Nightmarket 2007 workshop-Fusion

A Brief History

For Nightmarket 2007 workshop, we draw from our experiences and acquired in the Nightmarket 2006 workshop. Multidisciplinary teams will be formed in order to further discuss the fusion of daily experience and technology. By emphasizing multidisciplinarity, the workshop's activities encourage participants to push the boundaries of their knowledge and likewise, to reassess their knowledge base. The short duration of the workshop further demands that workshop participants learn and build at a rapid pace. The workshop will culminate on a series of interactive installations and urban engagements.

Project Genesis
When I was a junior at college, I participated in a workshop/studio entitled Urban Flashes 1999. As part of a very international group led by Yung-Ho Chang, who now heads the Department of Architecture at MIT, I encountered new ways of thought and practice. During this workshop I met lasting relationships with many colleagues, including Daniel Chao, a researcher invited from MIT.

After my first year at MIT's Media Lab in 2005, I was invited by Prof. Liu from the Department of Architecture at Tung-Hai University to present my experiences to an “Asian Reality Workshop” in Taichung. During this conference, a group of us -- my advisor Prof. Ted Selker, my colleagues (Francis Lam, James Teng and Ernesto Arroyo), and myself – conducted this workshop by bringing toolkits from MIT Media Laboratory that enabled our participants (predominantly trained in architecture) to build several interesting installations addressing the Taiwanese Nightmarket as a cultural phenomenon.
The subsequent summer, our Nightmarket Workshop grew to involve ten media artists and scientists and 80 students – all thanks to the support from National Gallery of Arts, ITRI and MIT Media Laboratory. Based on and adapted from the Media Lab's pedagogical method of immersive interdisciplinary learning, we found that our 80 enrolled students inspired and determined. As a testament, two of the Nightmarket 2006 participants (Dori and Michael) got admissions from MIT Media Lab this year.
In January 2007, we got together at National Taiwan University for another great event- the forum on “Technology is Rooted from Human Life”. Eleven speakers representing perspectives from design and information technology discussing how art and science can be addressed in people’s daily life.

During 2007's summer, the Nightmarket Workshop brings researchers from MIT Media lab, MIT CSAIL and MIT Architecture for this year's workshop that critically considers the innovative and creative nature characterizing Taiwanese culture. Specifically, we are interested in thinking about Taiwan's outward-looking tendencies and the importance of valuing our own resources. This sense of cultural and communitarian investment is not about isolation but instead reflecting on the way that our culture contributes to a “fusion.”

Jackie Lee
Nightmarket Workshop Organizer
http://www.nightmarket.org

Nightmarket
Workshop
2007

Group2
Urban Playground

Group3
Urban Dynamics

Group4
Urban Music