Interactivos?'12 Dublin: Hack the City. Current and Future Needs. International Workshop

Cocook Dublin Workshop project, by Íñigo Cornago Bonal and Claudia Sánchez (Spain)

> Selected projects
> About the theme
> General information
> Call for collaborators (until July 5, 2012)
> Seminar programme (July 11 and 12, 2012)
> Prototype Showcase (until September 9, 2012)

About the theme

Hacking has always been associated with innovative appropriations of existing resources, re-engineering, working below the radar, and modifying structures to reap new benefits. What happens if you take the philosophy of hacking and apply it to the urban environment? When you consider innovative ways to harness the flows of energy, data and people that pass through the city every day?

Interactivos?'12 Dublin will see Medialab Prado and Science Gallery work together to set up an experimental laboratory to channel hacker culture, and allow artists, designers, makers, doers, data nerds, hobbyists, citizen scientists, tech geeks, activists, edgy engineers and DIY urban planners to take control over the resolution of problems that affect and link together worldwide 'communities of concern'. Interactivos?'12 Dublin will move citizen science out of the garage/prototype stage and onto the street.

Interactivos?'12 Dublin is part of HACK THE CITY, Dublin's 2012 flagship exhibition organized by Science Gallery that will engage and inspire participants to transform the city from the ground up, to rethink cities through the spirit and philosophy of the hacker ethos - to bend, mash-up, tweak and cannibalise city systems, to create possibilities, empower the citizen, illustrate visionary thinking and demonstrate real-world examples for sustainable urban futures. HACK THE CITY will capitalize on Dublin's resources as a nimble multi-national, multi-lingual, rapidly growing European city, ideally placed to act as 'laboratory' for testing ideas and technologies that have a direct impact on citizens' lives.

Interactivos?'12 Dublin draws on Medialab-Prado’s, Interactivos?, Visualizar -data culture- and the Commons Lab methods and processes, as well as HACK THE CITY: IDEA CAMP approaches.

General information:

The Interactivos?'12 Dublin workshop aims to be a collective platform for research, production, and learning, offering support in developing the projects selected. The projects will be carried out in multidisciplinary groups comprised by the project leaders joined by interested collaborators, with conceptual and technical advice from the advisors. Science Gallery and Medialab Prado will provide materials for the development of selected projects, as far as possible.

During the workshop, various activities will be scheduled such as talks, presentations, seminars or specific mini-workshops. Work days will be adapted to the specific needs of the projects in sympathy with the activities ongoing at Science Gallery as part of HACK THE CITY events.

10:00h -17:00h: Monday
10:00h -20:00h: Tuesday-Friday
12:00h -18:00h: Saturday-Sunday

Given that one of the main objectives of the workshop is to foster the development, distribution, and free access to new approaches and new technology tools, participants are encouraged to prepare proper documentation for the developed projects, both during and after the workshop, and to publish the results and source code under licenses that grant access and distribution of the knowledge produced during the workshop.

Go to Science Gallery's website

Pictures at Studiolab Project's Flickr and aIvan Twohig's Flickr

The workshop at Science Gallery is part of Studiolab, a 3-year Europe-wide initiative that merges the artist's studio with the research lab. Funded by the EC Seventh Framework Programme in 2011, Studiolab is a network that provides a platform for creative projects that bridge divides between science, art and design.