Can creative industry address social challenges, such as health and wellbeing?
Can designers contribute to the ongoing processes of social innovation?
Can designers act as catalysts to trigger unexpected partnerships and foster innovative health projects?
The need for developing innovative ideas for sustainable health care solutions is becoming increasingly important in our ageing societies. By initiating innovative health projects, creative professionals can function as catalysts. Design Thinking and creative problem solving methods and approaches can contribute to the ongoing processes of social innovation. This is the focus of the interdisciplinary Creative Lab HAPPY HEALTH bringing together experts from the Netherlands and Germany with the representatives of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.
The Creative Lab explores the impact of Smart Cities and related concepts and technologies on wellbeing and the prevention of illness. The creative workshop addresses upcoming technological developments from the perspective of human wellbeing.
The Creative Lab focuses on innovative projects that have as a primary goal the strengthening of the autonomy and wellbeing of citizens. The examples range from the “Games for Health”- network (which promotes the use of gaming and gaming technology in health care) and the use of nursing robots with ‘social intelligence’ to projects that are developed by local communities, such as the “Health Lab” by “Amsterdam Smart City” or the project “Smart Ageing”, a cultural project of the Eindhoven region.
Current developments in digital technology such as “Quantified Self”, “Internet of Things” and “Big Data” raise exciting challenges, for example, on the ‘ownership’ of our personal data. These are issues that need to be addressed in an interdisciplinary international dialogue. The Creative Lab contributes by placing such issues on the agenda of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.
The Creative Lab HAPPY HEALTH develops ideas and concepts on how creative professionals can contribute to social innovation. It investigates how creative industries can contribute to the responsible and sustainable development of social processes and services. Design is addressed here in it’s principal role: as a creative problem solving approach.