A Curious mind is all you need

The future of our personal data, the use of the Scots language, and what makes a good city for the future will all go under the microscope at the RSE’s Curious festival of knowledge this September.

The free-of-charge festival takes place from 6-14 September. It brings together experts to host a series of thought-provoking talks and workshops on exploration, the creative arts, health and wellbeing, videogames and a range of other social issues.

Among the events this year is a poignant talk about Scotland’s colonial past, led by Ash Charlton, PhD student and recently a project researcher with the University of Edinburgh’s Anatomical Museum.

The talk – Taken, studied, displayed: readdressing the University of Edinburgh’s African skull collections – will explore a recent project to research and improve documentation of the museum’s skull collections as a basis for future repatriation requests.

Ash Charlton said: “This event will share the stories of the individuals whose skulls are in the collection, where they came from and how they became part of the museum’s collection.

“Unfortunately, very little is known about most of these individuals through historic erasure and lack of documentation, although through this talk I will discuss some of the few cases we know more about.

“Conversely a lot more is known about the ‘donors’ who presented these human remains to the university. Medical students, doctors, religious missionaries, geologists and botanists were all responsible for contributing to the growing anatomy collections.”

Also on the programme this year is Play for Good, an exhibition and group discussion about how games and play can be used to address challenges in health, wellbeing and social inclusion.

One of the event organisers is Dr Andrew Reid from Abertay University, and member of the Young Academy of Scotland. He said: “Simply put, designing games for good means thinking about how games can provide a positive outcome to various social or cultural environments.

“We’ve got a couple of projects here that are showing games to promote physical activity by using your body as an input, all the way through to exploring mental health as a topic.

“These are generally spaces that are quite difficult to deal with in any given context, but within games we create a safe space to explore some very challenging issues and very challenging conversations.”

While many of the Curious events are held within the RSE, this year’s Curious programme also features an interactive walking tour around Edinburgh’s iconic Greyfriars Kirkyard.

Led by Daria Tuhtar, the tour will explore the unique and intricate language of symbols and metaphors that many of the monuments in Greyfriars are decorated with, and how people’s attitudes towards death have changed with the passage of time. The tour will uncover how ideas of death, immortality and resurrection coalesce in one of the most striking locations that Edinburgh boasts.

Royal Society of Edinburgh General Secretary Professor Jo Shaw said: “Today we announce the programme of the RSE’s Curious festival.

“Curious is an opportunity to throw open the door to the RSE, Scotland’s National Academy. We’re bringing together some of Scotland’s leading thinkers, covering a broad range of topics – from video games to UFOs  –  and starting important conversations around big ideas.

“Everyone is welcome, and you don’t need any prior knowledge to take part and learn something new. Most importantly, every event is free. Just bring yourself and your curiosity.”