Author: Catarina M.

AltLab’s foun­ding mem­bers had their first offi­ci­al mee­ting yes­ter­day (see pho­tos). We appro­ved the col­lec­ti­ve’s gui­de­li­nes, com­pi­led a list of tools to pur­cha­se, set up a hard­ware recy­cling bin, and then had a lot of fun dis­cus­sing ide­as and sha­ring kno­wled­ge. Two ini­ti­al work groups were for­med to build an out­do­ors video pro­jec­tor and a remo­te-con­trol­led-mini-heli­cop­ter car­rying a video came­ra  — we’ll post more info on each of the­se on the com­mu­nity’s plat­form. We’ll also be wor­king on our indi­vi­du­al pro­jects whi­ch inclu­de robo­tics, music, com­pu­ter visi­on, smart mate­ri­als, and lots of other fun things. More mem­bers and col­la­bo­ra­tors will be joi­ning us from May 5th on and new work groups will be for­med. We’ll keep you posted.

We are cur­ren­tly loo­king for a per­ma­nent and full-time works­pa­ce (any and all suggestions/offers are wel­co­me). Until we get our own lab, our fri­ends @ Geral­di­ne have kin­dly agre­ed to host AltLab’s wee­kly work ses­si­ons. Star­ting on May 5th we’ll meet on Tues­days from 19:00 to 24:00 (direc­ti­ons here).

Everyo­ne is wel­co­me to join us for some hac­king, brains­tor­ming, coding, wha­te­ver it is you’re into that day. Ple­a­se fill out this form if you want addi­ti­o­nal info or just to let us know that you’­re coming to one of our ses­si­ons. You can also find our con­tact and mai­ling list info on the con­tact page.

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.

Hel­lo World 😉