AltLab is a collective dedicated to independent research and experimentation in alternative media. Community-based and community-building by nature, it seeks to promote active participation, knowledge sharing, and collaboration among individuals such as artists, programmers, engineers, hobbyists, scientists, and all those who wish to freely explore creative and emancipatory uses of technology. Just like many other hackerspaces which have emerged all over the world in recent years, AltLab has also been founded on the notions of software/hardware libre and the belief in collective independent platforms for open and active knowledge-sharing and experimentation.
In February 2009, a group of interested individuals, under the umbrella of Audiência Zero, joined efforts to create AltLab with the following objectives: Build stronger community ties by gathering disperse cells of researchers, artists, and DIYers around a common and open platform; Provide a shared physical space for experimentation, testing, and development of new objects and concepts (ranging from robotics to software to art to conceptual research); Share knowledge, support collaborative work, and collectively push the boundaries of DIY creativity; Establish partnerships and synergies within and across the borders with other collectives that share similar goals and ideals. To achieve these goals AltLab:
Provides a collective workspace;
Organizes, on a regular basis, public workshops, conferences, paper presentations, exhibitions, talks, debates, etc.;
Offers open lab days where all interested individuals are welcome to join us with the purposes of: just learning about the project, presenting proposals and ideas, working with us;
Consistently expands the collective by accepting new members and collaborators as well as establishing partnerships with other organizations;
Maintains a high level of openness and flexibility to insure that AltLab’s projects and activities will be limited only by the commitment and enthusiasm of those involved and may be easily extended beyond these initial activities.
We are…
Catarina Mota: researcher, obsessed with computer vision,
in love with smart materials, fascinated by blinkenlights
Leonor Hungria: copy-editor/translator, also an amateur
writer/illustrator/painter, interested in image editing and digital
Tiago Henriques: media developer, film producer,
tech geekand speleology & mountaineering addicted
Guilherme Martins: designer, digital artist, techno
addict and fascinated by experimental robotics
Mónica Mendes: interface designer, multimedia educator
and enthusiastic researcher on real-time video for
sustainability and artistic experimentation
Nuno Rosa: interface and interaction designer,
sound manipulator, trying to join all digital and
analogue art fields into one simple aesthetic plan
Ricardo Webbens: artist, im interested in circuit bending,
audio and video platforms, diy instruments and controllers,
music and every form of experimental ideas