Erwin Seydel searching for happiness at Lowlands

28 August 2009 

Erwin Seydel stood at the front of a packed lecture theatre last Sunday. Not at the University of Twente, but in a tent at the Lowlands festival. To hundreds of young people, he presented a lecture questioning, how to be happy.

Erwin Seydel stood at the front of a packed lecture theatre last Sunday. Not at the University of Twente, but in a tent at the Lowlands festival. To hundreds of young people, he presented a lecture questioning, how to be happy.

With the sun burning down on the tent's canvas roof and hundreds of people packed in, the temperature in the tent quickly rose. People cooled themselves by using programmes as fans.  It was noisy in the tent, but once the University register had pounded the official staff three times, the audience became completely still and attentive. As Erwin Seydel appeared on stage, he received thunderous applause just like the other pop stars at the festival.

Seydel opened his lecture with an acknowledgement that psychology often focuses on negative emotions. He gave an overview of the number of scientific articles written since 1967 about powerlessness, anxiety and depression, and then he compared this to the number of articles about joy, happiness and fulfillment. Negative subjects are published approximately eleven times more often than positive subjects.

So Seydel focused on positive psychology during his Lowlands lecture. The central issue he addressed during the lecture was how to be happy. At a fast pace, he described practical tips and actual techniques that can make you not only happier, and he argues, but also healthier. One of the main ideas is to combine things you like with things that you find meaningful. "A day at the beach is nice but not useful, and writing a scientific article writing is useful but not fun. Happiness is writing a scientific article on the beach."

Laughter
The atmosphere was relaxed during the lecture. The whole room listened with interest, but also laughed easily with him. After the lecture, he shared that he too had learned something from the lecture, that to attend and give lecturers can just simply be pleasurable. Seydel said, "The audience was very interested and wanted to learn, but here at Lowlands they acknowledge that knowledge should be linked to entertainment. And so you can get your message across to a broad audience, which is something the UT and I can maybe learn."

Seydel also used this good opportunity to show the general public that the UT is more than just a technical university, and offers more than just social sciences. "The most exciting breakthroughs come specifically from the collaboration between engineering and social sciences. I hope I've shown that today."

Erwin Seydel during his presentation (picture: Coolpolitics / Maarten Schuth)

Enschede Team
Seydel was not the only UTer who was 'working' at Lowlands. Behind the scenes, Tonnie Buitink directed a festival team of 150 UT students and alumni. The group is renown at Lowlands as the 'Enschede Team' and has been a part of Lowlands since the first festival in 1990. The team has a wide range of tasks, e.g. students and alumni drive forklifts, deliver messages, and generally lay on the superstar treatment for the performing bands.

Some of the students have done the work for many years. One of them is Ruud van Duren who graduated several years ago as an Applied Communication Scientist. He returns every year. "It's a lot of fun. For me it's an annual reunion with former classmates."

Click here for photos of Erwin Seydel's lecture (photos: Coolpolitics/Maarten Schuth).