SHL is collaborating with The Tech Museum of Innovation to organize an exhibition - provisionally titled 'The Creative Engines of the Silicon Valley' - focusing on creativity as exemplified by the entertainment industries in this Californian region. This will be a contribution to the Tech Museum’s “The Spirit of Silicon Valley” gallery renewal series. The purpose of this exhibition is to raise the audiences’ awareness of this region through a personal interactive experience, while showcasing the amazing range of technological innovation and creativity originating from the Silicon Valley.

Opening in 2010, The Creative Engines of the Silicon Valley' is intended for multiple demographics/audiences, mainly living/working in the Silicon Valley, but also abroad but connected with this region. It will be accessible, playful, engaging, both to a young and older audience. The exhibition will allow visitors to create music, film, art, and simple games in an accessible, engaging way. It will also allow illustrate the basic principles behind digital production. Finally it will encourage visitors to collect and share such artifacts using both the museum's Tech Tag feature and the web.

Exhibit Concept: The proposed exhibition will put visitors in touch with the latest tools used in film production, digital music, and electronic art(s). It will also present new technology enabling anyone to become a digital storyteller and producer. The Exhibition will be the first in a series of new exhibitions aimed at transforming The Tech Museum into a true “Silicon Valley Experience.” Every future exhibit in The Tech will have a strong connection to the people, the history, and technological innovations that made Silicon Valley what it is today. 

This region is the catalyst of a new cultural, social, technical, and artistic Renaissance. It functions as the driving force of innumerable aspects of our digital life. Thus, this exhibition should show the complex network and flows of capital – economic, cultural, social, and artistic – enabled by technology. 

• What are the ways that material and immaterial networks have been transformed by digital technology? 
• How has the phenomenon of the digital entrepreneur evolved into the age of DIY philosophy? 
• How are new ideas disseminated in the Silicon Valley? 
• How do the different cultures of Silicon Valley coexist and interact with each other? 

The two guiding principles behind the exhibition are:

1. Blending the physical and the digital: In its physical form the exhibition should take a shape of a playground, which is the perfect metaphor for the Valley. The Valley is inhabited by grown-ups who are driven by a playful attitude. Gizmos, gadgets, and tech-tool are toys for adults. The Tech should become a huge technological playing field where visitors can interact and learn about technologies ranging from MP3 players (sound compression, music making, etc.) to digital cameras (photo manipulation, image compression, perspective etc.). The physical exhibition will be complemented by a rich, dedicated website which will become an integral part of the experience and will extend it into the digital domain. The website should live well beyond the exhibition and become a key reference for “everything that relates to art/film/music/games” in Silicon Valley in the future. All the ideas listed below can live on the website as well as in the physical museum space.
2. Top down/bottom up: We should allow the users to experiment with the exhibition, encouraging them to take part in the event by submitting their personal Silicon Valley stories in the forms of videos, photographs, mash-up, and/or music. It is necessary to complement the top down strategy of the curator with a bottom up tactics of those who live – and play – in the Valley. By incorporating them in the process, we could maximize the appeal of the exhibition – both in the short and long term.

For more information about this contact project lead Matteo Bittanti - mbittantiATgmailDOTcom