Thematic Network. Final Retreat NET QUASI: Ways of Seeing
Ways of Seeing
Nature is a master designer, shaping molecules, materials, organisms, and ecosystems through interactions across scales. Yet many of its most remarkable strategies remain hidden in plain sight, waiting to be revealed through careful observation. Scientific discovery often begins not with a hypothesis, but with a way of seeing: the ability to notice patterns, ask unexpected questions, and look at familiar phenomena from a different perspective.
With this retreat, we would like to celebrate observation as a catalyst for curiosity, understanding, discovery, and innovation. Together, we will reflect on how attentiveness to the natural world inspires new ideas, challenges existing assumptions, and opens pathways to scientific and technological breakthroughs. Through the exchange of perspectives and experiences, we hope to explore how careful observation can transform wonder into understanding, and how insights from nature can inspire entirely new ways of designing.
Agenda
14:30 – 14:45 : Opening Remarks
14:45 – 16:00: Keynote Lecture Prof. Saad Bhamla (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)
16:00 – 17:30 : Documentary Screening: Observer. Director: Ian Cheney
In the 95-minute doc, Cheney brings a series of keen-eyed observers — scientists, artists, and a hunter — to a range of locations around the world and asks them to describe what they see. What unfolds is a thought-provoking journey into the simple but transformative act of observing.
17:30 – 18:15: Round Table Discussion Ways of Seeing: What Can Nature Still Teach Us?
18:15 – 18:30: Closing Remarks
18:30 : Networking Reception & Refreshments
To register click here.
