Media Lab listed as one of the most prominent media labs
16.12.2011
Media Lab Helsinki of the Aalto University School of Art and Design has been listed as one of the world's leading university interdisciplinary research media labs, according to an article in Times Higher Education about the MIT Media Lab.
The Media Lab Helsinki is listed as the only non-Anglo/American Media Lab in this list of leading institutions in the field. The Media Lab's teaching and research is built on an academic community that is multidisciplinary, international, and design-oriented and in which experimentation is encouraged. The Media Lab is also very well networked.
– We are very happy to be included in the list, to be ‘on the map’. Apart from our art and design basis, another characteristic of our field is that the end results of the work are often software tools or 'virtual designs'. Insight into software, tool development, and the ability to exploit electronics and communication networks are paramount to the work, says Philip Dean, professor and head of the Department of Media.
The article makes for good and informative reading, as it explains the general philosophy of the 'media labs' around the world.
– Media labs are typically non-conformist organizations within academia whose role is to push research and education that deal with the development and exploitation of new technologies in everyday life. Because of the pioneering work done in them, the media labs are also centers for innovation in general, explains Philip Dean.
The Media Lab at MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is famous for its ‘renegade’ research environment and creative projects combining design with cutting-edge technology. The Media Lab Helsinki has been collaborating with the MIT Media Lab, and the directors of the two Media Labs recently agreed on further strategic collaboration in the areas of shared research interest, especially in research related to open data and its exploitation within new services for citizens.
Philip Dean also leads the Aalto University Media Factory, a platform for collaboration and development in media-related research and education within Aalto University. The two media labs have a joint interest here, too.
– The Aalto Media Factory at its new premises on the Arabianranta campus will be opening its own fab lab this year, a digital fabrication facility. The Aalto Fab Lab will be a member of the global network of fab labs coordinated by MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms. The fab lab is one example of how good ideas realized in the media labs can benefit society in our own cultural settings.
Read the article in Times Higher Education:
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=418344#