Hannah Arendt and World-Building Through Photography.
‘We are free to change the world and start something new in.’ Hannah Arendt.
I was introduced to the work of philosopher Hannah Arendt, and her concept of ‘world-building’ during the CATALYST by Winchester College Horizons Summer programme 2024. One of our tutors, Dr Beth Mackintosh, introduced her ideas and outlined how for Arendt, ‘world-building’ is the human creation and sustaining of a shared world through our art, objects, space and structures. These individual and communal creative endeavours, that endure over time, helps us as humans to shape and makes sense of our complex and messy lives.
I was joined by a dynamic cohort of students from across the globe and one of our challenges was to take a philosophical walk, engage with philosophical readings, and to take pictures of our little part of the world, or our ‘stomping ground’, as Beth referred to it. We then shared our reflections and our unique contexts and communities through these photos. I proudly shared my beautiful walk through my neighbourhood in Tunis, and as a keen photographer I asked to showcase some of my work beyond the 4-5 photos that were required for this part of the challenge. This sharing of our worlds, through our collective photos, became a daily ritual and we were keen that this truly human activity, as Arendt would see it, would sustain and continue and hold us together as a group of students who had shared each other’s worlds, and who were soon to become CATALYST Alumni.
In April 2025 (and Spring Break) we launched our weekly #shareyourworld #worldbuidlingphotography project via our CATALYST by Winchester College Instagram page (and via the LinkedIn platform). This sought to knit our CATLYST Alumni together, but to also encourage the sort of goodwill and the adventurous enjoyment of diverse perspectives and literal worldviews that Arendt would espouse. We not only share our worlds via photography, but also our reading. I have just read Lyndsey Stonebridge’s biography of Arendt, We are Free to Change the World, and the book ends with Arendt’s rallying cry: ‘Now pay attention and get on with the work.’ Timely stuff!
Beth and Meriem x
Dr Beth Mackintosh and Meriem Allani
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