Feb 19 2008
IMEC and Addictlab are launching a new call for ideas and visions on future applications of emerging technologies in the field of art, design , architecture, fashion, communication, environment, health and well-being. After a first successful collaboration researching visual, conceptual and more practical ways of communicating about nanotechnology, a new call will take it one step further into the world of emerging technologies and their applications, with a focus on the emerging invisible (a-material) production, where benefits are perceptions centred. The Addict & IMEC partnership is also aimed at creating a brand new international platform for creative views on nanotechnology applications and ideas. An international jury will select a winner for each application domain and announce it during a public event in 2009.
It all started a year ago. IMEC, Europe's leading independent nanoelectronics and nanotechnology research center, was driven by a vision to open the horizon of emerging technologies research -- not only by widening the fields of scientific studies but also by involving and informing as many people as possible. Science is for all, not just an educational topic but a means of increasing creativity and creating a true dialogue on science, technology, possible applications and implications. By crossing the borders between science and technology and art and design industry, research institutes, academia and policy leaders can enter into a dialogue with the public.
In this aim, IMEC came to Ad!dict Creative Lab for a first project that resulted in a publication: #27 Nanotechnology. This Inspiration Book generated workshops and exhibitions during 2007, and it's still used at IMEC as a communication tool to explain that science and creativity have no limits. The present project needs to be considered as a step further: emerging technologies are becoming privileged media in art and design. Even if still limited to a niche category (e.g. bio-art, interactive- or experience design, etc.) we all know that in an optic of sustainable development, this might be the future.
The Addict Inspiration Book #29 "in.tangible.scape.s" will go through that entire invisible domain that is moving the creativity world from the object predominance to the experiencing sphere of perceptions and the benefits of a more and more invisible (a-material) production. This call reaches out to designers, artists, students, architects, engineers, researchers and dreamers worldwide. This second step will lead Addict with its labmembers and IMEC to the promotion of a new global approach of science and high-tech applied to arts and design in the wider sense.