Exkurs: EYA – Path Out

Der Contest des European Youth Award am 28. November 2019 hilft Projekte von jungen engagierten Menschen zu fördern. Es bringt sicher viel, sich für sein Projekt in diesem Rahmen die Glaubwürdigkeit und weiteres Feedback von erfahrenen Menschen einzuholen.

Realistisch gesehen, werde ich im nächsten Jahr nicht an diesem Contest teilnehmen. Ich arbeite im Moment weder an einem passenden Projekt noch habe ich Kapazität an einem teilzunehmen.

Das Projekt das mir am besten gefallen hat, war das Spiel „Path Out“ von Zsombor Svab, Abdullah Al-Karam und Georg Hobmeier. Ich finde die Idee, ein so ernstes und heikles Thema wie den Syrienkonflikt in ein Spiel zu verpacken sehr sinnvoll. Indem man beim Spielen in die Rolle von Abdullah versetzt wird und seine Geschichte durchmachen muss, entsteht sicher mehr Verständnis für den harten Weg, den Flüchtlinge hinter sich bringen mussten. Ich würde es gerne selbst spielen.

Are we gonna make a change?

Attending the EYA Festival 2019 today I noted some things I wanted to state in a blog post. One observation I made while listening and comparing the presentations was, that all the participants had ideas, that were or at least wanted to be ethical correct. If the drive to create things is to help someone with something, that in my opinion alone deserves recognition and gives hope that our generation is actually going to make a change.

One group called „eye build it“ developed a special software to enable physically disabled people to work in 3d programs by using affordable eye-tracking devices. What I really liked about the idea was, that you really can give a meaning to peoples lives who would have struggled finding one without it. I would really enjoy to see some of the biggest companies in the world using this tool to open doors for disabled people to unleash their potentials.

There was another group called „imagilabs“ whose initial intention it was to learn very young people the basics of coding. I kinda liked the idea, because everyone should have access to the knowledge he or she needs. For me the crux of the matter was that, this whole program was only meant for girls. In my opinion, that isn’t what equality looks like and it never will. Another thing that grinded my gears about „imagilabs“ was the fact that education should be sold with their program. The thought of someone not being able to afford this product, is one very very little piece that is helping to seperate the poor from education. Besides the girl-exclusivity and the monetization I liked a lot of things what they did. They decided for example to give people using the programs the possibility to exchange and discuss topics.

All in all I enjoyed the presentations and I am kinda proud that the EYA Festival took place at the FH Joanneum in Graz.

European Youth Award

When I came to the EYA-presentation I had absolutely no idea what it was about. Young European people. Probably. However, it soon became clear that this was a community of young entrepreneurs, aiming to improve society with digital technology. Listening to several presentations I noticed their aiming to be true: every project was trying to do some good. For medicine, disabled people, our environment, etc. But you have to keep in mind one thing: these people are not doing charity, they are entrepreneurs. And even if they aim to improve something, they want to make money in the first place. However, it was impressive to see people at that young age developing digital products that could really make an impact in the future and I enjoyed listening to their talks. Yet the presentations were really short and as a matter of fact the products were introduced quite superficially. This is why I had a hard time evaluating how mature the products really were. 

To give you a little insight about my thoughts and what I learned, I am going to introduce you to a few presentations I remember the most:

FOREST & CLIMATE

Forest and Climate (Sume i klima) is an online platform educating about reasonable afforestation. They use f.e. satellite data to evaluate where to plant trees and which species would fit best. In times of the climate crisis more and more people, companies and organizations want to plant trees. But without any further knowledge, their efforts are often more or less pointless. I really liked that the platform is more about educating than selling something. I actually never thought about planting trees being a complex process that should be well thought out. I think it is great that they draw attention to this issue. 

EYE BUILD IT

Eye Built It is an eye tracking program making it possible to build objects in 3D just with your eyes. The built objects can then be brought into the real world with a 3D printer. Since the program is controlled with eye tracking even people who can’t use a mouse or keyboard are not left out. There is also an online community, where people can communicate and exchange their thoughts and work.
I really like this project, because projects like that are a huge step towards a more inclusive world. The good thing is that eye tracking is not only a cool thing for people with disabilities. It’s an innovative technology that is interesting and fascinating for everyone. 

PATH OUT

After the game Path Out was presented, one of the first jury questions was: „Why is this game beneficial for society?“. And even though it is just a game, not improving something right away, I think it is quite obvious why this game is great. Path Out is an autobiographical game, telling the story of Abdullah, a young Syrian artist, who escaped the civil war. The game is just telling a story, nothing else, but it creates an understanding why people leave their countries, rebuts stereotypes and creates empathy for Abdullah, the refugee. I love the concept and that you can play the game for free. Even though all it does is basically to tell a story, but in fact it is doing so much more. Storytelling can help to change minds to the better and that is something really important!

IMAGILABS

ImagiLabs is a platform that wants to help girls learn to code in a playful and experimental way. Which is a good thing, I guess. But there were a few things I didn’t like too much. I think it would be great to have a program/platform that also attracts girls to do more with technology. But I don’t like the fact that ImagiLabs is ONLY for girls. I don’t think that excluding boys is the right way to get more girls into coding. Moreover, ImagiLabs is a smart learning platform, an educational tool, but it is quite expensive. I like the attempt to boost girls, but I don’t think that education should be that expensive. At least not, if you really want to change something. 

EYA-Award

Im Rahmen des European Youth Awards 2019 wurden Design-Projekte und Start-Ups aus verschiedenen Bereichen in 5 minütigen Pitches vorgestellt. Es geht in jedem Projekt um spezifische Problemstellungen und deren Lösung.

Besonders gefallen haben mir Projekte mit ausgeprägtem sozialen Nutzen. Beispielsweise die App mCommunity, die den Dialog zwischen städtischer Bevölkerung und jeweiligen Verwaltungsbehörden unbürokratischer zu gestalten versucht. Es handelt sich hierbei um eine virtuelle Plattform, auf der BürgerInnen Stadtverwaltungen auf aktuelle Probleme hinweisen, Problemlösungen vorschlagen und unkompliziert Bürgerinitiativen starten können. Dieser Ansatz scheint mir innovativ zu sein und gefällt mir, da er die Hemmung vieler Menschen herabsetzt, sich mit den städtischen Behörden auseinanderzusetzen und somit aktive Teilnahme am sozialen Miteinander fördert.

Problematisch könnte sich die Organisation einer flächendeckenden Einführung einer solchen App in verschiedenen Städten und Nationen gestalten: Zunächst muss die Verwendung dieser App mit den jeweiligen Städteregierungen abgesprochen und koordiniert werden. Mit reiner Akzeptanz von Seiten der Bevölkerung und den zuständigen Behörden ist es jedoch nicht getan. Ein solches System funktioniert nur bei aktiver Teilnahme beider Parteien. Es wäre zwingend notwendig, dass Behörden stets und schnell auf Kommentare der Bevölkerung Feedback geben. Dies würde ein generelles Umdenken in den Verwaltungen voraussetzen.

Außerdem schienen mir die Ideen bzgl. nachhaltigem Reisen (SocialBNB) und das innovative Konzept der Navigation blinder Menschen durch ein multimodales System, das Hör- und Tastsinn einschließt (EyeLight), besonders sinnvoll und gleichzeitig durchdacht.

Das Projekt imagiLabs, welches versucht, weibliche Jugendliche für Computerprogrammierung zu begeistern ist vom Prinzip auch eine gute Idee, die ein bisheriges Problem (fehlende weibliche Auszubildende/Interessierte im zukunftsträchtigen IT-Bereich) gezielt zu lösen versucht. Problematisch war hier jedoch die Präsentation als Skype-Schaltung, was zu technischen Problemen führte und, aufgrund des schlechten Mikrofons des verwendeten Geräts , die Verständlichkeit des Vortrags beeinträchtigt hat. Auch kam ich bei genauerer Betrachtung nicht umhin, das Konzept des Projektes, bei aller Innovationskraft, auch kritisch zu betrachten: Es wird versucht, mit Hilfe eines „schön anzusehenden“ Schmuck-Accessoires (eine blinkende LED-Kette(?)) Mädchen für Programmierung zu begeistern. Dieses Konzept scheint für sich genommen schon ein sozial bedingtes Geschlechterbild zu beinhalten, das besagt „Mädchen mögen Schmuck und schön Anzusehendes“.

Ich halte den EYA-Award für eine gute Plattform, um Input und Ansporn für die Umsetzung eigener Projekte zu erhalten und um seine Tätigkeiten einer Öffentlichkeit präsentieren können. Wenn eine passende, spruchreife Idee zustande kommt, könnte ich mir eine Teilnahme daran auch vorstellen.

EYA Youth Award

Today we visited the event of the European Youth Award which was under the theme „Watch out: Europe on fire“. I have to admit, I never heard of it before, but I really enjoyed listening to the ideas of the young entrepreneurs and start-ups. 

It’s hard to say which project I liked the most, because there are many that impressed me. My favourite projects were imagiLabs, socialbnb and Aivy. Not only the ideas behind the projects were great, but also the presentations themselves. They were easy to understand, emphasized the benefits and the slides were good looking, which makes a big impact. 

Book illustrations of the 19th century and their ongoing impact on children of today

Novels as Struwwelpeter, Alice in Wonderland, and the fairy tales by the Grimm brothers were originally published around 200 years ago. However, they still represent an essential part of children’s literature of today. The reason why these fairy tales had such an extraordinary impact and managed to be still remembered by the majority of people is that their authors ensured that their stories were illustrated in an appealing and unique way.

Earth is a solar powered jukebox

Musik verleitet zum Träumen. Sie regt die Phantasie an, bringt den Rezipienten an weit entfernte Orte oder erinnert an Situationen und Gefühle des alltäglichen Lebens.

Bei Recordings zur Verwendung in elektronischen Musik wird normalerweise versucht, Umgebungsgeräusche auszublenden. Musiker werden in akkustisch optimierten Studios aufgenommen, um die maximale Kontrolle über das Klangbild zu erhalten. Elektronische Produktionen klingen deshalb oft sehr steril und synthetisch. Das kann durchaus erwünscht sein, lässt aber auch manchmal organische Elemente vermissen, die die Musik interessanter machen würden.