Earth Bits, the S.OS of the planet on display in Lisbon

LISBON - Science, culture and design. To tell the climate emergency that has hit the whole world (and in front of which we can no longer pretend nothing has happened). In a museum, but to the sound of data. It is "Earth bits - Sensing the Planetary", a project signed by the Italian firm Dotdotdot, which from 5 April will be the protagonist of the seasonal reopening (after the closures due to the pandemic) of the Maat, the Museum of art, architecture and technology in Lisbon. A multisensory path, created with the scientific support and collaboration of ESA-European Space Agency, IEA-International Energy Agency, EDP Innovation and EDP Sustainability, which is part of Maat Explorations, the new schedule of exhibitions, educational activities and public program conceived by the curator of the Portuguese museum Beatrice Leanza to deepen, through different points of view, the most current issues related to environmental transformation. And that through multimedia installations, dataviz, digital wallpaper, animated videos and a special interactive console tries, in a completely new way, to generate an individual and collective awareness on the subject. "Our starting point was not to have prejudices or moral intentions", Alessandro Masserdotti, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of the Dotdotdot studio, who has been working in the field of interaction design in Milan for 16 years, tells ANSA to make more the computer interfaces are understandable and usable. That is, to make the data more accessible to all. "We entered the world of museums and culture when no one expected technology in those spaces," he says. Among their clients, the Museo del '900 in Mestre (VE), the Piccolo Museo del diario in Pieve Santo Stefano (AR), the Aboca di Sansepolcro (AR) and, soon, also the exhibition that will tell about Raphael's passion. for the grotesques at the Domus Aurea in Rome. "Fundamental for us - explains the Cto - is that the use is never passive, but interactive with the viewer". Above all, when it is most urgent to create "critical thinking regarding the impact of one's behavior on the entire planet". Open until 6 September, the story of Earth bits - Sensing the Planetary thus unfolds in four multimedia installations. The opening is "Power rings", a looped dataviz that shows the consumption of electricity in Portugal in the two-year period 2019-2020, telling the impact of the restrictions and measures adopted during the first lockdown and how Covid-19 has affected the needs energy of the country. It continues with "24Hours: the ecology and energy of our flux", a large 12-meter illustrated mural that meticulously tells, with a series of detailed illustrations, the mechanisms of energy consumption that are the basis of 80 simple actions that are usually performed in the course of the day, from making coffee to checking Facebook. With the console "The co2 mixer" you can then calculate your energy impact on the planet, based on your lifestyle and habits. Finally, the large digital wallpaper 'painted' by data and images "Planet calls" visually translates the set of precious information from the ESA Copernicus satellite program, showing the public the historical correlation between the increase in CO2 emissions generated by the actions. human beings, global warming and ongoing repercussions such as floods, melting glaciers, rising seas, droughts and fires. "I believe that this will be one of the possible futures for the museums of tomorrow - concludes Masserdotti -. Today the world of science is very important and the museum is a connector between people and culture. 'common man and the rain of data and evidence we are in possession of "