Knowledge News Technological Portugal 2008 Technological Portugal 2008
- 18/11/2008
Pavilions 2 and 3 of FIL - the Industrial Fair of Lisbon, situated in Parque das Nações, in Lisbon, played host to the Fair “Technological Portugal 2008”, which was held on 18 to 23 November 2008 and which was open to the public as a whole, with the aim of providing contact with what is best in Portugal in the areas of technology, innovation and knowledge, including sectors such as Energy, Telecommunications, Education, Health, Tourism, Mobility, Security, and the Automobile Industry.
The central theme of the module on Science (content in portuguese) was the new frontiers in science and scientists in Portugal. This module included around 400 photographs of new scientists hired by scientific institutions in the last two years under the scope of the Programmeme to stimulate scientific employment, financed by Science and Technology Foundation (FCT), which aims to ensure the contracting of at least more than 1,000 graduates by the end of the parliamentary term. There were also various installations in two distinct spaces, where events were organised under the scope of the Partnerships for the Future activity integrated within the Commitment to Science for Portugal’s Future initiative.
One of the exhibition areas was given over to Future Places – a Festival of Digital Media and Local Cultures, a research and experimental initiative with the aim of contributing to the debate concerning the way in which digital media have been transforming communication, creativity and identity at a global level, and how they may be able to enhance cultural and social development at the local level. The 1st holding of the Future Places Festival took place in Porto in October 2008 under the scope of the UTexas Austin – Portugal Program, and marked the start of a joint reflexion involving the participation of national and international specialists. There were talks and workshops, films, concerts and events, an international competition for creative projects which awarded prizes to the works and ideas which led to the prize-winning works being shown in that exhibition space. “Living Room Plankton”, by Filipe Pais, 1st Prize, and “Digitópia Plataforma Interactiva”, a partnership between the Casa da Música, the Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espectáculo, INESC Porto, and the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, which received an Honorary Mention in the aforementioned competition. The following were also exhibited in this space:
- "Burning Sound", by Rudolfo Quintas, 2nd Prize in Future Places 2008, created by the author at ISR - Institute for Robotic Systems – Lisbon, with the support of the Directorate-General das Artes e a Ciência Viva, on the 21st at 18:00.
- “Future Places Showreel”, a selection of the films submitted to the competition held in the Future Places 2008 Festival, made by: António Aleixo, Ayoka Chenzira, Anabela Costa, Tito Fernandes, Christopher Robbins, Renato Roque, and Rui Coelho, on the 22nd at 17:00.
- “Airstick, a Gestural Controller for Performative Electronic Music”, by Ivan Franco, a musical work with the instrument “AirStick”, invented by the player, which is a wind instrument made up of a set of infrared proximity sensors, which allow the localisation of any obstacle within a close bidimensional area. The instrument has recently been redesigned through the support of the company YDreams, which also uses it in various interactive applications.
The other exhibition space was dedicated to the Partnerships for the Future activity which forms part of the Commitment to Science for Portugal’s Future initiative, and contained video documentaries on the MIT – Portugal Program, the Carnegie Mellon – Portugal Program and the UTexas Austin – Portugal Program , and also Portugal’s Participation in the Atlas Experiment of the LHC/CERN (Large Hadron Collider). Costing around 4 thousand million Euros, the LHC is the largest machine on the planet, with a perimeter extending 27 km and with a total of 9,300 superconducting magnets inside it, located at CERN in a plot of land adjoining France and Switzerland and at depths which vary between 50 and 150 metres. The Atlas instrument is the largest particle detector in the LHC and the construction of some of its parts involved the participation of Portuguese companies and researchers, as documented in the film on show in this space, made by Amélia Maio, João Pequenão and Agostinho Gomes from LIP – the Experimental Particle Physics and Instrumentation Laboratory. Also permanently on exhibition in this space was the interactive work of art “Inversed Metaphors” by Rudolfo Quintas, produced as part of the Experimentation Residency Art, Science and Technology carried out at the Institute for Robotic Systems – Lisbon, under the framework of the residency Programme for artists in research centres in 2008, promoted by Ciência Viva and by the Directorate-General for Arts.
The Ciência Viva 2008 Forum took place at the same time as the “Technological Portugal” Fair, on 22 and 23 November, in Pavilion 3 of FIL.