Defining Innovation – An Interactive Installation

Download the STQRY app from the app store(s) and check out the Defining Innovation exhibit information. 

The purpose of this exhibit is to provide a foundation on the meaning of innovation, as part of engaging in the Innovation 2016 conference.  Rather than accepting the dominant cultural assumptions of innovation or assuming innovation is bound in hype, the exhibit’s artifacts and interactions are designed to challenge participants to rethink what constitutes innovation as a product versus innovation as a value. One of Merriam-Webster’s most searched words in 2014, innovation was also Advertising Week’s Most Overused Word of 2012.  The word is ubiquitous.  In today’s parlance, a technology is innovative, a business, a social media practice — but what meaning are people intending to convey when they say something is innovative?  How does this meaning match with how the word exists in education, business and beyond? 

This installation is a thorough and critical look at the term innovation, its use in society, and the hidden histories of the term and its usage.  Innovation predominantly discusses a “forward-moving” good or service; however, there is no consensus nor rubrics or instruments to measure what we mean when we say innovation.  Is innovation an attribute of a good or service or is it a psychological trigger for society, used to elicit an emotional response without considering the politics, history or outcomes of its use and adoption.  In 2016 that response is triggered to the positive, while historically the response was triggered to the negative.  

Designed to be viewed through multiple lenses, the perspectives on the exhibit will change based on the entry point of the patron while scrolling multimedia will provide a unique experience for participants who visit multiple times and/or through multiple formats:  in-person, online, hybrid.

 

About the curator of the Innovation Installation

Rolin Moe

Rolin Moe, Seattle Pacific University

Dr. Rolin Moe is an Assistant Professor and the Director of Educational Technology & Media at Seattle Pacific University. Rolin’s 15+ years of working with formal, informal and non-formal learning institutions has focused on empowering all members of the community to engage teaching and learning. Rolin is one of the instigators of SPU’s Innovation Task Force, a campus-wide initiative to support all members of the university in efforts to break down silos and work in concert toward educative aims and objectives. Dr. Moe’s research utilizes a sociocultural lens on educational technology and media, exploring how popular and media discourses shape our expectations, practices and policies about education. His practical work outside of formal education celebrates the ‘gap’ between artifact design and learning assessment, at organizations such as the Museum of Modern Art, Thesys International and the nonpartisan Annenberg Learning Center at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. He is an award-winning EdTech blogger and correspondent for several EdTech periodicals including KQED’s MindShift, and in a galaxy long ago and far away was a literary agent for television science fiction writers in Hollywood.

 

Contributors to the Innovation Installation include:

  • Daryl Tate, Assistant Curator
  • Chris Mattia
  • The Seattle Pacific Art Center
  • Dominic Williamson