ways, inventing something that will help you with your chores)
- Someone who ask questions about areas where they feel others might benefit (this might be investigating ways to help younger children with their reading, or building a presentation for your school and community about health issues for young people)
- Someone who wants to learn new skills across a range of subjects, and who has the discipline to practice and the desire to be an ambassador for curiosity to other young people
- Someone who likes to hear about new ideas and to offer new ideas
Curious Planet believes that the rise of Inquisitive Beasts will:
- Help communities be more tolerant towards each other
- Result in more innovation and invention among young people
- Re-brand young people as participants and contributors to the success of society
- Have a positive impact on the interaction of young people with schools and other age groups
- Build a generation of outward looking and socially responsible people\
- Improve understanding of self-determination and therefore aspiration and direction in young people who live in the more deprived areas of the UK
- Provoke a curious and imaginative society who use the arts to resolve and support society
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