Dott 07

Twenty schools have been shortlisted to make it through to the next stage of the Eco Design Challenge.

Four judges are now set the task of deciding which designs should make it into the final. Five finalists will be announced on 5 September. The students who make it over the last hurdle will present their ideas at the Creative Community Awards, on Tuesday 16 October, where a winner will be decided.

Read on to find out more about the shortlisted schools, design teams and ideas.

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Victor Frankenstein is consumed by the desire to create life by electronic means. Schwarzenegger peels back the skin of his forearm to reveal the Terminator skeleton beneath. A robotic boy longs to become human so he can experience his mother’s love in Speilberg’s A.I.  The success of science fiction fantasies arguably stems from our deepest concerns about advances in medicine, technology and Artificial Intelligence. Today, these fantasies are closer to reality than ever before. When technology merges with our body, our revulsion mingles with fascination. Remember the yuck factor with the appearance of the Vacanti mouse? A provocative new exhibition, 'Our Cyborg Future?' opened on Friday at the Discovery Museum in Newcastle upon Tyne and inadvertently puts the question to us: has real life become stranger than fiction?

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The first of four judges has cast his critical eye over the final submissions to the ECO Design Challenge.

Twenty schools have submitted their designs to the Dott 07 competition, shortlisted from schools all over the North East. Ideas range from small products, to huge buildings or environments, and even futuristic systems and services. Phil Bawden, Manager of the Art and Design Department at Newcastle College, said he was thrilled to take part but that it was the hardest thing he had done in years! So many projects, each with their own wonderful character and style, what an impossible choice. Never the less, after hours of careful deliberation, Phil has confirmed his favourites to the Dott 07 team.

Next week three more judges will be set the task of making their own choices, and the final five designs will be announced on 5 September. These finalists will present their ideas at the Dott 7 Festival launch, on Tuesday 16 October, where a winner will be decided.

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In a stroke of genius, Stella Hall, Creative Director at Culture10 commissioned Media 19 to produce the Welcomes Project for Dott 07 – an innovative programme of world-class festivals and events to draw attention to the North East as a vibrant, creative, welcoming place. The region has been identified as the most welcoming region in the country and Culture10 saw this special Dott 07 year as the perfect opportunity to celebrate and build on this sterling quality. We are all obsessed with welcoming. Firstly, it is a very personal business. If you’re not good at it, you could find yourself home alone on a Saturday night watching repeats of Friends, speed-eating Oreos. Welcoming is also big money. One of the most successful films of all time, ET is about the innocence of a child welcoming a stranger. It digs deep and provokes us to ask the question – how would I react if I discovered an alien in my closet!?

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The exhibition ‘Our Cyborg Future?’ opens at The Discovery Museum in Newcastle upon Tyne from 10 August – 27 October 2007. This event promises to stimulate debate on the highly controversial subject of the advancement of cyborg technology into our lives. The concept of man-machine has been around since 1908 when the first fictional cyborg was brought to life in the novel ‘The Man Who Can Live In Water’ by Jean de la Hire. Real life soon followed and in the 1950’s the first lucky cyborg was a modified white lab rat, but technology and thinking have moved a long way since then… but just how far is far enough? The term cyborg was coined by Manfred E. Clynes and Nathan S. Kline in 1960 and referred to an enhanced man-machine hybrid that could survive in extra-terrestrial environments. While cyborgs might not be up for breathing in outer space just yet, some people are concerned that they are already taking over our inner space. This timely exhibition will look at just how far it has come and will further the debate about where we want these technologies to go and how we want them to impact on our lives, present and future. Come along and decide for yourself whether these creations enhance human life or whether there is a danger they will render human life obsolete?

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