FlourishCafe: An Interactive Dialogue with AI on Flourishing in and through Art (Eri Mountbatten-O'Malley and Mark Lodge) (part of doing together 25)

FlourishCafe: An Interactive Dialogue with AI on Flourishing in and through Art7th April 2025FlourishCafé is a social enterprise that helps participants explore what flourishing means to them through creative methods like world café, informed by systems theory and visual thinking. After last year's successful workshop, "Flourishing through doing art," this activity was adapted to take participants into a new creative space. Partnering with artist Mark Lodge, who co-facilitated an innovative workshop.Part 1: Pre-workshop – ‘AR Treasure Hunt’ for all doing together delegates featured QR codes at various locations around the Locksbrook building. Scanning the codes revealed images, words, and themes from last year’s FlourishCafé discussions.Part 2: ‘Interactive Dialogue with AI on Flourishing in Art’ was a session that used AI to spark creative thinking.Part 3: ‘Facilitated Dialogue on Art for Flourishing Futures’ was a group discussion using artistic, creative methods, aiming for deep learning, collective insight, and resolution.doing together 25doing together is a yearly two-day making and sharing practice symposium at Locksbrook Campus, hosted by the Art Research Centre (Bath School of Art, Film and Media) in collaboration with Bath School of Design and the Centre of Cultural and Creative Industries.doing together is a platform to connect staff, students, and the community through making, collaboration and experimentation.Workshops, delivered by staff and PGR students from across the University, share practice-based research methods and a broad range of approaches to practice. doing together is proposed as a generous space to make/do/share and discuss practice with colleagues from a range of different Schools.Throughout the symposium, facilitators – alongside participants – test out ways of doing together in an effort to make their practice-based research explicit, rather than simply describe it.