Welcome to room 1070, it’s completely normal

Dr Stephen Dann’s office is jammed with trinkets, toys and treasures – and he wants you to use them to express yourself. 

Some people have locks or alarms to protect their belongings. Dr Stephen Dann has Ratticus.  

The six-foot tall rat mannequin, who wears a helmet on his head and a breastplate under his suit jacket, keeps vigil over the Senior Lecturer’s office in the ANU Research School of Marketing. 

The marketing expert’s workspace is crammed with colour and clutter. There are 70-odd kilos of Lego stashed in drawers, a collection of teddy bears, oodles of figurines and a surprising assortment of skulls.  

The bust of a cat – named Bast after the feline Egyptian goddess – is sandwiched between bookcase and desk, somehow managing to look regal while wearing a top hat, tiara and bow tie. (Bast was shipped from Perth after being spotted in a shop window.) 

It’s “an absolute riot of things and stuff”, according to Dann – a riot which has been curated as a teaching resource. He’s always on the lookout for treasures – whether it’s something from a bargain bin at K-Mart or realistic armour made for live action role-playing games 

“The space is a very good reflection of me in the sense that everything’s here because I want it to be,” he says.  

“Half the gear in here has had a purpose. Half is waiting for its time.”  

Fellow lecturers know they can knock on the door and request quirky props for their lessons. 

“Friends will come in and say they want to run a workshop or they’re having problems with their students not engaging,” Dann explains. “I’ll say ‘give me a minute’ and go digging through boxes for stuff they can try.”  

He’s done the maths and after almost 30 years of teaching, Dann reckons it won’t be long before a cohort includes the children of his previous students. He can remember the days of recording lectures on CD using a Sony Mini Disc, long before Zoom existed.  

“I had the earpiece, a ponytail and a waistcoat – I looked like I’d escaped from a boy band,” he says.  

Teaching Introduction to Marketing is one of Dann’s favourite parts of the job. 

“You’ve got these students that have come to learn something they have no background in. You know that on day one, minute zero, they don’t know your discipline,” he says. 

“And by the end of the semester, you’re able to see that transformation and journey.” 

It’s that sense of curiosity and a desire to explore that Dann tries to foster using the array of props housed in his office. He wants staff and students alike to experiment, play and express themselves but knows this isn’t always the easiest thing to do. Self-consciousness and a fear of being ‘wrong’ can hold us back.  

“If someone’s going to do something really radically new, they need to know that their friends support it – but if their friends are waiting for them to do it first, nothing happens,” he says. 

“You can shortcut the entire thing by telling everybody they’ve got permission. Giving people that permission is a really fun part of what I do.”  

He switches up what’s in the office from time to time to help change the space.  

“It’s always been designed to distract students,” Dann admits. “If someone comes in fired up about a grade, seeing something fun in here can break the cycle or anger or help to form a connection.”  

For those who can’t be calmed by the sighting of a Star Wars model or a Green Lantern ring, there’s always the collection of trauma bears. The teddies are loaned out for hugs during stressful points in semester. Not all of them make it back to the office, but Dann has made peace with that.  

“If someone was sufficiently traumatised that they needed a teddy bear to take home, then they needed that bear,” he shrugs.  

Presiding over the plush toys is Bear Necessities Three, a giant teddy with an eye patch, a stovepipe hat and a belt of throwing knives. Of his predecessors, Bear Necessities One was “lost in service” after he “went out into the field”, while Bear Necessities Two is gainfully employed at the front desk of the Research School of Management.  

“This guy is a rescue,” Dann says of Bear Necessities Three. “He was left in the garage entrance of my apartment complex, and he’d been there about a week when I left a note asking if anyone was claiming him. 

“He’s still getting repaired. He’s getting upgrades.”  

When ANU Reporter photographer Crystal Li asks Dann if he’ll pose with Ratticus and Bear Necessities Three, he wedges between the two creatures. 

“We can do a Wizard of Oz,” he jokes. “And look at Bast over there, he’s saying he’s a cat and a soldier and he doesn’t want any part of this. 

“Welcome to room 1070, it’s completely normal in here.”