Interactivos?'08: Technologies of Laughter

Medialab-Prado and the Centro Cultural de España en México issue a call for the presentation of projects to be developed within the Interactivos?'08: Technologies of Laughter workshop, to be carried out at the Centro Multimedia Centro Nacional de las Artes) from 1 to 15 August 2008.

Deadline: June 8

Project development advanced workshop

Lead by: Zachary Lieberman (EEUU), Leslie García (México) y Alejandro Tamayo (Colombia)

Organized by:

Medialab-Prado - Área de Las Artes del Ayuntamiento de Madrid

Centro Cultural de España en México - Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo

With the collaboration of: Centro Multimedia - Centro Nacional de las Artes

Dates: August 1 through 16, 2008

Venue:

Centro Multimedia - Centro Nacional de las Artes, México D.F.

Centro Cultural de España en México - AECID, México D.F.
APPLICATION GUIDELINES
Purpose of the call

The purpose of this call for projects is to select no more than 10 projects to be carried out in a workshop held at the Centro Multimedia (National Arts Centre) from 1 to 16 August 2008. At the end of the workshop, the projects will be exhibited at the Cultural Centre of Spain in Mexico from 16 August to 14 September 2008.
Introduction

The workshop aims to use open hardware and software tools to create prototypes that explore the relations between machines and humour/laughter

Laughter is a psychological phenomenon that is a human characteristic. Frequently associated with fun, play and pleasure, it serves as a way of communicating moods that are not always positive or pleasurable. Laughter can be intelligent or stupid, liberating, forced, nervous, contagious or sinister. The incongruent and the unexpected provoke laughter; however, depending on the context, they can also cause terror. Laughter is also a social phenomenon. To be shared, a common cultural milieu is required. As a result, it can reinforce belonging to a group and also exclude “others”.

In this sense, the workshop aims to explore questions such as:

What mechanisms lead to laughter? What are the social and political implications? What happens if we understand laughter as a possible form of communication between humans and machines? Can machines have a sense of humour? How can machines make us laugh? What is a machine or software programme’s cultural milieu? How can a machine handle the unexpected? What kind of narratives/machines can be built to provoke various feelings related to laughter?