Aalto Media Lab Demo Day

Aalto Media Lab Demo Day, Tuesday 28 May at 13.00-17.45 in Väre, Kukkapuro lounge.

The event's history goes back to the early 1990’s. The first Demo Day was organised in 1994 or 1995. This happening is an open gathering of Media Department’s students, alumni, staff and friends. Being an open event, the Demo Day is a combination of lightning talks and an unconference. The event is open for all and those who attend are exactly the right people.

The idea of “demo” was introduced by Douglas Engelbart’s team in 1968 ("The Mother of All Demos”). Engelbart's idea was to demonstrate “new media” that was very difficult to communicate to people in any other means than by showing and telling.

In Finland in the 1980's the “demo scene” was growing among early game players. Some of these early demo-people also found their way to study and work in the Aalto Media Lab.

In the 1980’s the MIT Media Lab came up with the slogan “demo or die” that was a comment to the "publish or perish” thinking, common in academia. In the resent update of the slogan, the MIT Media Lab’s director Joi Ito introduced the idea of “deploy or die”.

Building on these traditions, our Demo Day's approach has been "demo and flourish”. The idea is to demonstrate — to show / play and tell. In the core of our thinking are the people playing with interactive things, videos, sounds, games, smoke and mirrors: on stage and in a number of demo booths.

You are all welcome.