As an artist, Elisa Villota always tries to reflect in some way what she perceives in the places she selects to work in, which are usually spaces between the urban and the rural. Elisa is constantly looking for the public to feel appealed and to be able to relate to her work in some way. She uses technology as a tool to give a new point of view to what she sees, usually focusing on the specifics of the territory and the collective and individual memories found there. Elisa practices moves between different disciplines such as audio, video, or photography, but generally ends up in a set of installations in which different readings can be generated, giving rise to multiple points of view. It is the exaggerated editing, the juxtaposition of images, sounds, or modification of speeds, among others, that helps Elisa give plural, diverse, and hybrid visions. Elisa seeks to reinforce how she is connected with the landscape, the public spaces and all that is hidden in them. To create multiple and diverse readings of what we find in these places, collaboratively, not only with other professionals in the area or people inside the artistic field but also with the people and species that inhabit these places.

Project Title: Muga

Within this project, Muga, there are several drifts of the investigation that materialize in audio and video pieces. This same research will try to develop experimental cartography, voices, spaces, and sounds. The very different spaces that can be found within a city help to generate diverse and new points of view or new languages from which to describe the same set of feelings. Cities have been the scene of a whole multitude of private memories that passed through them, but they also sometimes constituted some episodes of collective and public memory. It is within these places that we find these encapsulated moments that introduce us to a new place from which to understand the space, also understanding their limitations.
How do we describe what those spaces generate for us? What sounds do we find in those places? We find activities that do not correspond to the rest of the environment, what stories and memories live inside them?
The aim is to capture these new stories in the audio recordings of the selected spaces (mosaic sound walks that show these experiences) and their images. Different registers of the area allow us to make voices and new spaces visible, building experimental narratives and creating areas of reflection. Collecting a whole constellation of disparate registers, whose common denominator is free expression and reflection. In this project, I focus on terms and concepts such as nostalgia, memory and storytelling. It is within this almost poetic framework that I seek to articulate new spaces that are in constant dialogue with the viewer, also interacting with the piece through the generation of small narratives. These small habitats of which we do not have all the details or absolute truth, allow the visitor to have complete freedom to use their imagination and create new approaches out of them. It is the combination of these visions that gets closer, in greater depth, to the description of these places. This research project is considered in this sense as a space for meeting and reflection, and thus becomes a transversal proposal that may interest both artists from the visual, and sound, as well as a broader audience: all those interested in working locally and trying to give plural, diverse, hybrid, and complex visions.

Léon is a French engineer. He completed Fab Academy in 2020 and worked as a Fab Manager for 2 years in a French Fab lab. Léon did a 3 months exchange at FabLab Skanderborg, Denmark, with MakerTour in 2023. He is involved in the French FabLab network and one of the leaders of the working group "Game, Arts and culture". With Vulca NGO, Léon visited Fab Labs and MakerSpace in Europe. His long term goal is to create a moving game Lab: a small Fab Lab on a cargo bike with a trailer that is centered on board games, video games and escape rooms/boxes.

Project title: Cleaning the Arctic Ocean, the board game

The objective of the project is to make a board game with the machines at JRC makerspace to raise awareness of pollution in the Arctic ocean. The goal of the game is to remove pollution tokens from the board using a fleet of 2 vessels by player. The open source board game could be replicated in other FabLab worldwide. It will allow non-technical people to play in the Lab and get ecological awareness on Arctic ocean pollution.

Matteo Villa is a STEAM learning designer and program manager in the field of science engagement at TheFabLab, a digital fabrication laboratory. He have a long experience in the field of STEAM education and dissemination: he have been involved in educational research projects, conducting active analysis on the field and delivering academic publications and lessons. As a manager and researcher at National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan, he have worked in national and international projects on innovative strategies for science engagement, and in particular to the integration of modern technologies with artistic and creative approaches. He curated the scientific contents of one of the biggest YouTube channel in Italy. He have a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy and a Master’s Degree in Cognitive Sciences.

Project Title: Biodiversity Totem

The project is designed to engage people in an interactive and emotionally resonant way on the subject of biodiversity. It consists of environmental installation modules, each crafted to create a captivating experience. These modules integrate a puzzle mechanism and a treasure hunt-style interaction, providing a unique and engaging way for participants to explore and learn about biodiversity, representing the biological entities of an ecosystem. The project aims to research analogic and digital way to interact with a physical installation. The building method is laser cut on natural materials, in order to foster an harmonical integration of the objects with the environment.