From the history of an early photographic process to an updated workshop on practical preparations, Night of Ideas returned to San Marcos on March 27.

Night of Ideas is an annual global event in partnership with Villa Albertine, a network for French and American arts and ideas, and the French Embassy. Texas State hosted it at Taylor-Murphy and Comal halls, and many presentations incorporated features such as film screenings, music, workshops and speeches.

This year’s theme was “Enlightenment Now! Ideas and Stories to Make Impact,” which explored democracies’ philosophical and political roots. Louie Dean Valencia, associate professor of digital history, has organized Night of Ideas at Texas State since last year.

“Taking the idea of enlightenment specifically during the 1700s in the United States and France, all of our democratic institutions were born,” Valencia said. “It’s democracy, it’s having freedom of speech and all of these things where you have the ability to make change in the world.”

Valencia is an internationally recognized speaker and researcher. While attending Fordham University in 2016, he went to the first-ever Night of Ideas.

“In 2016, when I was a student, at one point throughout the night I found myself sleeping under a table because I was just so exhausted,” Valencia said. “It was one of those nights where you meet so many people, and you become exposed to so many new ideas.”

Valencia was inspired by his experience as a student, and he decided to bring the event to Texas State. He emailed the French Embassy to get permission to host Night of Ideas to bring a unique perspective to the community.

With major cities like New York and Los Angeles hosting the same event, San Marcos was the smallest town to host Night of Ideas, but it also had the most attendees. According to the Night of Ideas’ Instagram, over 500 people attended this year.

Over 100 speakers and artists presented from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. They explored many guiding principles, ranging from Texas State senior students presenting their research on how the Enlightenment affected consumerism to a UC Berkeley assistant professor offering a keynote on the role of knowledge in society. According to Valencia, over half of the participants were Texas State students.

Meggie Emerick, resource and environmental studies alumna, participated both years. This year, she brought a cyanotype workshop, a 19th-century camera-less printing style that produces photographic images through light and blue monochromatic prints, for attendees to get a hands-on perspective on the old photographic process.

Emerick said her work was heavily inspired by botanist Anna Atkins, who used this process to copy different plants for more detailed visualizations. She said she wanted to create a hands-on and unique approach to art and photography.

“I think what’s really important about what I’m doing here tonight is that people are working with their hands to make something tangible as art,” Emerick said. “It’s getting people back to the roots of photography.”

Emerick said she is concerned about what AI is doing to art, collaboration and community. Participating in Night of Ideas allowed Emerick to showcase the positive impact of resisting AI art and working together as a community.

“I think when you’re creating AI, you’re behind your computer, usually by yourself, but this is such a collaborative space where you have things you can play with on the table, and you’ve got everyone sharing ideas together,” Emerick said. “It really is cool to be able to create that sense of community and do that here in a workshop.”

Another presentation, consisting of three San Marcos locals, provided a lecture to attendees on “Survival Tactics for Collapse.” The Active Hope Alliance is a group of three women: retired social worker and lawyer Carmen Rumbaut, co-founder Betsy Robertson and co-affiliate Carolyn Jennings. As San Marcos residents for over 50 years, they have made it their mission to prepare the community for the collapse of society.

While preparing attendees for “renewal,” or times after collapse, the Active Hope Alliance passionately talked about what to do in case of the apocalypse. They educated people on preparing a “go bag” with important essentials that may be needed, how to prepare for “renewal” and knowing citizens’ rights in order to protect oneself in case of a government collapse.

“One topic is a material level of how institutions fall apart, how we can prepare when it comes to food and water,” Robertson said. “But also, there’s human rights violations that are occurring as the democratic institutions fall.”

Night of Ideas gave The Active Hope Alliance a platform to talk about the political instability currently happening in the communities around the world by showcasing their passions in different but impactful perspectives.

“You have to look at what’s happening with new eyes,” Rumbaut said. “Discover coping mechanisms and learn to expand your comfort zone to form a really strong community.”

For Night of Ideas, Valencia said there is a lot of research showing that creativity comes from a mix of disciplines, fields or people that do not always overlap.

“Night of Ideas gives the opportunity for people to be exposed to new ideas,” Valencia said. “It’s about learning and experiencing things in ways that you might not necessarily normally do.”

Night of Ideas is set to return to San Marcos in 2027.