College of Extraordinary Experiences
Hogwarts in real life.
ClientIndustry ProfessionalsWebsiteextraordinary.collegeServicesstudent, participant, volunteer, facilitator, performerYear2019, 2022
The college of Extraordinary Experiences or COEE is a unique conference held in a 13th-century castle in Czocha, Poland. It introduces an immersive education to study and practice experience design together with some of the world’s finest artists and business minds alike. The College is an immersive, extraordinary experience of its own as well, where you get challenged at every corner and yanked out of your comfort zone.
In 2019, I was lucky enough to join the community of the College. I attended as a volunteer and received an invite due to my past theatrical experiences, which meant that I could help create immersive characters (in the form of fantastical goblins). The theme of the 2019 edition of the College was “Call to the Wild”, so as we learned more about the fabrics of experience design we explored our relationship with nature and sustainable development. Together with Leon Simmonds, an artist and magician I befriended, we built a “learning arch” with the intention for people to learn together as a calling to the wild.
In 2022, I joined in a different capacity – not as a volunteer but as a full-fletched student, not only making me the proud recipient of an “experience designer extraordinaire” diploma but also allowing me to fully immerse myself in the curriculum of the professors while co-creating with the international co-hort of peers. Next to the ad-hoc treasure hunts that I ended up concocting I particularly enjoyed an immersive theatre workshop Eliza Calmat, Frances Vieras Blanc and I ended up hosting together. Here, we shared and exchanged some of our learned findings over the years.
