What have SWISP Lab been up to?
A few months ago SWISP lab facilitated Mediator Hacks in partnership with Science Gallery Mediators in Melbourne and Atlanta making it number three (Bengaluru, Atlanta, Melbourne) across the Science Gallery International network. See Hacking the Anthropocene: cross-network research and pedagogy for climate action for more information.
Science Gallery Atlanta Mediator Hack co-design workshop, 2024
So that SWISP Lab can facilitate ‘Hacking the Anthropocene: #climatestories between art and science’ public hackathons in partnership with each gallery site we open our kit and play HAK.io with Mediators to invite them into the co-research with us.
HAK.io scaffolds critical thinking and collective imagination through creative gameplay to identify “tipping points” through storying. The public hackathons are tangible in(ter)ventions in the climate crises that provide the resources, time, and space for young people to share tipping point stories, speculate with big and small data, explore climate emotions, have complicated conversations, create tiny acts of change, and collectively imagine reparative climate futures.
These kits make it possible for young people to come together and listen to each other’s personal stories of a shared challenge, explore the feelings that arise, and imagine a whole variety of alternative futures to come – futures that incorporate the views of young people living in geographically and socially diverse situations.
What is a Science Gallery Mediator you ask?
Science Gallery Mediators across the Network are the public face of the Gallery. They are an integral part of the arts meets science experience, engaging visitors with the exhibition through facilitating dialogue and exchange of knowledge. They mediate encounters in the gallery between the audience, art and science knowledges, objects, communications, places, sounds, associations they make across the curatorial spaces and much more. Mediators come from a range of (inter)disciplinary backgrounds and interests, but they all have important things in common – they are really curious about the world, creative and are energised by connecting with big complex ideas.
In the SWISP Lab hacks, Mediators speculatively design the public hacks with us using their experience of being a participant in the hack. They are really important to the SWISP Lab x Science Gallery Netwrok partnership.
We spent two brilliant days with the Melbourne ‘Not Natural’ Mediator team. The current Melbourne exhibition, Not Natural (until 29 Jne, 2024) explores the growing friction between natural and artificial systems.
Species de-extinction and creating chimera creatures could soon become a reality with developments in synthetic biology. With increasing control over nature, humans have opened a plethora of possibility and a pandoras box of ethical dilemmas. When faced with the difficulty of changing our behaviour, technology presents a tempting choice to continue as we are. But when we look to technology to fix our mistakes, are we asking ourselves the right questions? We may soon arrive at a place where humans are knocked off the top of the pecking order by artificial intelligence. Will the new machine powers care about nature – and us in it – without any skin in the game?
Science Gallery, Melbourne
Experience speculative local and international projects dissolving the line between what is considered natural and not natural. Curiosity, amusement, disgust – we invite you to look closely at your reactions and the thoughts behind them. In a world that is always hurrying forwards towards tech-based solutions, pause and consider where you stand.
At the Melbourne Mediator hack, our University of Melbourne interns, Peiyi and Yi began the process of documenting our research. They captured the Melbourne Mediator hack located in the Not Natural exhibition and invited us to reflect on why we do what we do.
We’re pretty excited about this short film Peiyi Jin and Yi Guo have made. They are Master of Global Media Communication students, and have been working us across the semester.
By the way, we will be co-facilitating 2 hacks for young people aged 14-28 in August during National Science Week 2024 in Melbourne with Melbourne Mediators. In these hacks, young people learn about the Anthropocene, reflect on their stories of climate change, and interact with other young people to share what they sense, think, wonder, fear and hope about climate futures.
You can find out more about the SWISP Lab x SGB public hacks in Bengaluru here.
Watch out for details 🙂