CREATIVE WORKSHOPS
The Institute of Creativity and Innovation (ICI) at Xiamen University specially presented the "Creative Workshop" series for primary and secondary school students during the opening week of the ICI Design Season. We cordially invited students from primary and secondary schools in Xiamen to participate in this year's Design Season opening week activities. Through a variety of engaging and enlightening graduation project presentations, creative workshops, and comprehensively guided tours of exhibition, we built an interactive platform between higher education and social public aesthetic education. This initiative has sparked creative thinking among young learners, broadened their cognitive boundaries for design, and injected a vibrant youth perspective to the future innovation and development of the city.
Secondary School Session | Paper Imagination
On the afternoon of May 31st, the secondary school session of the ICI Design Season kicked off in a vibrant atmosphere, drawing enthusiastic participation from over 40 students and their parents.
In the first segment of this session, students listened to six outstanding graduates share their graduation project stories and design philosophies, gaining insight into the creative problem-solving journey—from identifying social issues to crafting innovative solutions.
The second segment featured the "Paper Imagination" creative workshop. Guided by Lin Zequan, students transformed sheets of paper into vivid characters, animating them with actions and narratives. Instructor Lin specially demonstrated how even seemingly casual paper-folding could come to life through creativity, radiating unique vitality. Following this, Lecturer Roderic Deering led participants in observing these paper creations, encouraging imaginative character development and collaborative storytelling. Students practiced English expression and storytelling by describing and narrating their own stories of creativity in English, fostering both linguistic and imaginative skills through interactive fun.
The third segment offered an in-depth guided tour of exhibition. Led by faculty and graduates in small groups, students explored and appreciated design works up close, interacted with installations, and immersed themselves in the playful yet infinite problem-solving power of design. This experience deepened their understanding that "design is a creative practice in response to societal needs."
Primary School Session | Creative Conceptualization of Future Life
“Will the cities of the future fly? Can you understand your feelings at home?” On the afternoon of June 1st, the ICI, Xiamen University, hosted a parent-child creative workshop titled "Future Life Imagination," attracting over 80 primary school students and parents to wield "AI-powered drawing tools" on a journey of envisioning future lifestyles.
This session began with a short film of science fiction to spark parent-child discussions about future worlds, guiding participants to conceptualize future transportation, smart homes, and eco-communities through color and imagination. With an innovative usage of AI drawing tools, children first sketched creative concepts by hand, which were then enhanced by AI for intelligent refinement—creating a seamless workflow of "inspiration sparking, AI generation, hands-on creation, and technological refinement." Under professional mentorship, families with parents and their children learned and analyzed future tech elements and societal issues, proposing solutions with creative design. In the process of nurturing innovative thinking, seeds of social responsibility were sowed. Parents and children collaboratively transformed wild imaginations into tangible blueprints of tomorrow.
Subsequently, children engaged in close interaction with interactive installations, immersing themselves in the playful yet powerful nature of design. This exploratory journey not only exposed them to cutting-edge design practices but also ignited sparks of technological innovation.
Through the complete chain of "graduation sharing → hands-on practice → exhibition learning", this series of sessions provided the young students with a profound creative experience, planting seeds of design thinking in their hearts and showcasing the university's pioneering role in nurturing future urban creative talents.
It is reported that the ICI Design Season, an annual academic brand event launched by the ICI, Xiamen University, alongside its degree show, aims to bring design beyond campus into public discourse. By fostering interactions with urban renewal, rural revitalization, creative industries, and AI technological development, it showcases the innovative design achievements of the college's students to society, embodying the institution's commitment to shaping future-ready creativ
