Science, comedy, and curiosity came together at the University of South Australia Mount Gambier Campus when they hosted their very first Fringe event.
The event, ‘Point of Impact – The End Of The World As We Know It,’ was presented by Australia’s leading future-focused museum MOD., located at the UniSA Bradley building in Adelaide.
Professor Craig Williams, who shared his research on mosquito-borne diseases and environmental collapse, said he was thrilled he had the opportunity to visit Mount Gambier.
“I thought the level of the audience was really comfortable and engaging, not just with the kinds of questions but offering their insights and sharing their own knowledge,” he said.
“Everywhere you go you learn from the people around you and it was just wonderful to hear those sorts of ideas and thoughts from the audience.”
Event host Jason Chong said sessions were held in Whyalla and Mount Gambier and the Mount Gambier session received a larger turnout with a broad age range.
“It is a nice way to showcase the people that are doing research and what they are researching and bring that research to people as well, because unless you are in that industry you are not reading what papers are published,” he said.
“I think it is comforting there are smart people looking at possibilities and figuring out how to circumvent the end of the world.”
MOD. exhibition and experience design manager Dr Lisa Bailey said the event was part of MOD.’s regional engagement program and said they wanted the event to be a fun night out rather than a standard lecture.
“It does not mean that you are not going to learn anything just because you are enjoying yourself, those things are not exclusive,” she said.
“We think it is a really effective way to get people engaged in stories about research, it puts it in an interesting frame and a way that you might not have thought about it before.
“It is a fun hook to get people’s attention, and I think you could tell from all of the questions that we got from the audience that people were really taking it in and were really interested in what they had to say.”
A teacher professional development session, ‘Navigating the Future,’ was delivered by MOD. director and futurist Dr Kristin Alford before the public event.
“It was really about helping educators help their students in thinking about the future, that is something that we need to be able to do even if the future might seem scary and unknown,” Dr Bailey said.
“We want to be able to provide educators and students with tools so they feel confident and capable with dealing with the future.
“You want people to be able to set goals for the future and find multiple pathways to get to those goals and feel they have a sense of agency to reach those goals.
“We know that all of those things help people have a positive outlook for the future and feel they can make a positive change.”
Dr Bailey said the event received support from the Mount Gambier City Council and the Adelaide Fringe Regional Art Touring Fund.
“We are definitely planning to do it next year and we are hoping that it is something we will be able to do ongoing,” she said.
“We do want it to be something that might get built into the calendar of what people expect as part of Mount Gambier Fringe.”
