Created by Fastweb, it offers the public a path that allows you to become familiar with the digital revolution. And the experience continues beyond the visit of the exhibition spaces
the future a lit cannonball. And we are almost reaching it, sang Francesco De Gregori exactly forty years ago. The cannonball has not yet gone out, on the contrary with digital it has accelerated even more. And reaching it, or at least trying to keep up, is also a cultural challenge. Step – subtitle FuturAbility District – the museum of the future, a project by Fastweb that opened its doors in May in Piazza Adriano Olivetti in Milan, in the Nexxt area, headquarters of the telecommunications company, in one of the areas dedicated to it. south-east of the city, in the deepest transformation. More than a “museum”, we like to define Step as a permanent space, constantly updated, of connection with the future, explains Cristina Paciello, head of the project as Head of Step. This is not Fastweb’s corporate museum. But Step’s goal is to help visitors develop their knowledge of the digital transformations underway. A space for a transversal public with the aim of making it more positive and aware, offering it the tools to face what we are experiencing in our personal, social, professional and school life.
The technology that surrounds us and that we use more or less with ease gives us the illusion of knowing it, the future that awaits us. But falling behind is very easy. Step is a place for reflection and dissemination on topics such as the Internet of things, big data, artificial intelligence, robotics, the evolution of the automotive market, but also drones and logistics perspectives. All with the necessary environmental sustainability.
“You are the future” reads the large installation at the entrance to Step. We are often unprepared and use this excuse to have a certain reluctance towards digital transformation, explains Paciello. Here, here we want to go to support both digital natives who feel the need to deepen, and people of the higher age group, who were formed in a historical moment in which digital transformation was only at its dawn. an informative space where myths and commonplaces are dispelled. Where it goes in depth, but with an accessible language to everyone.
The project born a couple of years ago, from an idea of Fastweb’s CEO, Alberto Calcagno. The design of the spaces of Acpv Architects, Antonio Citterio and Patricia Viel (studio that designed the entire Fastweb headquarters). And already a few months after the opening in evolution: By definition, a space in transformation. We started with some contents, but over time we are monitoring and updating them. The future runs fast, emphasizes Cristina Paciello.
The tour in the FuturAbility District takes about three quarters of an hour. Visitors download the Step App on their smartphone, an essential complement during the experience. Here, a virtual character, Forward, Forward, leads the way. The manager of Step tells us: Through the App, the path is mapped. The interaction with the installations of the path leads to ask the visitor questions about his digital skills, his propensity for the future, his interests in technologies. This mix of interactions feeds an algorithm developed with a team of professors from the University of Milan Bicocca who in real time tells the visitor what their FuturAbility is, their “attitude towards the future”. A light mapping, almost a game, which gives the pulse of how we position ourselves with respect to innovation. And on the basis of your profile, in the end, you will receive a series of suggestions on your smartphone customized to learn more: Reading tips, links, podcasts, topics to study. When I exit Step, the path does not end, but there is a whole flow of contents. A video installation by the artist Andrea Pugiotto makes visitors more aware of the digital divide. That gap that separates people who are not necessarily young, but very technologically prepared, from people, often of a certain age, who neglect everything that is happening.
In the area equipped with classrooms there are many workshops for schools. And also for families, with four appointments two Sundays a month. Then there is the scientific program, a cycle of meetings and workshops with protagonists of innovation. In recent months there have been appointments with Telmo Pievani, philosopher of science; the architect Stefano Boeri; Donatella Sciuto, Deputy Rector of the Milan Polytechnic; Oscar Pasquali, manager of the non-profit foundation Generation Italy; Alfonso Agnino, head of robotic heart surgery at Humanitas Gavazzeni-Castelli in Bergamo. Now starting the autumn schedule with, among others, the virologist Roberto Burioni; Francesco Guidara, partner and associate director of Boston Consulting Group; the signature of the Corriere della Sera Dario Di Vico; artificial intelligence experts Federico Cabitza and cybersecurity experts Carola Frediani.
When we raise the visitor’s interest along the route to enter into the merits of certain contents, we cannot stop at the forty-five minutes of Step’s visit, emphasizes Cristina Paciello. Our annual workshop program made up of about fifty appointments, divided by strands: Inspiring @ step, discussion on major issues or success stories; Digitaltalk @ step, vertical insights on specific contents; Futurejobs @ step on the professions of tomorrow; Thegreenandtheblue @ step on environmental sustainability issues.
Ultimately, concludes Cristina Paciello, Technological infrastructures give great potential. But to fully exploit them they need to be known, you need to be curious, have the tools, the “license”, so to speak. Fastweb’s goal in creating Step was just that: help the community to be aware to face the digital revolutionwhich is also a cultural revolution, which we are experiencing.
Dedicated to kids. Open to schools
Thirteen workshops in five macro areas. Step’s offer for lower and upper secondary schools. The program (in collaboration with Civita exhibitions and museums) concerns: computational thinking (the programming code); digital etiquette, design thinking, digital identity and sustainable development. The programs are presented to teachers on some open days:
steptothefuture.it.
September 16, 2022 (change September 16, 2022 | 1:00 pm)
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