In my last blog post, I gave you an overview of the first half of my Long Study Tour in London. Now, it’s finally time for the other half!
Wednesday, November 8th
Since we had free time in the morning, I decided to go around the City of London to do one of the Rick Steves walking tours. In the afternoon, we met as a class in Shoreditch for a Street Art Tour and a Street Art Workshop. It was amazing to explore the multicultural and vibrant communities of the East End of London through the street art. Hearing from our tour guide about street artists made me realize how one’s creativity is highly influenced by their environment and background.
Here are some of my favorite street art pieces:
After the tour, we went to an art studio where we got to practice the art of graffiti-making. Our guide gave us information about how to spray the paint bottle correctly, how to practice a signature, and how to use layers to make graffiti.
My graffiti artwork and signature attempt 😀
To finish the day off with an exciting event, we went to a bar called Flight Club, where we played darts in groups. The ones who got the highest points also competed in a dart tournament which was really entertaining to watch.
Final picture from the dart tournament
Thursday, November 9th
On Thursday, we went on a day trip to Oxford. Even now, when I recall the day, all my memories feel like a faded dream. Oxford was more magical than I imagined it to be!
In the morning, we took an hour-long train from London to Oxford. After our arrival, we attended a lecture at St. Anne’s College of the University of Oxford. Our lecturer was a PhD student who talked about literary creativity, specifically language arts. He was particularly interested in language acquisition and how our brains make sense of visual stories combined with language. My favorite part of the lecture was when we played a video game called Storyteller as a class. It was so fascinating how each of us created such a wide range of stories based on limited characters and settings.
After the lecture, we had some time to get lunch, and then we gathered again for a guided walking tour of Oxford. Our tour guide who was an Oxford alumna shared lots of insight and fun facts about Oxford that I never knew before. It was charming to walk on the same streets as many notable Oxford alumni walked on once.
The last event of the day was having afternoon tea in a rooftop restaurant in Oxford. Now, I can understand why this tradition has been present for so long because it’s simply awesome! As a major tea consumer from Turkey, afternoon tea was just like a dream. After we devoured all the treats as a class, we explored the city a bit more and took the train back to London.
Friday, November 10th
On Friday, we only had enough time to go to the Science Museum as a class. We were divided into our final project groups and we looked for inspiration in different exhibits. Each group in my class is going to present interactive research about the cognitive neuroscience of creativity at the DIS fair. My group was assigned to work with visual creativity. Science can be very difficult to communicate, especially when the audience doesn’t have a lot of background knowledge. That is why going to the Science Museum, reading descriptions, and engaging with exhibits were helpful in collecting ideas about how to present our final project.
After the museum trip, we came back to our hotel and concluded our Long Study Tour.
At the end of this Long Study Tour, the bustling city of London stole my heart. Now, I’m even considering living there!
Don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions about this study tour!
Besna On the Go 