Festival Theme #1: Open Science and Citizen Science for more inclusive healthcare

[edgeryders]

An #OpenVillage Festival theme

What have you learned about having citizens define and help advance your research project? Research is an important driver for progress in healthcare. It brings us cheaper medicine, cures to seemingly incurable diseases and better therapies. Yet research methods have not evolved much at all to better reflect the needs of patients and citizens. The people whom the research is essentially meant for, are largely left out of the process, with outcomes often shielded behind intellectual property law or unaffordable prices. Citizen science and open science are research philosophies that offer an alternative. This theme at the OpenVillage Festival brings together people and projects with hands on expertise to build on each other’s knowledge in order to push the boundaries further.

To learn more, check the festival program in the making here.

#OpenVillage Festival: 19-21 October Get in touch: #OpenVillage on twitter | Community@edgeryders.eu

[nadia]

If we are doing any exhibitions or performances on this theme, Ars electronica has a fellowship for artists on the topic. Maybe some of the artists would like to participate in this theme https://www.aec.at/center/en/opening-beyond-the-lab/

[rachel]

why does the ‘green fluorescence’ jpg on this page look so much more like bioluminescence?

[noemi]

A calll @winnieponcelet would need to make or spread with the crowd…

[winnieponcelet]

@nadia the question popping up the most lately is “will this fit in the program?” so I’m hesitant to reach out for more content. We do have some interactive experiments lined up, not in the least @rachel with the micronuclei & water analysis. And some more on the way.

[nabeel_p]

This Theme sounds incredibly exciting to me as its aligned to the work I’m doing and my personal interests. I think of Action Research / Citizen Research, and how that, if seriously considered, disputes and overthrows the desire for current models of healthcare and interaction, at least in South Africa.

Before the provision of various therapies and medicines, the majority of South Africans are excluded from any conversations or basic knowledge relay when it comes to health and healthcare. The main reason is we cannot afford healthcare structured within the capitalist model, resulting in the exclusion of the vast majority of persons even understanding illness or the body.

Our work is about filling that gap by using the Arts and Community Driven/Devised strategies for Communication and Knowledge transfer to stimulate these discussions. What happens when Communities, each with its own story, persons, folk lore, arts mediums, dynamic etc… What happens when they drive the agenda. I’m very interested in this and would love to meet like-minded persons and/or forge relationships focused on this divide.

I’d be open to a small presentation perhaps.

[winnieponcelet]

Hi @nabeel_p, great! There will be room in the program to self-organise sessions. If you could share your experience during a small presentation/discussion, that’d be awesome.

Looking forward to meeting you!