Most Interesting Person in the classroom
Since 2022 I have had the opportunity to bring Most Interesting Person into the classroom via the Nimbin trajectory at Fontys University of Applied Sciences. Nimbin is something of an outlier module at Fontys, providing an altnernative journalism experience centred on observation, creative techniques and emotional engagement. It exists as a counterpoint within the curriculum whereby students are encouraged to
consider process over output. It’s unorthodox structure include attempting to be bored, finding stories in supermarkets and sitting and watching an unknown neighorhood, makes it well loved by the select students who are invited to join the course.
I was delighted to put together a Most Interesting Person workshop as part of the Nimbin module. Thiis will be the third year in which we have run the session.
How does it work?
Students visit STUSTUSTUDIO, my studio in Amsterdam Noord. They are placed in pairs and need to find a starting point somewhere within 20-30 mins of the studio, which is large catchment area for a relatively small city. The pair need to find someone interesting to meet, engage with and interview. A shop keeper, marketstall holder, a person on a park bench or playing in a field. Anyone is ok, and the idea is that this person will take the pair to the most interesting person they know in the neighborhood. Whereby the pair repeat the process. Each person leads to the next and over the course of the trail of interconnecfted interviewees build up a picture of the area and the people living and working their.
It has proven to be a powerful means to experience place with a depth that can only really be found through personal connection. Below are presentations from two students who applied the technique. Adaja in Amsterdam Noord, Fara in the Jordaan area of Amsterdam. Their experiences were deeply impactful, when they returned to the studio for debriefing it was touching to hear how far an intimately they had met ‘real’ people representing the neighbourhoods that would have been alusive otherwise.
Debriefing at STUSTUSTUDIO
