Last October art and technology came together in Aveiro in a week dedicated to creation and thinking. MTF Labs brought together, at the prestigious Teatro Aveirense, 50 researchers and entrepreneurs from 22 different countries to invent the future in an intensive week of technology and innovation. Despite the challenges of running a hybrid event, both online and offline, both activities were hugely successful.
MTF Labs and MTF Sparks, activities of the Music Tech Fest (MTF), moved to the center of Aveiro between 12 and 17 October, being part of one of the main events of culture, art and technology – Aveiro Tech Week, which brought together from October 12th to 18th, Criatech, Techdays Aveiro and Prisma / Art Ligh Tech. The results could not have been better – several partnerships and the development of new projects laid the foundation for new collaborations.
88 participants were joined by researchers and entrepreneurs from all over the world – mostly students and researchers from INESC-TEC at the University of Porto, from ESMAD at the Polytechnic Institute of Porto, from the Joint MCT Program between NTNU in Trondheim and the University from Oslo, and from the Art + Science Research Group at UNAM in Mexico City – among them national and international personalities like Paul D. Miller, also known as DJ Spooky, pioneering biological systems artist Marta de Menezes, the orchestral conductor Martim Sousa Tavares, Alexandra Murray-Leslie and Melissa E Logan from the feminist art group Chicks on Speed, among many others.
Under the theme Another Green World, the participants worked together with the latest technology, bringing together knowledge and experience to create new projects, products, businesses and collaborations between artists and scientists from their global network.
MTF Sparks, aimed at young people, took shape as a creative workshop with a fun and educational force, guided by specialists who explore sound, physical computing, creativity, science and production, with children and teenagers. The creative workshop was always held in the morning and the participants had the opportunity to show their projects in the afternoon in a showcase open to the community.
MTF Labs Aveiro and MTF Sparks Aveiro 2020 were the first step in an ongoing collaboration between the MTF Labs organization in Sweden and the City of Aveiro that will continue to bring national and international references from the world of arts and science to Aveiro, as well as bringing incredible ideas, creativity and inspiration from Aveiro to the world. The international MTF organization thanked the Municipality of Aveiro for the possibility of integrating this project into the community, stressing that it “only became possible thanks to its vision that conceives technology and culture as a whole that cannot be dissociated, working in the sense of creating opportunities in the Municipality ”. Aveiro Tech Week has the stamp of the Aveiro 2027 – Candidate City for European Capital of Culture project and the Aveiro Tech City initiative.
Discover the video narratives of MTFLabs Aveiro and MTFSparks Aveiro, produced under the Music Tech Fest (MTF) Video Open Call by Nuno Barbosa and Lui Avallos, winners of the first edition of the project:
MTF Sparks: https://youtu.be/urU8jTzsmJc
MTF Labs: https://youtu.be/QKATS2DxqNk
Full version: https://youtu.be/edm5f7RzS_w
