Lund University invites to UNEXPECTED in collaboration with Future by Lund
In 2022, Lund University one of about a hundred organisations behind an application for the EU's huge innovation initiative KIC (Knowledge and Innovation Communities) in the cultural and creative industries (KKN). The university consortium finished second, while the work done at the university brought great added value, including through the development of interdisciplinary collaborations with different innovation focuses. All faculties participate in the work and focus has been on eight interdisciplinary innovation areas in which Lund University is driving.
Now Lund University wants to take the work further by creating a forum and meeting place to highlight and discuss how and in what way you can drive and develop innovation areas and projects where creative and cultural competences are at the core. This is done through - Arts and Science Innovation Forum on June 1.
- We need a forum to discuss ideas and to explain how we work with innovation projects in the field of culture, says Charlotte Lorentz Hjorth at LU Collaboration and Future by Lund. The approach is quite different and inspiration is needed for everyone involved.
Over the course of a full day, participants will jointly explore existential sustainability and innovation in the cultural and creative sectors through six innovation areas. These are:
Transforming the fashion and textile industry. The EU Textile Strategy of 2022 will have a huge impact on today's Fast Fashion model, forcing the industry to adapt and find new and sustainable business models. In a few years, all clothing will have to have a product passport that provides digital information about the products. In Lund, this is already a reality because students from Lund University with partners from industry and academia will start a test demo of the product passport of 4,000 garments. At UNEXPECTED, visitors are given the opportunity to learn more about how the fashion transformation will affect society, business and consumers.
The personal experience of digital concerts. The vision of the Digital Interactive Concert Hall project is to make it possible to stream live events where the “digital” audience has full control over who and what to zoom in on. In spring 2023, Malmö Live Konserthus will become a live lab for a first test of the new technology.
Realization of human rights. What are the opportunities to develop new types of leadership and ways of organizing ourselves to defend and strengthen human rights and freedom of expression? What role can cities play when nations fail? What can we learn from today's global movements? And what do writers and journalists see as the major threats and opportunities to free speech in the coming years?
Existential resillience. People carry within themselves the ability to find meaning in life. Today, when crises threaten the foundations of society, our inner power to create and feel meaningfulness in life is more important than ever. The collaborative initiative Existential Resilience brings together 17 partners in an effort to explore meaning-making through contemplation, aesthetics and compassion. The aim is to integrate these into education for mainly professions that are relationship-intensive, such as nurses, doctors, teachers, police officers and so on.
Biosphere candidature Stor — an opportunity for existential place-making. There are currently 738 UNESCO biospheres in 134 countries around the world. Seven of them are located in Sweden, and if Stor, within the municipalities of Lund, Sjöbo and Eslöv, there may be eight candidates. The Great Cricket is unique in the way it has integrated the cultural dimension into the candidacy. The StorBiosphere Reserve is a new innovation ecosystem with opportunities for cultural entrepreneurship.
Archaeology & New Technology. Just as digital technology profoundly affects our daily lives, it is also revolutionizing archaeology. The introduction of 3D models to make digital copies of artifacts, archaeological sites and monuments has raised the quality of archaeological research, giving archaeologists new tools to analyze and interpret past traces of human life. The development opens for wider use, not only for research management and publishing but also for dissemination and popular science.
Birgitta Persson from Olivearte Cultural Agency is working to develop the concept for the forum and to produce UNEXPECTED.
- The idea is that UNEXPECTED will serve as a forum for learning together where we can develop our ability to work across borders with innovation and creativity, says Birgitta Persson. During the event, we will present and discuss the concept of the forum based on Existential Sustainability. Existential sustainability is an obvious area of expertise for the cultural and creative industries — and at the same time a missing piece in the green transformation puzzle.