MeMeLabPlan

["MetaReciclagem"] > ["Projetos"] > ["MeMeLab"]

= MeMeLab =

== What ==

MeMeLab (''MetaReciclagem Media Lab'') will be a laboratory for the development of MetaReciclagem. The goal of MeMeLab is to host meetings, seminars and events related to MetaReciclagem, as well as becoming an effective research and development center, that will aggregate movements and people interested in applying a deconstructive approach to media, technology, education and arts, and creating transformed and/or new uses to all kinds of technology (from a pencil to a [http://gumstix.org gumstix]).

== Where ==

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MeMeLab will occupy a rented house in Vila Mariana, São Paulo, Brasil. Vila Mariana is a neighbourhood both easily accessible from different parts of the city, but also somewhat quiet, served by a subway line and two bus terminals. It is close to [http://www.prodam.sp.gov.br/ibira/bienalemu.htm Ibirapuera Park] and to the city center. The area has a good cultural infrastructure such as [http://www.sescsp.org.br/sesc/programa/indexbusca.cfm?Unidade_ID=13&data=0&Atividade_ID=0&olodum=1&first=1&Contador=1&page=1&Palavra= SESC Vila Mariana], [http://sampa3.prodam.sp.gov.br/ccsp/ Centro Cultural Vergueiro], [http://www.cinemateca.com.br/ Cinemateca Brasileira] and [http://www.belasartes.br/ Belas Artes] college, as well as some public schools. It is not too far from the domestic airport, Congonhas. Although a part of the cultural hype has migrated to other areas in the last years, Vila Mariana still has its brightness, combined with  a social diversity hard to find in a city of ghettos like São Paulo.

== How ==

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MeMeLab will be an infrastructure available for different kinds of projects related to MetaReciclagem. It will be organized collectively, and all the decision-making will be publicly available. The book-keeping will be published in MetaReciclagem wiki, and all the processes will be extensively documented.

["MeMeLab"] (in Portuguese)


= MetaReciclagem? =

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MetaReciclagem is a network of theorists and practitioners devoted to develop a de-constructive approach to the technological discourse, promoting the re-appropriation of ICTs upon processes which lead to a closer relationship between people and technology. Most people join MetaReciclagem network because of a special interest in a particular subject related to technology or media appropriation, and soon start collaborating with an emergent organization that allows the expansion of their own ideas. What most members of MetaReciclagem project have in common is a need to develop free (open) infrastructure and new uses to technology.

== Brief background ==

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MetaReciclagem was created as the infrastructure solution to a wide range of demands from Projeto Metá:Fora, a “collaborative incubator” that in 2002-2003 aggregated almost two hundred people all around Brasil around the development of projects that dealt with art, media, education and technology, under a perspective that knowledge should be free and re-usable. Its members came from different areas: journalists, artists, designers, software developers, social scientists and others. Nearly 25 projects have been created, structured and developed collectively. Among them, the first brasilian Tactical Media event (prov0s, 2002), a collaborative website about nonprofits and entrepreneurship (metaong.info), an online publication on technology, economy and society (buzzine), research related to a de-centralized laboratory of language, narratives and art experimentation (memelab), public interventions (recicle1politico), webradio experiences and conecTAZes – multimedia celebrations, like neuromob :: book xchange, a party / bookcrossing.

During projeto Metá:Fora's short life span, we reached a point where we needed some kind of infrastructure to develop the projects. At the time, we were trying to bring the perspective of collaborative production and collective creativity to the world of digital inclusion, and we needed computers to test some hypothesis. We thought of asking for a donation to a north-american institution that got used computers from companies and delivered them to NGOs, but the bureaucracy was too complex. Someone reminded us that brasilian companies also dumped lots of computers every year, and the idea of MetaReciclagem was born: we would get those computers, recycle them using F(L)OSS and deliver them to social projects.

At first, we made an agreement with Agente Cidadão, an NGO that manages donations in São Paulo: we would take care of every technological device they received (from computers to old VCRs or faxes), in exchange for a place to work and internet connection. We then started working within their network of nearly one hundred NGOs. With time, we conquered other spaces: the Parque Escola (School Park), in Santo André, and a laboratory downtown São Paulo, in Olido Gallery.

Based on our defense of the idea of free knowledge, in a given moment we realized that MetaReciclagem was not a group identity for some people in São Paulo, but rather a de-centralized methodology that should be appropriated, replicated and re-created everywhere, by whoever would want to. Since then, MetaReciclagem has got many different faces: from a one-man spore with no computer in the coast of Bahia to a educational approach strategically adopted by huge projects developed by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Communications.

== Projects ==

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MetaReciclagem members have been involved with a number of projects related to ICT4D and technological research and experimentation. Some of them are:

 * Pontos de Cultura
 * Acessa São Paulo

== Media ==

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MetaReciclagem was featured in extensive media coverage since it started in 2002. From major brasilian newspapers such as Folha de São Paulo and Estado de São Paulo, to part of an article for BBC or a tv report on Globo Repórter.

More on ["Clipping"]

== Awards and fellowships ==

 * Honorary mention, [http://prixars.aec.at Prix Ars Electronica 2006] (category digital communities);
 * Honorary mention, [http://www.apc.org/english/betinho/ APC Betinho Prize 2005];
 * Residencies of Bia Rinaldi and Fernando Henrique in Cybermohalla project, [http://sarai.net Sarai]/Delhi/India, 2005;
 * [http://waag.nl Waag]/[http://sarai.net Sarai] fellowship (Felipe Fonseca, 2004).