Virt EU’s Interview with Serena Cangiano and Zoe Romano

Located in the southern part of Turin in a neglected industrial building – once used to be a foundry – close to the railways, Casa Jasmina is at the crossroads of a smart-home, furnished with Italian designed furniture, a B&B and a research lab willing to discover new venues for human-object interaction.

The project was launched by Bruce Sterling, science-fiction writer, and his wife Jasmina Tešanović, feminist, journalist and writer (http://casajasmina.cc/).

Its foundation is grounded in the belief that technology is not neutral, but is an interface that embeds social and ethical values, based on context and culture. This was the essence of the workshop “Internet of Thing and Social Impact”, held in Casa Jasmina on February 4.

The workshop was organized by Serena Cangiano, researcher in interaction design at SUPSI, and Zoe Romano, technologist and founder of WeMake, a maker space located in Milan.

In a four hour timespan, the twelve participants focused on the main topics of IoT and Digital Social Innovation: exploring the potential positive outcome envisioned in open hardware project such as UGO – an open source home automation system for people with limited mobility – and MobileECG an open source diagnostic device that can be assembled for just 150 $. After the general introduction, participants performed a more operative task concerning the discussion and development of a collaborative toolkit – DSI scales – that helps projects to scale up “in sustainable way, generating a better impact”.

 

For further information about Casa Jasmina:
http://casajasmina.cc/about/

Link to workshop event:
http://casajasmina.cc/social-impact-workshop/