Page 275 - AC/E's Digital Culture Annual Report 2015

4. LabsLabs stem from the (not so new) currents of thought that propose rethinking museums as spaces for learning and community building, for combining this with the use of technologies, and for creating an open museum in which to experiment and build shared, expanded knowl- edge, providing the tools and fostering critical judgement.Labs, or museum laboratories, are educational, experimental and technological spaces designed to make knowledge and equipment available for running programmes in the field of technology in connection with museum concerns. They are a meeting point for new technologies, innova- tion, culture and collaboration involving all the agents: artists, museum professionals, visitors, technical staff, scientists and so forth.Labs are places for doing and experimenting where learning does not take place solely by transmitting concepts but is based chiefly onpractice, reflection and building knowledge with critical judgement.Special mention should be made of the Fab Labs. This concept was founded in 2000, when the Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA) of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to acquire the tools to build “almost anything”. Its actions and research were then focused on empowering society through the use of technology and its development.Since then a worldwide network of Fab Labs has been set up; some are housed in museums such as the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago or the Museo Metropolitano in Lima. In Spain we have the example of the fabLAB Asturias, which is based in the LAB- oral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial and develops projects that are open to its community.