“David Bowie Is” at the Barcelona Design Museum
July 5, 2017

Open Lab: La Caixa Foundation

 

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.

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