The MEDEA Collaborative Media Initiative is a centre for new media at Malmo University. It was founded in early 2009 and houses 15 employees and a consortium of 90 partners (The MEDEA Network.)
The centre is founded on the now familiar notion that new media industry has certain characteristics distinguishing it from traditional industry. They argue that ‘technological development is faster and that work within new media industries is based much more heavily on experimentation.
Rather than simply noting, critiquing, or analysing this shift the MEDEA Initiative recognises the implications for research itself. Because digital media is relatively cheap and development fast it is argued that ‘rather than doing careful studies over longer periods of time before acting, it is more efficient to simply experiment.’
The centre is built on the concept of co-production which sees academic researchers working with actors outside of the university including from the corporate sector, community, government, NGOs, and individuals in the development of ‘new forms of knowledge and new innovation models within the field of new media’.
This commitment to experimentation as a mode of research and research-as-doing, coupled with a philosophy of open-innovation, offers an almost improvisational research dynamic. This dynamic promises a moves beyond the notion of overtly determined and instrumental private/public partnerships or the need to farm and protect the value of institutional and corporate IP. The Centre’s approach to research, design and development promises the support of an open collaboration between community, institutional and corporate actors.
The MEDEA Collaborative Media Institute is located a Malmo University where a large studio space offers the chance for academic researchers, external partners, artists-in-residence and ‘entrepeneurs-in -residence to engage with and develop experiments, workshops, events and creative work in general.
MEDEA is funded as one the KK (Knowledge)-environments funded by the Knowledge Foundation to develop networks of collaboration between Universities and External Partners and programs designed to create opportunities for collaboration between a variety of actors in the service of encouraging innovation.
MEDEA has been a central partner in the establishment of the Media Evolution ‘network hub’ which develops and implements opportunities for interactions between different media industries and skill sets in the service of encouraging innovative approaches and experiments in new media, as well as encouraging the development of business models capable of harnessing the potential of new and networked media.
The MEDEA group funds a series of innovation projects provocatively called ‘do-tanks’ (creating an intriguing parallel to the ‘think-tank’. Projects funded/supported in the last series of grants include;
Dodream – an engine for sketching, sharing, and developing ideas into new and concrete projects.
Parapolis – a project that uses augmented reality technology to allow the public to view, comment on, and reconfigure plans for development in shared or public spaces.
Urblove – a project aimed at developing the tools and strategies for combining urban exploration, gaming and user created content. Urblove is a service for developing location based mobile games in urban environments as well as supporting a community that develops their own games and share their experience of them. (http://www.ozma.se/2010/05/06/urblove/)
Liverse – an application that allows concertgoers to interact with the musicians and for bands to share additional content via ‘mobile tags’ (QR Codes). (trendmaze.com)
The Magpie Nest – a Facebook based application that supports small teams of eight participants in reflecting and analysing corporate stories and dilemmas in the interests of enhancing the transmission and transference of tacit knowledge within corporations.
Din Nature – an interactive museum exhibition that morphs according to a user/clients attitudes to the concept of nature.
It’s my experience – a Web Based Editor allowing users to create location based games and experiences for mobile phone with a focus on the potential they provide for contextualised and informal learning.
The MEDEA centre also supports a research program and a series of in-house projects. The center is directed by Bo Reimer.