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Medialab Prado is a citizens’ laboratory that serves as a place of encounter for the production of open cultural projects. Anyone can make proposals or sign up for proposals made by someone else and carry them out on a collaborative basis. Activities are structured around working groups, open calls for the production of projects, collaborative research, and learning communities that address a very wide range of topics. The main objectives of Medialab Prado are:
- To build, promote and sustain communities of learning and practice, where people from different worlds (in terms of education and experience, interests, background or social status) work together to develop specific projects.
- To promote the development of open cultural projects that are well-documented, adaptable, and replicable.
- To foster an atmosphere of cooperation and exchange that where there is space for life, human affection, informality, and closeness.
- To experiment with, improve, and evaluate collaborative work methodologies and modus operandi at various levels of action: at the institutional level in general, within the organisation itself, and within individuals’ development of projects.
- To open up spaces for critical reflection on digital technology and its impact on society.
Medialab Prado is a space that is open to the public and is able to function thanks to cultural programming, which has as its objective to orient, welcome, and connect people with projects, creating a hospitable space where listening and care are at the forefront. Medialab PRado’s activities are oriented towards production and debate and have different formats and timing, with the objective of serving a variety of interests and possibilities for participation. The space welcomes numerous working groups and resident communities all having diverse focuses, which meet periodically in the space and whose participation is open to anyone who is interested. Those on the programming team take care of the working groups and promote some of them within the context of their research projects.
At a time of great change, there are many stakeholders promoting different institutional models wherein citizens can play an active role. Medialab Prado operates in this context and aims to play a role in the transformation of cultural institutions. Against this backdrop, we believe it is necessary to face the challenges of our time from multiple perspectives, armed with a wide range of knowledge and tools, and that we need to build spaces for coexistence, discussion, and action serving people with diverse backgrounds. Medialab Prado understands the cultural sphere as a place for experimentation that may be linked to any area of knowledge or experience, where testing things out and having fun play a central role. Its view of digital culture is that the tools of free culture and digital practices can serve as inspiration and foster an accessible culture built by and for everyone. Medialab Prado is a citizens’ laboratory in the sense that it is a place for collaborative experimentation and a place in which to learn to cooperate.
