12-15-2009 10:23 AM Brigitta Zics MA/MFA Design by Practice

LAB Culture: Collaborative Platforms for Creative Practices /Cutting Age Research Projects

More and more cutting age research outcomes and emerging creative practices are based  in collaborative environments of LABs. This places provide a great platform for interactions and interdisciplinary collaborations between Art & Design & Science & Technology. Here are some of the leading Creative LABs:

Sci Center & Lab, UCLA Art, Los Angeles CA

The Art|Sci Center is dedicated to pursuing and promoting the evolving “Third Culture” by facilitating the infinite potential of collaborations between (media) arts and (bio/nano) sciences.

The center’s affiliation with the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) offers access to cutting edge researchers and their laboratories and a dedicated gallery for exhibitions. Here too the center hosts the Sci|Art NanoLab Summer Institute for high school students by introducing them to the vast possibilities in the quantum field of art|science for the present and future generations.

In cooperation with CNSI, the UCLA School of the Arts and the Department of Design | Media Arts, the Art|Sci Center supports visiting research scholars and artists in residency from around the world. The center presents lectures, mixers, and symposia to bring artists and scientists together in order to mesh these cultures and inspire individuals to think about art and science as already interrelated and relevant to our society.

http://artsci.ucla.edu/?q=gallery/index

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Interface Culture Lab, Institute for Media, University of Art and Design Linz, Austria

Acting as creative artists and researchers, students learn how to advance the state of the art of current interface technologies and applications. Through interdisciplinary research and team work, they also develop new aspects of interface design including its cultural and social applications. The themes elaborated under the Master's programme in relation to interactive technologies include Interactive Environments, Interactive Art, Ubiquitous Computing, game design, VR and MR environments, Sound Art, Media Art, Web-Art, Software Art, HCI research and interaction design.

http://www.interface.ufg.ac.at/interface/projects.html

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MIT Media Lab

The MIT Media Lab applies an unorthodox research approach to envision the impact of emerging technologies on everyday life—technologies that promise to fundamentally transform our most basic notions of human capabilities. Unconstrained by traditional disciplines, Lab designers, engineers, artists, and scientists work atelier-style in close to 30 research groups conducting more than 400 projects that range from neuroengineering, to how children learn, to developing the city car of the future.

http://www.media.mit.edu/research/groups-projects

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Barabási Lab, Northeastern University, Center for Complex Network Research (CCNR), Boston, Massachusetts

Worldwide know research centre directed by Professor Albert-László Barabási, has a simple objective: think networks.

http://www.barabasilab.com/projects.php

http://www.barabasi.com/

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Culture Lab, Newcastle University

Culture Lab is a unique research infrastructure providing an environment for academics and practitioners working beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries.

http://culturelab.ncl.ac.uk/

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Distance Lab,Horizon Scotland, The Enterprise Park

Distance Lab is a creative research organisation bringing together digital media technology, design and the arts to redefine and overcome the disadvantages of distance in learning, health care, relationships, culture and other domains.

http://www.distancelab.org/projects/

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Pervasive Media Studio, Bristol

The Pervasive Media Studio, opened by Alistair Darling the Chancellor of the Exchequer in February 2008, brings together the IT, communication and creative industries to pioneer new forms of digital media.

http://www.pmstudio.co.uk/projects

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