How long could you listen to someone talking about the evolution of the electric hand-dryer without yawning and becoming restless?

How about listening to a man talking about what makes him sneeze or finding out about British motorways?

If all this sounds mind-numbingly dull, it's a good thing that you missed a recent one-day event called Boring 2011, in which these and other tedious topics were discussed.

Contrary to what you might expect, the conference was sold out and judging by the press reports of the day, the crowd were far from bored stiff. In fact, they were engaged and stimulated.

The aim of Boring 2011 was to celebrate "the mundane, the obvious and the overlooked". The organiser James Ward sees boredom as a reaction against the noise and overstimulation of modern media and advertising:

"Boring is the opposite of that. It's slow, makes you think more. It's about stillness and patience."

So can watching paint dry really be a positive experience?

Some psychologists think so. Dr Richard Ralley from Edge Hill College in Lancashire thinks that boredom during holidays could benefit pupils, since it gives their brains a chance to rest. (There's no rest for their parents of course – by the end of the summer the kids are climbing the walls.)

Let's face it – most of us have to learn to deal with monotony. How else would we survive all those dreary household chores, that repetitive trip to work or, worst of all, that coma-inducing meeting in the afternoon?