Marcos Garcia, Artistic Director of Medialab-Prado, will be speaking about Citizen Labs and their radical potential for redefining the relationship between cities and residents on a global scale.

Citizen Labs have the potential to become a powerful tool for our cities, as they explore ways to identify different types of knowledge and skills and facilitate meaningful interactions between them. There is opportunity for knowledge share when residents gather in a place to experiment together and share ideas, and at the same time there is value in learning how to make something together.

Medialab Prado is a citizen laboratory from Madrid City Hall that some have described as “the internet in the physical space”: a meeting place for collaborative experimentation where anyone can get involved and contribute to projects that benefit the common good such as open source prosthesis, experimental games for an urban facade, collaborative translation of books, a home scale biodigestor, or a draft of a national law on participation. While all of these projects are being prototyped by people with different backgrounds, new communities of learning and practice are prototyped at the same time.

The Boston and Cambridge area constitute an environment of great experimentation and reflection on how digital networks are transforming our lives, and the institutions we have inherited. Many innovative thinkers in this space have been a great source of inspiration to the work that has been done at Medialab Prado (Madrid) for more than a decade. This presentation is an opportunity to share the experience of Medialab Prado with them and anyone interested.