Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SCIHO (SCIENCE HOTEL 'HUMANIMAL')
Période du rapport: 2021-04-01 au 2022-01-31
Science Hotel 2021 was a one-week hybrid (online and onsite) festival, where the general public in Rotterdam and its region met with scientists and was introduced in their research and its relevance for our daily lives. (R)EVOLUTION, Resilience in times of Covid, this year’s theme of Science Hotel, featured scientific aspects of the corona pandemic and the relation between humans and animals. This theme is relevant for society in dealing with the Corona/Covid-19 crisis, since the emergence of the pandemic has its origins in the animal world.
Science Hotel facilitated encounters between the audience and researchers. It invited the audience to step into the daily life of researchers and discuss research topics and their perception by societal stakeholders. This dialogue was stimulated, enriched and sometimes distorted, by artists’ interventions. The program kicked off before European Researchers’ Night with online and offline pre-events for school classes, teachers and families.
Because of Covid measures by the authorities, the program of Science Hotel has been changed during the months before the event. Collaboration with Rijnmond regional Television, Radio and Internet has been intensified, in order to accomadate part of the program that was intented to be onsite. The onsite event during the NIGHT itself has been limited in terms of capacity for visitors. The livestream of the program has been promoted as an alternative. Physical interactions with school pupils and students were replaced by online masterclasses and workshops. Some of the results of the worskhops (video's) were featured as pre-events during the Rotterdam Open Air Cinema, enabling the organizers to reach a larger crowd during an onsite event.
Science Hotel facilitated encounters between the audience and researchers. It invited the audience to step into the daily life of researchers and discuss research topics and their perception by societal stakeholders. This dialogue was stimulated, enriched and sometimes distorted, by artists’ interventions. The program kicked off before European Researchers’ Night with online and offline pre-events for school classes, teachers and families.
Because of Covid measures by the authorities, the program of Science Hotel has been changed during the months before the event. Collaboration with Rijnmond regional Television, Radio and Internet has been intensified, in order to accomadate part of the program that was intented to be onsite. The onsite event during the NIGHT itself has been limited in terms of capacity for visitors. The livestream of the program has been promoted as an alternative. Physical interactions with school pupils and students were replaced by online masterclasses and workshops. Some of the results of the worskhops (video's) were featured as pre-events during the Rotterdam Open Air Cinema, enabling the organizers to reach a larger crowd during an onsite event.
The first phase of the project was that of co-creation with school pupils, students and young people (15 tot 25) in which Science Gallery Rotterdam organizes a series of masterclasses and workshops where young people from Rotterdam, scientific researchers, artists and designers discuss themes from research and provide context. The results were developed in the program for Science Hotel. Four online masterclasses with subsequent workshops were organized.
In a follow up series of four workshops, young people, scientists and artists investigated how online culture influences the identity of young people. A core group of twelve young people aged 17 to 21 participated in the workshops. Each of them formed a bubble, a group of other youngsters, around them, in total 120 young people. The results is an algorithm-driven dynamic digital artwork that was presented during Science Hotel.
With the Willem de Kooning Academy, Science Gallery Rotterdam organized a co-creation project in which 60 first-year Transformation Design students who followed online presentations by Erasmus MC scientists and international artists for a week, in the beginning of April. The Transformation Design students then worked for two months on a project at the intersection of science, art and social experience. The result consisted of 4 video productions, that were staged as pre-events for Science Hotel, during the Open Air Cinema Rotterdam from August 11 tot 29, 2021.
In April a call for presentations among researchers of Erasmus MC and its strategical partners was announced, inviting researchers to present Covid & Disaster related research during Science Hotel. It offered participating researchers an intensive communication and presentation training in advance of the event. 31 Researchers responded to the call, of which 20 embarked on the training and the program of Science Hotel. Apart from the researchers participating in the training 10 additional researchers were invited to help prepare or present parts of the program.
Due to Covid-19 measures, the organizers had to make the decision to reschedule to a mainly online program. In addition, collaboration with Rijnmond regional radio and television was intensified in order to prgram presentations in televison and radio formats.
In the week before Science Hotel the presentations by researchers were broadcasted.
The event Science Hotel during the Night itself was relocated to Schiecentrale Rotterdam, because of limitations of the planned location Mainport Inntel hotel.
A pre-event during the afternoon of September 24, 2021 was visited by 50 researchers and artists who have been involved in the preparations of the program.
The onsite event was visited by 140 people, a limited number that secured the possibilities for social distancing. Thanks to livestreaming the program in collaboration with Rijnmond regional television and radio, the final number of visitors for the event turned out higher than expected: In total 91.487 people attended (parts of) the program.
In a follow up series of four workshops, young people, scientists and artists investigated how online culture influences the identity of young people. A core group of twelve young people aged 17 to 21 participated in the workshops. Each of them formed a bubble, a group of other youngsters, around them, in total 120 young people. The results is an algorithm-driven dynamic digital artwork that was presented during Science Hotel.
With the Willem de Kooning Academy, Science Gallery Rotterdam organized a co-creation project in which 60 first-year Transformation Design students who followed online presentations by Erasmus MC scientists and international artists for a week, in the beginning of April. The Transformation Design students then worked for two months on a project at the intersection of science, art and social experience. The result consisted of 4 video productions, that were staged as pre-events for Science Hotel, during the Open Air Cinema Rotterdam from August 11 tot 29, 2021.
In April a call for presentations among researchers of Erasmus MC and its strategical partners was announced, inviting researchers to present Covid & Disaster related research during Science Hotel. It offered participating researchers an intensive communication and presentation training in advance of the event. 31 Researchers responded to the call, of which 20 embarked on the training and the program of Science Hotel. Apart from the researchers participating in the training 10 additional researchers were invited to help prepare or present parts of the program.
Due to Covid-19 measures, the organizers had to make the decision to reschedule to a mainly online program. In addition, collaboration with Rijnmond regional radio and television was intensified in order to prgram presentations in televison and radio formats.
In the week before Science Hotel the presentations by researchers were broadcasted.
The event Science Hotel during the Night itself was relocated to Schiecentrale Rotterdam, because of limitations of the planned location Mainport Inntel hotel.
A pre-event during the afternoon of September 24, 2021 was visited by 50 researchers and artists who have been involved in the preparations of the program.
The onsite event was visited by 140 people, a limited number that secured the possibilities for social distancing. Thanks to livestreaming the program in collaboration with Rijnmond regional television and radio, the final number of visitors for the event turned out higher than expected: In total 91.487 people attended (parts of) the program.
Anticipating and responding to national Covid-19 measures demanded maximum flexibility and resourcefullness from the organizers, participating researchers and the audience.
The Science Hotel format, that has been successfully developed during former NIGHT events, had to be reinvented to be presented mainly online.
This not only had technical implications, but also changed the dynamics and nature of the presentations by the scientists and the program as a whole.
For example, personal encounters that typically are in a physical format and small scale, were not possible. The researchers had to adapt their presentations to attractive online formats.
For the program in general this meant it was harder to organize sevarl parallel program lines in numerous presentation rooms, which is the nature of Science Hotel.
Instead a plenary, studio program had to be delivered, which appeared to demand a totally different form of programming.
E.g. while a number of parralel lines in the program, makes it possible to ensure that there is something on for everyone's interest all the time, a plenary program forces to make choices, that are not always appreciated by the audience.
Moreover, the audience does appreciate online presentations for reasons of convenience to some extent, but to attend a full night program of science in a time when already many events seek refuge to online formats, appears very demanding.
However, the online format and collaboration with Rijnmond regional television and radio also opened up new avenues to reach (new) audiences, who have all attended at least part of the program.
In the end this has even increased the number of visitors to far above expected.
An important lesson learnt is that an onsite event remains preferable for an event as the NIGHT that aims for personal encounters between researchers and audiences.
However, it is wise to anticipate to the neccessity to go online and build in flexibility in the organization, program and presentations.
Moreover, online and broadcasted elements can enrich the program and reach new and larger numbers of audience.
The Science Hotel format, that has been successfully developed during former NIGHT events, had to be reinvented to be presented mainly online.
This not only had technical implications, but also changed the dynamics and nature of the presentations by the scientists and the program as a whole.
For example, personal encounters that typically are in a physical format and small scale, were not possible. The researchers had to adapt their presentations to attractive online formats.
For the program in general this meant it was harder to organize sevarl parallel program lines in numerous presentation rooms, which is the nature of Science Hotel.
Instead a plenary, studio program had to be delivered, which appeared to demand a totally different form of programming.
E.g. while a number of parralel lines in the program, makes it possible to ensure that there is something on for everyone's interest all the time, a plenary program forces to make choices, that are not always appreciated by the audience.
Moreover, the audience does appreciate online presentations for reasons of convenience to some extent, but to attend a full night program of science in a time when already many events seek refuge to online formats, appears very demanding.
However, the online format and collaboration with Rijnmond regional television and radio also opened up new avenues to reach (new) audiences, who have all attended at least part of the program.
In the end this has even increased the number of visitors to far above expected.
An important lesson learnt is that an onsite event remains preferable for an event as the NIGHT that aims for personal encounters between researchers and audiences.
However, it is wise to anticipate to the neccessity to go online and build in flexibility in the organization, program and presentations.
Moreover, online and broadcasted elements can enrich the program and reach new and larger numbers of audience.