2023-12-04 16:35:06
“I wanted to turn my climb into a descent.” This is the message of Mirko Toller, a young man from Trentino with spinal muscular atrophy (Sma) who died in 2020 at just 16 years old. The phrase contains all the beauty and strength of the ‘Mirko Park’ project, a virtual amusement park dedicated to him and presented at the Muse (Science Museum) of Trento, by the Nemo Trento Clinical Center and Medialab, on the occasion of the International People’s Day with disabilities, which is celebrated on December 3. The immersive amusement park promoted as part of the rich program by Muse for the day – explains a note – has been defined as an ‘exclusively inclusive’ space, capable of bringing adults and children together in a playful experience that goes beyond the limits physical, thanks to the use of VR (virtual reality) viewers.
“We wanted to give life to the dream of Mirko, a patient of the Nemo clinical centers, who loved speed and wanted an amusement park open and accessible to all – states Riccardo Zuccarino, clinical director of the Nemo Trento clinical center – We then thought of one virtual space that creates relationships in a playful experience: a meeting place that goes beyond the physical limit imposed by a neuromuscular pathology. In the rehabilitation process at Nemo, in fact, the construction of one’s own life plan comes into play first and foremost, in which the disease represents a part. Mirko Park expresses precisely this message of life, which does not stop with the diagnosis.”
From the panoramic carousel, to the roller coaster, to the magic broom, to target shooting with ducks, for the little ones, Mirko Park is an immersive multi-sensory space, the result of a long journey of sharing between clinicians, designers, creatives and patients , to arrive at the best technical solutions. Not only that, with the presentation at Muse, the park has also become a physical space, a place for meeting and relating, thanks to an installation that simulates a carousel that supports three VR viewers, allowing the experience to be shared between multiple players. “Mirko Park – says Marco Furgeri, project manager of Medialab, who developed the application – is a fast-moving project, as Mirko was, and we have done nothing but let ourselves be influenced by his energy. From the beginning we thought that it should be not only a digital environment, but also a physical space that could create an opportunity for meeting and relating, beyond any barrier. Inaugurating it at the Muse meant giving it an appropriate and lively home.”
The amusement park is a dynamic and ongoing project which will have the possibility of being integrated with new attractions, thanks to the requests and contributions of the children and young people who will experience it. All this to continue to make concrete the objective of responding, together, to the need to “increasingly improve the quality of life and daily well-being of those living with a neuromuscular disease”, as Sara Girardi, administrative director of the Provincial health services company. The project is part of a precious network of relationships made up of meetings between those who believed in the possibility of making concrete what seemed impossible. Starting from Mirko’s extraordinary mother, Stella Robert Perez, who handed over her son’s dream to Alessandra Sartori, and which thanks to the writer became a book published by Erickson; to Grazia Zappa, psychologist at the Nemo Trento clinical center and expert in Alternative Augmentative Communication (CAA), who took up the challenge of rethinking the physical park in a virtual space, involving the Nemo team.
Thus – continues the note – in a short time the idea of a few became “a place of meeting and ideas that united entities and institutions”, as told by Luisa Pizzini, Head of Communications at the Caritro Foundation, whose contribution the project enjoys , with the collaboration of Handicrea and Anffas Trentino. Along the way, the Autonomous Province of Trento granted institutional patronage and the community of patients with SMA and muscular dystrophies supported the project, with the patronage of the SMA families association and Uildm. They were joined by the unconditional contribution of Novartis Farma, Roche Italia and Biogen, as well as the support of the Trento Host Lions Club and the Cassa Rurale Val di Non Rotaliana and Giovo. To find out about Mirko Park and the presentation events www.mirkopark.it
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