Medialab Katowice

The data-driven city becomes a reality in which we try to understand and improve our urban habitats through a new technological nervous system. During the project, we focus on how sensors can be used to reveal unknown patterns of activity in the city space and think about concepts that leverage a network of connected objects for new communicative systems and social awareness. Check out our ideas.

Niklas Roy and Kati Hyyppä transformed one of the abandoned premises in Katowice’s Pocztowa Street into an unusual art gallery where those interested, regardless of their age and skills, were given the opportunity to paint and sell their paintings at a special auction. The project involved residents and businesses adjacent to the gallery, completely changing the character of the street for almost a week by attracting not only regulars of cultural events, but also those not normally inclined towards painting. The creators of the installation gracefully mocked the world of art and also made us realise that to create an interactive installation one needs a little sense of humour and some ingenuity, rather than sophisticated technology. [Full documentation]

Modern City is Medialab Katowice’s new educational research project. This venture, arranged as a series of seminars, workshops and workgroups, is an attempt to reinterpret and adapt the visual language of Isotype to the digital media environment and provide an attractive way to present some of the key events in the history of Katowice’s rise and dynamic growth. The project was launched with a lecture and seminar conducted by a member of the Isotype Revisited research project, Christopher Burke (University of Reading).

Amidst the dynamic change, the traces of old urban typography are becoming lost and forgotten as the original neon signs, carefully designed shop signboards, street plates and inscriptions disappear from the city streets. Our project’s goal is to identify Katowice’s heritage lettering styles in order to propose new ideas combining tradition with contemporary design.

An interdisciplinary project on city information design for those interested in infographics and data visualisation as well as urban activists and NGOs. Its aim is to promote the idea of open access to information on the city as well as to develop competences required for the analysis, interpretation and presentation of large datasets.

Is it possible to reverse the visualization process in such a way that, instead of providing information about the current state of the world and its processes, it could tell us what to do in the future to make our dreams a reality? The workshop delivered as part of the Open Data Day is an attempt to combine information design and speculative design. Our intention is to challenge the traditional role of visualisation so that it could be used in an explorative, rather than the usual descriptive manner. Find out more.