Electrical, Political, Social and Cultural Resistance
Symposium:
Session Title:
- Art and Activism in Digital Age
Presentation Title:
- Electrical, Political, Social and Cultural Resistance
Presenter(s):
Venue(s):
Abstract:
Audiência Zero is a Portuguese cultural association that coordinates three digital labs around the country, namely, in Matosinhos, Coimbra and Lisboa. These labs are autonomous structures that promote educational and creative initiatives, especially in the fields of digital art and multimedia. Each of these labs supports a community of artists and creators that are in charge of all the local activity. Through the national initiatives that it manages, which bring together members from all over the country, Audiência Zero is fostering a national network of creators, resources and knowledge.
All over the world similar projects exist, and go under the name of hackerspaces, hacklabs, medialabs, makerspaces, etc… In this paper no effort is made to propose a model that fits all these distinct realities; that is not to say there are no common features, there are. Our intention is rather to focus on a case study in an effort to identify the extent to which such projects agree or disagree with the mainstream political, social and cultural values shared by democratic and pluralistic societies with market economies.
The paper presents the concept behind the az labs network, explaining the ongoing process, it’s objectives, values and challenges faced. Our contention is that these labs can be viewed as centers of political, social and cultural resistance, even when not in a conscious and outright way, being based, as they are, on an open community where resources such as time, space, knowledge, contacts and tools are shared as common goods. The paper ends with the analyses of the relationship between the resources used in these labs, mostly digital technologies, with the proposed function of resistance. Matosinhos: labcd.org, Coimbra: xdatelier.org, Lisboa: altlab.org
