Event
Urban Phygital Lab | the final showcase
The growing importance of digital communication tools has always been accompanied by a dearth of places dedicated to education that were able to highlight their inclusive potential. At least until now. In Italy, the digital gap – that gap that separates those who are used to navigating between technology and virtuality and those who are less accustomed to doing so – is still wide. MEET’s mission is just that: to help bridge this gap.
The future is built from the growth of people and the possibility that everyone will have access to opportunities for culture and learning. MEET is a place – physical and virtual – for cultural innovation that focuses on and empowers the human factor by creating new digital connections.
The Urban Phygital Lab project goes precisely in this direction; it has an important focus on creativity as a tool for urban regeneration. Since January, it has involved two neighborhoods in Milan: Corvetto and Porta Venezia, both chosen because they are multiethnic, popular and extremely dynamic, but also because they carry complexity. One school from each neighborhood was involved: the Albe Steiner in Corvetto (with a fifth-grade class) and the Schiaparelli-Gramsci in Porta Venezia (with a fourth-grade class).
Over a six-month period, the students were protagonists of neighborhood regeneration projects, involved to use innovative digital languages as design tools, enablers of urban creativity. They had the opportunity to be supported by digital creatives and artists: Bepart (a creative studio that guided students in the use of augmented reality), Sara Tirelli (a visual artist who led workshops in photogrammetry and immersive filmmaking) and Another reality (a studio specializing in the development of immersive Virtual Reality solutions). A panel of experts to engage the young people and give them the opportunity to translate ideas about urban regeneration needs into installations.
On Thursday, June 9, starting at 5 p.m., a final event will be held at MEET to give back the work created by the students. It is the result of reflection done by young residents to reappropriate their neighborhoods, bringing new ideas into the virtual world – understood as a space to experiment and concretely impact reality. All the alumni, partners, digital creatives, professors and artists who joined the project will be present for the occasion. The final showcase will not only involve the project participants but will open its doors with the aim of raising awareness of sustainability, inclusion, beauty and urban regeneration through digital.
Urban Phygital Lab is a cultural and creative regeneration project, winner of the public notice Creative Living Lab – 3 edition, promoted by the General Directorate of Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture.
A talk will be held in the MEET Theater before viewing all the content produced.
