Defining Innovation – An Interactive Installation
Defining Innovation is an experiment in progressive scholarship, using the power of a conference space to rethink how we share and create knowledge. Our 2016 exhibition was a museum installation taking a 2500 year look at the changing concept and its effect on society. In 2017 we looked at the ‘present’ of innovation, generating knowledge as a part of the installation. For the final year of this experimental journey, we will look at potential futures of innovation, using the power of film to tell six stories of where the past and present of innovation could lead the future.
The premise of Defining Innovation is to engage the discord between how we believe innovation should manifest in higher education institutions and how the innovation concept has unfolded over the years. Too often we approach this question by asking one another what innovation means to each of us; this renders innovation as an emotive, hurray concept which connotes positivity that could mask unintended consequences. What does it mean that innovation is associated with technological growth while the innovation hubs of America have seen income inequality, redlining and housing shortages at the highest rates in the nation? How do the promises of technological innovation relate to the practice of higher education when most promises go unkept?
Defining Innovation remains grounded in the literature review presented in 2016 and knowledge generated in 2017, building upon this by using the power of the OLC Innovate 2018 conference and bringing the expertise in the room into a space to listen, share and learn from one another. Our goal is to create a roster of artifacts to help higher education institutions ground their innovative projects in research-based expert practices.
About the Curator of the Innovation Installation
Contributors to the Innovation Installation include:
- Chris Gilliard
- Keegan Long-Wheeler
- Ben Scragg
- John Stewart