About us

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 small group, 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.

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.

The founders…


Cata­ri­na Mota
PhD can­di­da­te, fel­low of FCT-MCTES, cofoun­der of openmaterials.org and fabriculture.org


Tia­go Henriques
media deve­lo­per, film pro­du­cer, tech geek and spe­le­o­logy & moun­tai­ne­e­ring addicted.


Gui­lher­me Martins
desig­ner, digi­tal artist, tech­no addict and fas­ci­na­ted by expe­ri­men­tal robotics.

Móni­ca Mendes
inter­fa­ce desig­ner, mul­ti­me­dia edu­ca­tor and enthu­si­as­tic rese­ar­cher of real-time video for sus­tai­na­bi­lity and artis­tic experimentation.


Ricar­do Webbens
artist, i’m inte­res­ted in cir­cuit ben­ding, audio and video plat­forms, diy ins­tru­ments and con­trol­lers, music and every form of expe­ri­men­tal ideas.

 

Coordinator — July 2011 ~ July 2013

Mau­ri­cio Martins
Maker of Things, Tin­ke­rer, and Open Sour­ce advo­ca­te. Works mainly as Col­la­bo­ra­ti­ve Pro­ject Deve­lo­per focu­sed on DIY Expe­ri­men­ta­ti­on with Elec­tro­nics, Phy­si­cal Com­pu­ting and Digi­tal Fabrication.

 

Coordinator — July 2013 ~ Dec 2014

Rui Mar­ce­li­no
Inde­pen­dent Robo­tic Solu­ti­ons Developer

 

Coordinator — Jan 2015 ~ JAN 2017

Vini­cius Silva
Comu­ni­ca­ti­on and Pro­duc­ti­on Desig­ner — Hac­ker, Maker, Tin­ke­rer, CNC Ope­ra­tor, Wee­kend Pro­gram­mer, Stu­dent, Tea­cher, Tec­no­Pre­a­cher, Human­Go­o­gle, with an Obses­si­on for Pro­duc­ti­on Methods and Techniques