Science of Self Workshop
An Anthroprospective and Archleys collaboration
About this Event
Unlocking New Ways of Seeing Yourself and the World Around You
In their first-ever collaboration, Anthroprospective and Archleys came together to host the inaugural Science of Self workshop - an immersive gathering that brought together our communities for an evening of thoughtful dialogue, creative exploration, and collective reflection.
Set in the calm, light-filled rooms of the White House in St Kilda, generously offered by our friends at the Small Giants Academy, Science of Self emerged to the public. It was a chance to play, to pause, and to open up conversations that are often left unsaid.
Part reflective tool, part conversation catalyst, Science of Self is a work-in-progress (soon to be launched in 2025), a game designed to help people make sense of themselves and the world around them through the lens of social theory, empathy, and systems thinking. At this workshop, we invited our community to test the game, offer feedback, and help shape its next chapter. Together, we explored what it means to translate big ideas into accessible, human moments.
The evening wove together elements of anthropology, social science, psychology, design, facilitation, and embodied learning. It created space for stillness and surprise, for insight and laughter, for thoughtful connection with strangers and new perspectives on familiar things. What emerged was more than just feedback on our prototype; it was the beginning of a community of practice - one that values depth over speed, curiosity over certainty, and dialogue over division.
We're so grateful to everyone who showed up with open minds and generous spirits, and to Small Giants Academy for creating the conditions for this kind of work to take root.
This is just the beginning and we can’t wait to share it with you.
"Our work now is not to create manifold or totalizing blueprints for new worlds, because I think we tend to repeat the dynamics of the world we're in, in the one we're envisioning. Sometimes the future is just a colonial attempt of the present. So I would say that what we need to do is to stay with the trouble, meet in places where we can be met by the world in return, hopefully defeated in our attempts to understand it. Where confusion becomes a form of research inquiry. Confusion becomes a philosophy, an epistemology. And maybe there, maybe there, we might learn about the world and about ourselves anew. There is no guarantee. But that's the invitation of the moment."
— Bayo Akomolafe
"One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu – the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can’t exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can’t be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality – Ubuntu – you are known for your generosity. We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity."
— Desmond Tutu
— Desmond Tutu
“The purpose of anthropology is to make the world safe for human differences.”
- Ruth Benedict
