Projects
pilots
© Phi-Centre
ATMOSPHERES
It takes about 2 years for the air you are breathing right now to travel across the whole planet. In your next breath you will inhale particles that passed through everyone who has ever lived. ATMOSPHERES will tell this astonishing story of interconnection across all barriers through augmented-reality and music. In a mobile-centered interactive experience we explore how technology, data and biometrics can bring forth a comprehensive sonic experience of a situated place now and of its future. ATMOSPHERES celebrates what connects us and help us pay attention to the world around us in new ways.
The project addresses the challenge of building bridges by highlighting the profound story of interconnection Earth’s atmosphere tells. Harnessing the power of music to connect across any divide, we explore nature experiences as a powerful mediator. The project creates a vital reflection on our global existence and look at the possible futures of the atmosphere we inhabit.
About
With a transdisciplinary team Hum Studio Interactive is discovering the living world through art, science and emerging technologies.
Websites: huminteractive.studio, www.diegogalafassi.live
Closing the Gap – the Gokind venture
Gokind combines your transactions with the companies’ sustainability data to show you how the brands you buy from perform in terms of sustainability and equality.
A one-click solution that lets you automatically screen companies you buy from and rewards you for choosing more sustainable alternatives.
Our platform is powered by the EU’s Open Banking framework.
Today many of us rely on traditional marketing in our everyday choices, which many times lures us into greenwashing & fuels a feeling of distrust. Our project enables the launch of a powerful alternative; a platform that significantly increases and simplifies your access & understanding of the sustainability works that companies do or lack.
We are closing the gap between the vast majority of citizens that want to make sustainable choices & the minority that actually make such choices.
About
We are a start-up team based in Stockholm. Together with our advisors we bring a new mix of skills to help & nudge citizens into making informed and sustainable choices. It’s a mix of behavioural science, communication, and sustainability expertise.
Website: gokind.co/
Contemporary Tab
Citywide closures due to COVID-19 have devastated the arts at every level. Exhibition and performance spaces have shuttered indefinitely. Millions of creative workers, many of them freelancers, have seen their livelihoods disappear.
With Contemporary Tab, we want to change that. Our browser extension raises money for arts and culture every time our members open a new tab, for free. By generating income through search ads, we help art lovers all over the world to support the creative scene in this difficult time. Contemporary Tab members can:
🔍 Select the causes they want to support
💪 Help awesome arts organizations pay their rent, bills, and salaries
🏆 Get updates on their impact
Contemporary Tab is a project initiated by artists, cultural and non-profit workers based in Berlin, Germany and Sofia, Bulgaria. Our aim is to build a unique digital platform that offers out of the box way for people to engage with arts and culture, while our business model is designed to have a direct positive impact on both the arts and the economy.
Website: www.contemporarytab.com/
DEEP
The Covid-19 pandemic has given rise to an infodemic of misinformation and growing societal divisions. DEEP will leverage novel research in behavioural science, data feminism and Virtual Reality (VR) to enable engagement and reflection around complex and dividing topics like COVID-19. It aims to foster an increased understanding of others and their perspectives with the ambition to build bridges within and across communities in our society.
DEEP provides an innovative tool and creates an immersive VR experience to stimulate reflection, learning, and understanding by promoting context and facilitating an emotional and constructive processing of data.
About
XR Impact specializes on using XR technology for social good. The team around DEEP brings key expertise from strategy consulting, VR, AI, Behavioural and Data Science, and together they leverage technology and art to deliver high-impact projects.
Website: xrimpact.com/deep/
© OWN intelligence, ownint.com
ISKA42
We introduce ISKA42, the Instantaneous Scientific Knowledge Agent (because 42 is not always the answer). ISKA42 is an artificial software agent that makes scientific knowledge accessible to people who are non-experts on the subject matter.
In a world where information spreads faster than ever before and people struggle to understand what is right and whom to believe, ISKA42 is capable of instantaneously generating answers to freely formulated questions.
ISKA42 allows users to get science-based information on any matter that they face in life. This can include information about health issues (“How dangerous are vaccines?”), a technology (“What is state of artificial intelligence?”) or social issues (“What are the employment effects of immigration?”). The agent will interpret the question, search scientific articles and come back with a short list of viewpoints. All answers will include references to original sources and authors allowing the users to understand the context.
About
OWN intelligence: We envision the power of AI at your fingertips … provide easy-to-use AI agents, professional digital assistants … started as a Fraunhofer research project … won startup competitions by SAP and the €250K IPRIZE … are headquartered in Berlin.
Website: ownint.com
Open the Box
Open The Box is a project developed by Dataninja, at the intersection of data literacy, media literacy and civic empowerment. The main goal is countering disinformation in Italy, with a constructive and long-term approach: attracting, training and educating a community of young “data-checkers” to promote better information practices among their peers. Empowering the role of consumers is a strategic commitment of the European Union, according to the policy document called Code of Practices, recently released. The project replies to the MediaFutures 1st Open Call “Challenge 3: The New Media-tors – Reimagining and rebuilding the role of mediators to tackle misinformation around coronavirus”. Together with journalists and scientists, teachers and educators we can play a crucial role in tackling misinformation around scientific issues. The grant will help us in developing a component for self-paced training for teachers and educators as new mediators for developing media and data literacy skills among young people.
About
Dataninja is an Italian SME established in 2016 with a strong expertise in online education for digital skills. We manage a e-learning programme for spreading media and data literacy among professionals, school teachers and educators in Italy.
Website: openthebox.io
People Supported Intelligence
Diversity of information and deliberation are crucial for tackling complex problems. However, partisanship/homophily (the tendency to interact more often with like-minded people) negatively shape today’s interactions, with real consequences for local communities.
People Supported Intelligence (PSi) is a platform for a new type of online dialogue that fosters consensus from opposing views. PSi changes the order in which viewpoints are discussed. Instead of communication happening with similar people first and then trying to resolve the conflict between like-minded communities, PSi structures communication around the discussion of diverging ideas first. Users find solutions to community problems in small groups. PSi helps them converge to a consensus.
Our project is built on our combined 20 years of experience and PSi is designed around principles of collective intelligence and group facilitation.
PSi is our response to the challenge “Building bridges” in the Startup for Citizens track.
About
PSi is developed by SURU Together Ltd. SURU creates participatory experiences for communities and organizations that use collective intelligence design principles. SURU offers unique expertise in facilitating teams’ decision making and creativity.
Website: https://psicha.org
© Mercato Circolare srl
Conversation Community
The Conversation Community project places theatre, digital media and journalism at the service of the comparison among people around a central topic: climate change. We believe that the development of critical thinking can only happen in a community-based environment. In this space, people can join forces and resources to analyze news, check facts, and develop reasonable dialogue practices conducive to trust and rational inquiry. For these reasons, we will implement a digital platform for comparison where we will collect the community’s doubts on climate change. Thanks to artists’ involvement, we will transform this data into theatrical pills to activate the discussion. Finally, the project arrives at the creation of an interactive theatrical performance.
About
Community of Conversation is a project developed by the SME Mercato Circolare srl benefit corporation and the artists of Pop Economix and Il Mutamento, in collaboration with SUPSI – the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland.
Websites: Mercato Circolare srl, Pop Economix, Il Mutamento
Mercato Circolare srl:
Pop Economix:
Il Mutamento:
© Mariana Lanari, Social Library / Active Voice, Casa do Povo SP, 2018
Photo: Rubens Crispim Jr
How to read a Library
How to Read a Library addresses collective mapping, visualization and ‘reading’ in relation to complex bodies of data in cultural libraries. Taking into account that “big data is not just ‘a lot of data’; but also new combinations and continuous flows of data.”¹
The project departs from the questions: Can we use collections of physical libraries to imagine access to knowledge in digital libraries? Can we use digital tools to allow readers to link data, share and collaborate within and across libraries? Can algorithms, AI and machine learning enhance reading experience and promote digital literacy instead of profiling, targeting advertisement and surveillance? Is it possible to make the library a safe digital space?
By looking at the collection as data, we will explore methods to enhance access and discovery in libraries and digital collections.
¹ “Creating value through responsible access to and use of big data” in: Portfolio for Research and Innovation. Dutch National Research Agenda, 2016.
About
Studio Remco van Bladel is a multidisciplinary design studio in Amsterdam focussing on, publishing tools, identities, typefaces, interactive applications and websites. He is co- founder of publishing house Onomatopee and online platform WdW Review.
Mariana Lanari is a performance artist, researcher and, PhD candidate at the Amsterdam School of Heritage and Memory / University of Amsterdam. Her research is about the interaction between politics of reading and reading infrastructures.
Websites: Archival Consciousness, Studio Remco van Bladel, Mariana Lanari, Rainbowpeel
Studio Remco van Bladel:
Mariana Lanari:
Archival Consciousness:
© Studio De Wilde
HYPERViz
HYPERViz is aiming to make complex data accessible to the general public on a global scale, with implications in a wide variety of sectors, from environmental management and agriculture to the way pandemics affect society. Satellites and Satellite-imagery are critical to monitor the Earth, today more than ever. Hyperspectral imagery is a major technological breakthrough that will enable a great increase in potential applications related to environmental management, in direct relation to the objectives of the European Green Deal. Thus the continued popularity in EU public opinion of satellite imaging is essential. We plan to deliver a digital experience, as broadly accessible as Google Earth, built from multi-layered imaging of hyperspectral data in an artistic, experiential and intuitive way that ‘speaks’ to the general public in a way that empirical data cannot.
About
ScanWorld is dedicated to make actionable data for agriculture affordable and available on a global scale. We are building an infrastructure of hyperspectral satellites. Studio De Wilde team consists of creative coders, tech wizards, math experts, 3D alchemists and audiovisual hypnotists.
Websites: ScanWorld, Studio De Wilde
ScanWorld:
Studio De Wilde:
infodote – the antidote to misinformation
The infodote project bridges the gap between the science concepts resulted from the analysis of COVID-19 datasets and the improved user engagement in order more people to understand the real facts related to the pandemics. The project foresees the combination of (i) a technology with still unexplored capabilities such as the Augmented Reality (AR), and (ii) the artistic perspective of experienced data analysts. In the project scope, a set of interactive 3D content will be created to enhance user engagement, increase the understanding of complex data structures by non-experts and, finally, fight misinformation within the society. The project will build new experiences making data exploration both entertaining and informative. We believe that this is the future in terms of media content and data presentation and that the next few years this is expected to pave the way in the Next Generation Media landscape.
About
Intellia is a technological start-up specialized in Augmented and Virtual Reality solutions. Till noon is a team of award-winning professionals with great expertise and diversity in conceptual creation and direction.
Intellia:
Till noon:
(3D rendering), 2021
JECT-SENSE
JECT-SENSE is a new art-tech collaboration between the JECT.AI start-up working in the news media sector, media artist Antoni Rayzhekov, and curator Claudia Schnugg. It will develop novel and unconventional ways for journalists and a general audience to engage with news coverage, including scientific coverage, which in turn be realized as a visualization component for JECT.AI’s digital product, an artwork and a video demonstration.
JECT.AI manipulates a news information set that is very large. It is difficult to understand this news coverage using text outputs. News landscape concepts, such as information clusters and patterns of biased information, are difficult to detect and represent. Therefore, the new artwork, called Fragile Perspectives, will stimulate new insights about news coverage through multi-sensory experiences including landscapes, tangible objects, soundscapes, and spatial arrangements. The artwork will inform new news visualizations to build into JECT.AI.
About
JECT.AI sells a digital tool for journalists to create new content. Antoni Rayzhekov is a media artist with a background in music, performing arts, digital arts and computing. Claudia Schnugg is an independent curator of art-science collaborations.
Websites: JECT.AI , Antoni Rayzhekov, Claudia Schnugg
JECT.AI:
Antoni Rayzhekov:
Claudia Schnugg:
PONTE – Participative Open Narrative Transformation and Exchange
PONTE stands for using the creativity of the crowds for bridging barriers of perception and sensemaking and moving into an exchange of ideas, opinions and viewpoints.
In a post-Covid world, we have to radically rethink how to make social life meaningful. We are bringing together two key human capabilities that distinguish us from machines, namely the use of art and the use of narrative to create new meaning and opportunity. We will combine technology platforms, narrative data and art in a new way. It will prompt people to engage with original artworks depicting the big issues in society, such as fake news and fragmentation.
We repurpose and further develop existing software, SenseMaker®. It is designed to capture and sort micro-narratives where the respondents apply meaning to their own narrative. Building on the self-interpreted data, the artist curates the data to inspire cohesive interpretations and collective understanding of mass data sets, illuminating pathways of connection.
About
We’re a transdisciplinary team with expertise in tech, art, participation, conflict resolution and transformation, and nine languages between us. We’re all about bridging different parts of society; and we are a living example of innovation in action:
Startups: EZC.Partners, The Cynefin Centre, Artist: Annika Varjonen, Team members: Bettina Geiken, Dave Snowden
EZC.Partners:
The Cynefin Centre:
Annika Varjonen:
SINE: Internalizing Science through Art and Visualization of Data from the Natural World
This project considers how local ecological catastrophes are contextualized within global climate science and the international news cycle. In line with MediaFutures’ objectives of considering the role of data in journalism, science, transparency, and democracy, we will develop a tool to study how science is reported, at times sensationalised, and even forgotten. A resulting artwork will allow the viewer to experience these insights directly.
The integration of various media outlets with social media platforms has accelerated the 24 hour news cycle. For various political and economic reasons, data indicating climate change is often contentious, resulting in natural catastrophes appearing as anomalous events which are dropped from the news cycle soon after they appear. By integrating various data sources and algorithms into a single experience we aim to provide a single vantage point that can take in the global and local scales of climate change situated in current and historical time.
About
Haseeb Ahmed is a research-based artist. His work is often collaborative and draws on the hard sciences to produce artworks.
IN2 is a software company with many years of experience in AI, designing, developing and operating web-based solutions at scale.
Websites: Haseeb Ahmed, IN2
Haseeb Ahmed:
IN2:
© Gaëtan Robillard
Critical Climate Machine
Critical Climate Machine is a project that quantifies and reveals the mechanisms of misinformation on global warming. The project environment consists of a walk-in room with a data sculpture and a sound installation.
Using Artificial Intelligence, the sculpture analyses myths about climate change. Its software monitors and debunks false arguments coming from social media. When the sculpture is very active it overheats, warming up the space around it. Hence the rise in temperature becomes a measure of the amount of online disinformation at any given time. Meanwhile, a dialogue surrounds the sculpture. False arguments are voiced by a speech entity. A second one refutes these claims in response.
The artistic project is largely inspired by research in the field of cognitive sciences. These have shown – much like inoculation in biology, that disinformation can be neutralized by exposing the public to a weak form of disinformation.
About
Gaëtan Robillard is a visual artist and researcher. Since 2007, he has been developing a body of films and digital installations in which algorithms, cognitive sciences and climatology are involved. He is also a visiting professor at the Gustave Eiffel University and a PhD student at the University of Paris 8 and ESAD TALM Tours. His thesis focuses on the early algorithmic aesthetics in Europe during the sixties, and more particularly on the relationship between computation and entropy in the work of art. His work has been presented internationally, in places such as the Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Akbank Sanat (Istanbul), CCS Bard Hessel Museum (New-York) and Pearl Art Museum (Shanghai).
Website: mobitool.free.fr/
© OBVIOUS
Evil Magic Mirror
Obvious presents the Evil Magic Mirror. This interactive artwork will let you perceive a glimpse of your alternate future self, in an era where misinformation and data manipulation are common practices. More than a simple piece of art, this artwork projects the viewer into an experience which will change his or her view of digital media content in the long run. The magic mirror is the concept of a mirror in which oneself would find introspective answers, and sometimes foresee the future. Today, due to online behaviour analysis and recommendation algorithms, most people find themselves in front of this type of mirror when using a computer. Comforting and entertaining content, which comforts oneself into believing in his convictions, or leads him to forgetting his flaws. But what happens when this information is false ? We decided to twist this Magic Mirror, in order to shred light on the new possibilities of misinformation brought by AI deepfake technologies.
About
Obvious is a french collective of artists who works with artificial intelligence to create art. Their work is at the crossroads of research and art, with the development of creative applications to the latest discoveries in machine learning.
Website: obvious-art.com/
© Fast Familiar
Social Sandwich
A series of online encounters with an anonymous strangers selected for their difference to you, the artwork is constructed to bypass snap judgements and defensive behavioural patterns which might otherwise determine the nature of these interactions. A shared creative task establishes a foundation of collaboration before you and your partner are invited to engage with divisive media content, aiming to reach agreement on its reliability.
Social Sandwich explores what happens when potentially polarising content is introduced into a context where cooperation has been established as the norm. It prompts people to think about their own biases and how they assess reliability, with the aim of creating the kind of self-awareness that can help people escape their echo chambers.
About
Fast Familiar designs critically-acclaimed artworks which are participatory, playful and political. We’re an interdisciplinary studio who make audience-centric experiences which often utilise ‘digital technology’ to enable new forms of human connection.
Website: fastfamiliar.com/
© Daniela Skeyki
Soft Evidence
Soft evidence is a series of slow visual scenes that never happened – films manipulated by machines trained to lie. The pervasive misinformation in our lives is as pernicious as it is because our tech literacy cannot keep up with technological advancements and our use of personal technology. The artists use deepfakes as art – normally a highly politicised form, here purposely apolitical, to provide neutral ground for conversation about AV manipulation. The emotions and questions invoked by the series guide the viewer in new directions, providing tools and strategies for how to navigate this digital terrain. Soft evidence contributes to the global discussion about the unequal privilege to invent “truths” – the increasingly complicated field of ‘visual evidence’ demonstrates that communities on the margins of society, furthest from financial, technological, and political cores of power, are made increasingly vulnerable.
About
Dejha Ti and Ania Catherine, “the two critical contemporary voices on digital art’s international stages” (Clot Magazine) and “LGBT power couple” (Flaunt), are an LA-based experiential artist duo whose practice merges environments, technology, and performance art. Rooted in the understanding that immersion is not only a physical state, but also an emotional and psychological one, their approach employs nuance within scale, focused on producing a feeling instead of a spectacle. Their expertise collide—Ti’s extensive background in immersive art and human-computer interaction, and Catherine an established choreographer, performance artist and gender scholar—in large-scale conceptual works recognizable for their signature poetic approach to technology.
Website: www.operator.la/
Dejha Ti:
Ania Catherine:
© Domestic Data Streamers
730 hours of violence
We live in an age of information overload. It is everywhere and typically represented through data visualisation systems that aren’t clear enough for us to understand or emotional enough for us to empathise with. Eventually, this generalised misinformation has translated to a global lack of action.
The 730 hours of violence exhibition is an open lab of museographic experimentation and at the same time a thermometer to measure the opinion and perception of the public. A month-long exercise in citizen interaction that expands the discourse of the physical space through the possibilities offered by digital platforms.
We want to open a global discussion to examine where exactly our definition of violence is rooted, and thus, open questions about the information sources that condemn or legitimate our daily lives.
By combining the power of storytelling with data and arts this participatory project will make people feel and think whilst creating knowledge and (hopefully) driving change.
About
Domestic Data Streamers is a multidisciplinary team that combines design, art, technology and data to create participatory projects that build community and generate empathy. Our aim is to change the ways people relate to information in these crazy times we live in, because the world can’t be understood without numbers, but it won’t be understood with numbers alone.
Website: domesticstreamers.com/
