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Contrary to the familiar image of the solitary inventor, Prof W. Bernard Carlson makes it clear that innovators never work alone. Drawing on pivotal examples in engineering and design, from the Buick automobile to the glass-ceramic wedding gift, Carlson presents innovation as a collective undertaking—a shaping of the path through which a product finds meaning.

Creativity as an aspirational goal has found its way into policy and popular discourse in recent years. It is a goal that, according to Patrick Collins – University of Galway Lecturer and author of the upcoming Galway: Making a Capital of Culture – requires a historical, cultural and geographical context. While Galway boasts a rich creative economy, here Patrick asks: does it have the capacity to support young creatives to make new types of culture in the future? Feature image: Artist: Galway Community Circus. Performance/event: LifeLine. Photographer: Emilija Jefremova.

University of Galway student, Ikenna Anyabuike, is an actor, writer, assistant dramaturg and one half of the musical duo, ARMCANDY. Ikenna was awarded the ‘Baptiste Programme’ with Smock Alley in 2022, the ‘Axis Assemble 2022’ with Axis Ballymun and the ‘Irish Seed Grant’ by the Irish Hospice Foundation for an upcoming collaboration with visual artist Maclaine Black (2023). He also performs as part of an ensemble for the play ‘The Kinds of Sex You Might Have in College’ with Active* Consent. A graduate of Drama and Theatre Studies, Ikenna is continuing his studies in 2023 with a postgraduate programme in Creative Arts Management at University of Galway. We sat down with the artist to talk through his creative process and his thoughts on education.

Why might a Lecturer in Physics at University of Galway go about training hundreds of academics to perform comedy around their research? According to Bright Club Ireland founder Dr Jessamyn Fairfield, comedy is a creative process, a remixing of stories with the aim of flipping one’s perspective and piercing through the tension of a watchful audience. With the toolkit of improv comedy in hand, Jessamyn is building confidence, connection and innovative learning methods among a variety of academic fields.

We need to change national conversations around sexual consent; creativity makes that possible, says Dr Charlotte McIvor.

Spotify is the world’s largest music streaming platform, serving 456 million users with access to songs and podcasts from artists across the globe.   Alum Stephen Dooley is both an independent musician and an Engineering Manager at Spotify. He recently played at Éalú Le Grá Festival as one half of London-based house duo, Delac. We sat down to ask Stephen about his thoughts on making music, studying at University of Galway and the influence of Spotify on the music industry today.   Image: Original photograph by Alex Waespi (alexandrawaespi.com), design by Unthink.