we are experience designers

back to our roots: artificial intelligence exhibition in vienna

10-11-2020

Tinker has been commissioned to design an immersive exhibition around Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the Vienna Museum of Science and Technology (Technisches Museum Wien) in Austria. After months of intensive work by the museum and the Tinker team, the special exhibition on AI, which will focus on current and future trends, will be open to the public from mid-December. The exhibition ‘Künstliche Intelligenz?’ (Artificial Intelligence) will highlight various myths around these topics and will give visitors a transparent, reflective view of the utopias and hysteria surrounding humanoid robots and autonomous systems. How can we use AI to drive social and technological change and promote sustainable development? Visitors dive into the black box of artificial intelligence and find fascinating algorithms, ingenious innovations, and the timeless desires of curious people.

AI deconstructed into bite-sized chunks
The exhibition aims to unravel the invisibility and the elusiveness of AI. Visitors discover that it is not that mysterious after all. Each floor in the museum shows a different aspect of the endless possibilities of AI. Visitors will find out what AI is and how it works, and they will learn about its ethical implications for our social life. Do we have the technology we need, and do we need the technology we have? In addition, they will discover creative AI interactions, and end the tour by looking into the future: how will our mobility change?

Familiar territory for Tinker
What started out as two friends, Erik Bär and Stan Boshouwers, building a robot as part of their AI studies almost thirty years ago, has grown into a successful agency in immersive exhibition and experience design. Stan: ‘Ideas and concepts of AI have been worked into Tinker's DNA from the beginning. This is also reflected in our preference for technical and scientific subjects and in the cognitive-psychological approach we use when designing exhibitions. We are completely in our element with projects like the Artificial Intelligence exhibition at the Technisches Museum Wien in Austria. Such assignments are an enormous source of inspiration to us.’

For previous clients Tinker often translated imaginative scientific issues into appealing visitor experiences. This resulted in projects such as the Science Centre at Delft University of Technology and the Anatomical Theatre in Museum Boerhaave, both in the Netherlands.