“David Bowie Is” at the Barcelona Design Museum
July 5, 2017
In June of 2016 colleagues at La Caixa Foundation asked for my collaboration in the creation of a science laboratory at the permanent exhibition at CosmoCaixa science museum in Barcelona. We all agreed not to repeat the model of creating a proffessional laboratory within the museum for visitors to see proffesional scientists at work.
Why don´t we go much further and create a citizen research institute in the museum? I asked. We can bring the culture and tools of the “DIY bio” movement to the museum setting. Let´s create a participatory space to actively educate in science. A space for the community to carry out projects at the intersection between science, art, technology, design…. I completed proposal had a very positive review by the La Caixa Foundation Science team and by the CosmoCaixa museum board of directors.
To begin with the first phase of the project I am creating a proposal that contains the following activities:
– Workshops for active learning at the intersection of art, science and technology at CosmoCaixa.
– A project of art and citizen science that will use social media to identify biodiversity in the city through creative video and photography.
– A project, with the collaboration of ECUSA.es, to develop innovative workshops and active learning hands on science activities with the participation of professional scientists.
– A project, with the collaboration of DIYbio Barcelona, aimed at adolescent students, with the objective to provide knowledge, technical capacity and tools in microbiology so that they can work on the identification of new antibiotics.
– A project, in collaboration with the DNA Learning Center (dnalc.org) of Cold Spring Harbor, to bring its “Urban Barcode Project” to Barcelona.
– The active request and recollection of obsolete laboratory equipment and materials from nearby research centers to equip the Open Lab.
