The Workshop on the Boat at the AVI 2026 Conference is a full-day workshop held on a boat in the Venice Lagoon, exploring the connection with natural spaces, a theme of great interest not only for improving the awareness about the importance of natural spaces that surround us, but also for their demonstrated benefits for physical and mental health. 

Digital tools can play an important role in fostering connection with natural spaces by informing, stimulating, or facilitating experiences of immersion. The workshop is meant an occasion for discovering and discussing the related design space. 

The workshop is organized as a full-day activity, hosted on a hybrid boat that will depart from the island of San Servolo (the conference site) in the morning and travel in the North Lagoon, stopping at one of the minor islands for lunch and activities. The return to San Servolo is scheduled for the late afternoon, in time for the AVI 2026 Conference’s evening activities.

The trip will be an occasion to discuss the workshop topics while immersed in the most naturalistic part of the Venice Lagoon, with the support of a marine ecologist who will introduce you the natural environment and its connections with humans and the other species populating the Lagoon.

In the first part of the journey, each workshop participant will be asked to give a short presentation on their research and their perspective on the role that digital tools can play in supporting the connection between living beings (humans, but) and the environment.

In the second part of the journey, participants will be asked to work in small groups to elaborate conceptual proposals for digital tools that support reconnection with the natural environment and to present, through narrative storyboards, the patterns of experience stemming from their use. The results will be shared among the participants at the end of the journey.

Target Audience

Interaction designers, scientists, artists, and digital and environmental humanists are all invited for sharing their ideas about the digital tools and the related design space.

Expected Outcomes

An improved awareness of the importance of connection with the natural environment and of the different roles that digital tools can play in this respect. 

A shared set of narrative storyboards describing representing the design space stemming from the participants.

For more info send mail to wontheboat-grpunive@unive.it