In 2009, the Norwegian government set the ambitious vision of making the country inclusively designed by 2025. “By putting people’s functional, personal and emotional needs at the centre of the design process, it can lead to creative and novel solutions that improve life,” said curator Onny Eikhaug. Learning and Play For All showed how such an approach can be applied to robotic and virtual gaming technology.

Visitors entered an interactive classroom set up with four student desks and a sick child’s bedroom, showcasing two groundbreaking Norwegian startups: Kahoot! and No Isolation. The AV1 by No Isolation is a telepresence robot that gives children and young adults suffering from long-term illness the chance to attend school and maintain their social life. A simple head-like form sat on a vacated classroom desk and becomes the eyes and ears of the sick child at home in bed. The child could see and hear the teacher and the rotating head offered a 360-degree view of the class, flashing blue when the child wanted to ask a question.

Three of the desks in the classroom were supplied with a tablet connected to Kahoot! and the third desk is equipped with the AV1. Kahoot! is a gaming platform that allows teachers and students to create games (known as kahoots) and share them either in the class or across the internet. Again, it brings people together inside and outside the classroom, said Eikhaug, creating emotional engagement and a sense of belonging. “These products communicate the value of empathy within technology and emotion within the digital realm.”