Call for Projects: Interactivos?'12 Dublin: Hack the City. Current and Future Needs

> Open Call Interactivos?'12 Dublin: Hack the city. Current and future needs
> Orientation of the projects
> Submission guidelines
> Advisors' approaches
> Submission form
> Call for collaborators

 

Photograph: Charlie Gross

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.

 

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

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.

Orientation of the projects:

This workshop of collaborative production is looking for ideas that:

- Involve the design of objects, installations or other platforms that put the hacker ethos into practice.

- Utilise open and free software and hardware technology developed through "Do It Yourself" (DIY) and "Do It With Others"(DIWO) methodologies and working strategies.

- Address current and future city needs - Specifically we are calling for projects that address:

• Crowd Sourcing Public Data: Crowding sourcing is a means for cities citizens to improve services, however collating, mediating and providing meaningful feedback through crowd sourced data is a considerable challenge. We are seeking proposals that focus on how to crowd source data, visualize it in meaningful ways and provide feedback to both citizens and councils.
• Wellbeing: What constitutes our sense of wellbeing in a city? Is it the way in which your street is organised, or access to resources, green spaces etc. or is it how well you know your neighbour? Within this section we are seeking proposals that address ideas focused on wellbeing, social bonds, and cohesion and community reliance.
• Open Data Services: Over the last 18 months Dublin City Council and its local authorities have made significant advances in opening up their data. Between dublinked.ie and the Fingal Open Data (data.fingal.ie) there are now 200+ datasets online. We are interested in receiving projects, which utilise this data for artistic purposes and interventions on key areas of interest including projects that focus on transport and energy.

 

Submission Guidelines:

From the submission to the call a maximum of 6/7 projects will be accepted for production in a two-week workshop in Science Gallery Dublin in July, 2012 during the HACK THE CITY exhibition. The selected projects will be developed with the aid of several advisors and assistants, in addition to a large group of collaborators.

The open call is aimed at designers, artists, engineers, coders, sociologists, architects, city planners, teachers, programmers, psychologists, journalists, environmentalists, or to any other person interested in the theme of this call.

Proposals may be presented by individuals or groups. Each participant or team may present as many projects as they wish.

Selected projects must be open to the participation of other interested collaborators, who will be able to contribute to the production of the pieces during the development of the workshop.

Therefore, there are two levels of involvement with the workshop: 

1 - as a project leader
2 - as a collaborator in any one of the selected projects

Once the projects have been selected, the second step in the process will involve a new call for those people who would like to participate in the projects' production as a collaborator. The call for collaborators will be open from June 1st to July 5th 2012 on the Medialab-Prado's website.

 

Workshop 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.

 

Technical Requirements:

The evaluation team will assess submitted projects for technical feasibility – successful projects should have clearly specified technical and spatial requirements. Should the evaluation team have doubts about any technical requirements, they will contact the authors of the proposal.

Projects will be carried out and exhibited at Science Gallery. Science Gallery will contribute basic equipment and means to produce the selected projects, pending prior application from the proposal’s author(s). Access and use of Science Gallery’s technical equipment will be supervised by a coordinator from the Gallery. Expenses for material or equipment not planned for or approved will not be covered by Science Gallery nor Medialab Prado, but by the project leaders. The organisers will provide Web hosting as needed for the projects and also the tools and platforms required by participants to properly document the process and the results.

Science Gallery and Medialab-Prado promote the use of free software tools and encourages participants to work with shared and open code applications and environments.

 

Travel and Lodging Aid:

Pending application, Science Gallery and Medialab-Prado will provide lodging for selected project leaders' residing outside of Dublin and will cover travel expenses to Dublin. In the case of collectives, Science Gallery and Medialab-Prado will cover travel expenses for only one member.

 

Submissions:

All those interested in taking part in the workshop must fill in and submit the online submission form

Open Call closes: May 20, 2012
Selection of proposals: May 21 - 27, 2012
Development of projects July 11 - 26, 2012
Call for collaborators: June 1 - July 5, 2012

Further Information please contact interactivos (at) sciencegallery.com or interactivos (at) medialab-prado.es

 

Final decision:

The evaluation team will comprise the workshop advisors as well as Science Gallery and Medialab-Prado staff. Projects will be judged based on:

• Project quality
• Suitability to the call for projects
• Technical and logistical feasibility
• Clarity in the explanation of the project
• Combination of various fields of knowledge
• Willingness to collaborate with others in project development
• Use of open software tools and licenses that grant access to the processes and the results
• Educational value

Notification of Selected projects

Selected projects will be announced on June 1, 2012. Applicants will receive notification by email.

 

Project Promotion:

The finished projects will be presented to the public by their developers on the final day of the workshop. An exhibit of these projects will remain at Science Gallery for the duration of the HACK THE CITY exhibition. In addition, the projects and/or related documentation will be published on Science Gallery, Medialab-Prado and studiolabproject.eu websites.

 

Obligations:

The developers of selected projects agree to attend the workshop from July 11 through 26, 2012 and to finish and document their projects, as far as possible during this time.

Projects carried out will be the property of their author(s), although whenever said projects are shown at festivals or exhibits, and whenever images of said projects are reproduced in catalogues or websites, their relation with the Interactivos? workshop organized by Science Gallery and Medialab-Prado within the framework of Studiolab should be acknowledged and the names of the people who collaborated in developing the projects should also be shown. The projects exhibited may be shown in Science Gallery, Medialab-Prado and Studiolab's website and printed catalogs.

 

Entry constitutes acceptance of all contest rules.

 

 

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.