About Expolab

“ From contemplation to participation and beyond...”

Call for participation: Interactives for Citilab Cornella's "Expolab"

Exploring interactions between materials, curators and users in Science and Technology exhibitions

“From contemplation to participation and beyond...”

The Challenge:
Design an interactive kiosk 2 meters square that explores how the Internet has changed the way we...
1. Share memories 2. Connect 3. Travel through time and space 4. Work 5. Experience safety (choose one).
Describe your project by starting a project here on this website. Then, we will allocate resources so that you can build your prototype in Second Life. The most compelling kiosk ideas will be built at Citilab in Barcelona.

Citilab Cornella (http://www.citilab.eu) in Barcelona is opening up development of their new exhibition "Expolab" to external developers and designers. The set of exhibits will explore how the Internet has changed the way we perceive the world, connect to each other, remember, learn and see ourselves. The contents of the exhibition will be areas of our lives such as education, leisure, communication, museuology, programming, and audiovisual arts that will be introduced by the way we perceive the world, connect to each other, remember, learn and see ourselves.

Participants are asked to deliver a 'description' of the overall look and feel of the six themes, and the visual connection between them.

We invite you to upload a design proposal for the exhibition. You can use Second Life as a tool to demonstrate the design, but you can also use (hand) drawings, tekst, rhino, solidworks, sketchup or any other design tool that is most convenient for you.

Expolab (http://expolab.net/eng/) is a laboratory for creating new interactive exhibitions involving technology, innovation, science and design, which form the core of Citilab's activities. It will portray a general perspective on the evolution of exhibtions from "contemplative" and discursive modes exhibits to participatory ones. Expolab is in itself an experiment in participatory exhibition creation and it will involve users both online and offline.

Click here to download the full design brief

Subtopics:
The Internet has changed the way we...

1. Share memories
2. Connect
3. Travel through time and space
4. Work
5. Experience safety

Phases for each subtopic:
Expolab will explore the changes from contemplation to participation in each area with stories or anecdotes that people from various ages can easily relate to.
1. Observe (see things, read text)
2. Interact (communicate/input)
3. Participate (create or build something)
4. Citilab (synthesis of 1-3)
5. Future (what could the future of these look like? The changes from contemplation to participation in each area with stories or anecdotes that people from various ages can easily relate to.)

Exhibit units within Expolab:
Each theme will be built around a square thee-walled 'kiosk'. Photos to be added soon.
Exhibit designs should explore the changes from contemplation to participation5 stepschanges from contemplation to participation within a subtopic, and around a cube of sized 6.5 feet (2 meters) per side. The kiosk can consist of 3 or 4 walls (4 walls would be completely enclosed) and does not necessarily have ceiling but can. Within the 'kiosk', the interaction and user experience is important. Kiosk locations will have internet connection if required.
How can we show the evolution of these types of interactions?

About the exhibits:
A total of six exhibits stationed in "kiosk" that can be filled in by the designers with five sections each that can be filled in by the designers. Three or four will be positioned in a large space at the entrance of Citilab of approximately 130 square feet (40 square meters) and two or three in smaller locations of approximately 50-65 square feet (15-20 square meters) each in the first and second floor of Citilab. The intention is to really use the virtual exhibit designs in the physical exhibition. Depending on the feasibility of the winning concept this will be a close translation or an interpretation.

For each cube it is very important that the visitor can experience both concepts of ´contemplation´ and ´participation´. We want to invite the visitors to add something to the participatory part. So the cube changes when visitors have added their contribution. For example in the complation part visitors see a photo, and in the participation part they can upload their own photo in a screen so it is visible for everybody.

Thinking about interactives: How does presentation of interactives evolve from artifacts to books and computer manuals, interactive blackboards, possibly connecting to blogs/Flikr, Twitter etc, possibly a workshop with Second Life and how internet has changed their lives, maybe make a circuit with wires, Maybe a question with 3 different ways to solve it. There can be many ways to explore the evolution of the topics.

More questions to explore in the exhibits:
- What is an exhibition?

- How does the internet changed the perception of our body, our social relationships, time and space, how we keep our memories or how
it changes our work, just to mention some examples? education, communication, audiovisual arts, museums, programming?

- Citilab is interested in the impact of the evolution of technology on peoples' lives, and how it influences their thinking and behavior. How to
show this process through personal experiences from the daily lives of people?

- How can we facilitate people to find their own path through the exhibition, and construct their own narrative?

- How can we involve the public in the creation of the exhibition?

Read more on the subtopics
Expolab-networkmodule_pdf.pdf

Expolab-securitymodule_pdf.pdf

Expolab-WebcamModule_pdf.pdf

Expolab-WorkandProgrammingModule_Pdf.pdf

Dates and details:
Start: January 19, 2010
End: April 7, 2010
Citilab to review of entries: April 8, 2010.
Awards for chosen entries: $600 USD and up to  1800. per team (maximum 3 persons) for exhibits used.
Audience:  Patrons of Citilab include general public, kids who have had no life without internet (digital natives), seniors, professionals
Langages used: Catalan, Spanish, English
Exhibits selected March 26, 2010
Opening date:   June 17, 2010
Second Life users: in world contacts
Bob Ketner (avatar: Agent Heliosense)
Irene Lapuente (avatar: Mandarina Parabola)
Ramon Sangüesa  (avatar: JustTheCook Oskar)
Astrid Lubsen (avatar: Ingrid Kimono)
Hector Zapata (avatar: Hector Zamarung)
Location: http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20Tech%202/171/206/33

About Citilab

Citilab is a centre for social digital innovation near Barcelona. It exploits and spreads its impact on creative thinking, design and innovation that stems from digital culture.

Citilab is a mix between a training center, a research center, and a business and social incubator. Its main working methods are design thinking and user centered innovation.

Citilab started from the idea that digital technologies and especifically the Internet created new rules for innovation. It takes Internet as an environment of innovation that is based on a collaborative and inclusive way to innovate with the citizen at the center of the process.

Citilab is organized into the following areas: Cities and Citizens, Education and Learning Environments, Social and Economic Impact, Design and Innovation processes and Social Media Lab.Citilab-Cornellà is an experimental centre for the convergence between the new Internet generation and the new Knowledge Society. It is a workspace dedicated to activating, stimulating and expanding creative and innovative capacity in entrepreneurs' technology, companies, and citizens of the Knowledge Society.

Citilab-Cornellà is orientated to the promotion of Social Internet-related projects and pays special attention on the evolution of new places, concepts and methodologies related to the impulse of the Information Society and the new economy of telecentres, living labs and e- learning.

Therefore, Citilab-Cornellà is:

• a centre for spreading and training on the TIC technologies and its organization and knowledge creation paradigms.

• a Research Centre on new technologies and social and managerial innovation that rides on them.

• an entrepreneurial centre for the development of companies arisen from the knowledge generated at Citilab-Cornellà, both technological and organizational.

The installations will be in a large space at the entrance of Citilab (see Citilab's location) of approximately 130 square feet (40 square meters) for 3 to 4 areas and another 2 or 3 areas in smaller spaces of approximately 65 square feet (15 - 20 square meters) in the first and second floor of Citilab.