HackS+T+Arts Circular Futures: Winners Announcement

30 participants, 8 projects, 3 winners

As part of the Regional S+T+Arts Centers, the Hackathon “Circular Futures: Think in Systems” took place from 1st to 3rd of July and was organized and hosted by Onassis Stegi in collaboration with MADE Group.

The hackathon aimed to motivate all change-makers – governments, companies, and individuals – and to serve as a platform for open social innovation in the arts and sciences so that the changes we make may have unexpected and often unpredictable effects and advance the circular economy and think of possible sustainable futures.

Thanks to the contribution and active support of the mentors and speakers, the event has achieved more than we ever expected, with 8 teams or individuals participating and sharing their creative ideas!

Hackathon Winners

HackS+T+Arts: Circular Futures 1^st Prize €1500

Project: Navanthus
Team: iGEM Thessaly 2022

The project NAVANTHUS by team iGEM Thessaly 2022 won first place, and their project proposed solutions that combined science, technology and art for a sustainable future for all. The group’s goal is to combat the phenomenon of pollution in aquatic ecosystems caused by excess nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrates while also raising public awareness of ecosystem protection, so their project proposed the construction of a floating platform in the form of a cultural centre that will bring plants that will absorb excess phosphorus and nitrates through their roots and use these elements for their growth. All platform materials will be environmentally friendly, biodegradable and reusable, with dominant “mycelium” a bio-material derived from fungi. Young and old citizens will be able to engage in various activities on the floating structure, including meals, educational workshops on how to use this bio-material lifestyle in everyday life, as well as cultural and artistic events.

HackS+T+Arts: Circular Futures 2nd Prize €1000

Project: Circular places. A Handbook to Euphoria
Name: Eleni Linaki

Ms Eleni Linaki’s project Circular Places: A Handbook to Euphoria won second place, and her proposal connects three major axes: science, technology, and art. The main idea is to determine how a citizen of any age can become acquainted with circular economy concepts such as sustainability, resilience, and resources. The goal is to create a “open data” sensory website with three main components: a) a user manual with basic concepts and guidance on how to navigate the website, b) a library and map resources, and c) a euphoria index. Each user finds a ‘circular resource’ that makes him feel good or bad (for example, a sunny clean forest), then records/photographs/draws it. Following that, the user uploads it to the website and evaluates it. As a result, the entire process not only provides multiple information useful for other users (artists, educators, ordinary citizens), but also an automatic base of cartographic and informational data, as well as an index of euphoria at the neighborhood, municipality, or national level.

HackS+T+Arts: Circular Futures 3rd Prize €500

Project: Plastic Futures
Team: Conscious Dives

Conscious Dives, an interdisciplinary group, received third place for their project Plastic Futures.

Nadia Skordopoulou’s interactive underwater art installation “Plastic Futures” was created as a result of her interdisciplinary collaboration with marine biologist Ferdinando Laconi. It is a visitable, site-specific installation intended to serve as an underwater biological station for the collection of environmental data, with the contribution to Apostolos Roditis’ mechanical engineering research. The aim of the project is to inform the visitors about the urgent issue of plastic pollution, and to raise awareness of the immediate need to protect the marine environment, by designing a series of artistic and educational activities that will take place around it. These activities, which will be taking into account their environmental footprint, will take the form of “experiences”, engaging the visitors and inviting them to actively participate in the protection of the marine ecosystem, through role-playing, DIWO science and artistic creation. The curator of the art installation and the artistic-educational activities is Veroniki Korakidou, interdisciplinary artistic researcher and art theorist.

BIOS

iGEM Thessaly 2022 is an interdisciplinary team of the University of Thessaly, focusing on Synthetic Biology, a scientific discipline that combines the principles of biology and engineering and aims to re-synthesize functional biological systems. The team represents the University of Thessaly every year in the iGEM International Synthetic Biology Competition, which promotes research and progress in Synthetic Biology. This year’s team consists of 18 members from various faculties of the University of Thessaly.

Eleni Linaki is a Spatial Planning and Development Engineer (Polytechnic School of AUTH) and a Building Renovation and Rehabilitation Engineer (Technical University of Larissa). She also holds a Postgraduate Diploma from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Postgraduate Program: “Protection, Maintenance and Restoration of Cultural Monuments”), and from 2021, she also holds a Doctoral Degree from NTUA (School of Architecture) titled ”Recording and evaluating the tangible and intangible cultural assets of a place through a multicriteria decision-making system, as a new approach to managing cultural heritage: the case of Ano Syros ”. Finally she is a postgraduate student at the Department of Theater Studies of EKPA (Postgraduate Program: “Drama and performance”). She has numerous research projects and publications in books, scientific journals, and conference proceedings, and since 2021 she teaches in the Department of Geography at Harokopio University.

The interdisciplinary group Conscious Dives: (Slow) Artventure Experiences was formed to create the interactive underwater art installation “Plastic Futures” and has as its main goal the design of “slow tourism” experiences, which will offer an alternative model of sustainable recreation, combining contemporary art with the protection of the marine ecosystem. Group members are Nadia Skordopoulou, visual artist with international experience in site-specific landscape art installations and creator of the “Plastic Futures” art installation, Ferdinando Laconi, environmental scientist with a focus on marine biology and professional expertise in waste management, scientific advisor of the project, Apostolos Roditis, mechanical engineer and founder of Ulysses Multihull Adventures, technical consultant, and Veroniki Korakidou, interdisciplinary artistic researcher, who is the project curator.