Conference: Navigating Informal Education

The conference unfolded in parallel with the 2024 Living Summer School (5 and 6 June) under the

shared theme Living (in) Repairs. Hosted across the school’s active sites—an adventure playground, a community garden, and a mobile construction hub—the conference brought together educators, spatial practitioners, cultural workers, and artists to explore how learning happens beyond formal institutions.

The conference was conceived not only as a place for exchange, but as a performative event in its own right, playful, situated, and symbolically anchored in the metaphor of navigation. Borrowing from the world of sailing and travel, the event was framed as a voyage through informal educational waters. A professional actor performed the role of a boat captain, welcoming participants aboard and steering them, metaphorically and logistically, through the different "ports of call" across the LSS sites. This framing lightened the atmosphere and helped set the tone for a gathering that resisted academic rigidity in favor of openness, humor, and embodied presence.

The structure of the conference reflected this navigational logic: each session or encounter became a stop on a drifting itinerary. Discussions unfolded in the shade of trees, at construction tables, during walks, or around food. Moments of dialogue were interspersed with silence, pauses, and practical activities, mirroring the rhythms of a slow-moving vessel exploring uncertain terrain.

The conference welcomed a number of contributors from the LINA platform. LINA fellows Sasha Baraitser Smith (Soundcamp) and Lydia Gresakova and Viktoria Mravčáková (Spolka) were joined by LINA members Dr. John Bingham-Hall (Theatrum Mundi), Rabea Kaczor and Sophie Charleson (Forecast Platform), Irana Šehović (LIFT Spatial Initiatives) and Dina Suhanova (Art Academy of Latvia). Their contributions helped anchor key conversations around ecological pedagogy, dialogic practices, and the creative potential of unlearning.

In addition, a broader constellation of institutions took part in the conference, including:,ConstructLab, KU Leuven, Floating University, BONJOUR / ENSAPLV, Toestand, Refu Interim, BAF!, and Haven Cooperatie.

These diverse contributors brought grounded, site-specific practices that enriched the collective exploration of education as both method and material. The event culminated in a Public Forum, where the work on the three sites was blended with the panel discussions in a public presentation, where Bernadetta Budzik was involved, a guest lecture by Floating e.V and it was concluded by a live radio performance by Soundcamp, who shared recorded fragments from the summer school and conference—conversations, ambient sounds, shared meals, and quiet moments of listening. Known for favoring ephemeral, live-only transmissions, Soundcamp’s decision to record and publicly share these sounds marked a rare and deliberate departure—an informal archive of an informal gathering.

The Public Forum ended with a festive celebration with projections, a “car pool”, live music and food. A conference publication is currently in production and will include contributions from many participants, including a reflection by Sasha Baraitser Smith. It will serve as both a record and a continuation of the event’s central question: How can we navigate education when the maps are incomplete, the waters are unpredictable, and the knowledge we seek emerges only in relation?