Space Pirates of the Ocean City

In this high octane adventure, our two swashbuckling heroes recount their triumphant battle against the double curse of institutionalised spaces and literal thinking. All aboard ‘The Mulberry Pearl’, Jacky and Elizabeth and a motley crew of academics, learning developers, students and sustainable friends have turned the wreck of a failing but much-loved canteen into The Writing Café: an alternative learning space with its heart in the tradition of coffee house culture and its head in Deleuzian infused writing pedagogies. The historical legacy of the coffee house is rooted in a culture of community, collaboration and social activity, as a hub for philosophical, political and artistic circles, cross fertilisation occurred between different disciplines in an unparalleled manner (Segal, 1993). The success of the coffee house can also be attributed to its ability to break down social hierarchy and cultural boundaries by creating a ‘third space’ – a site of learning outside of the walls of the academy (Bhaba, 1994). In the same way, The Writing Café provides a welcoming and purposeful space where staff and students can write together, helping to challenge notions ‘novice’ and ‘expert’ and reframe what it means to ‘write in the disciplines’. In the Writing Café, Arts and Humanities meets Science and Technology, encouraging the co-creation of knowledge in a communal space where (academic) writing practices can be explored and developed through “mutual engagement with other writers” (Lave and Wenger cited in Murray and Newton, 2009:549). By recognising the importance of space and its impact on learning and teaching, this ‘classic horror’ offer delegates a blueprint, a treasure map of sorts, that encourages us to consider the ways in which it is still possible and desirable to strive to create holey spaces within the cracks of heterotopia (Deleuze and Guattari 1988), fleeting spaces of freedom which physically and pedagogically embody an alternative response to some of the challenges and concerns facing 21st century Higher Education institutions.