With the SlowLab we have different paths we may take. We are focused on creating a collective in which we can keep organizing events, participate in festivals and expos, we want to create projects that are open source and also sell some products.
As a first step we are testing the prototypes of the low-techs we want to use in our events. For this we decided to collaborate with other creatives to gather knowledge around how to improve them. We collaborate with Kris from Low-tech magazine to exchange knowledge on how to build a bike generator. For the Solar Ovens we did some research into existing prototypes and then we tried 3 different ones on our own. While building the first ones and testing them we realised which things need to be improved for the new ones. This helps us learn from really easy to make and cheap prototypes being able to make new ones without doing a big investment of time and money. In this case it would be beneficial to think about a strategy in which we can share and test our prototypes to be able to scale them up.
With out prototypes working we started looking for communities around us we could collaborate with. We have been volunteering at Connecthort since almost the beginning of the Masters and we’ve gotten involved with their local community. Connecthort is a space in Poblenou that is taken care of by their local community. This shared space has different activites like gardening, permaculture, bioconstruction, different workshops and events. They are also trying to promote a resilient lifestyle and reconnection with nature. We think this community is aligned with our values and what we wish to be identified with. By collaborating with them for our first event we managed to get more participants involved. A lot of people stopped by just from walking in front of Connecthort or joined because they saw our event advertised on their instagram. This proved to be a beneficial collaboration and we would like to continue working on it so our second event will also happen there.
On the same day of the event a sustainability teacher approached us and showed interest in collaborating with us. We started meeting with her and discussing future possibilities of collaboration. So for now we have Ro and Kris from Low-tech magazine as collaborators. It has been nice to work with them because they add interesting perspectives to our collaborative. They also know a lot of people that we could work with in creating more events. For now our future plans are Modular at Hangar which is a festival of modular synths in Barcelona. We want to keep testing with the solar powered and bike powered music in order to display it at that festival. Also there is the Solar Biennale happening from Sept-Oct in the Rotterdam and Eindhoven. We are also thinking of collaborating with a local spinning studio and plan an outdoor ride in which we can collect the energy generated to power the music or something else. Eventually we would like to reach the big music festivals such as Sonar and Primavera Sound in Barcelona. We want to expand first in our local community and then start thinking about other places where we can host events.
We are trying to document how we build all of our prototypes so we can make them open source and anyone can try and do them at home. We need to generate more content for our followers in which they can easily follow the steps. We are trying with our communication to attract and engage with people but also be mindful of the amount of energy we use for this. We want to be consistent with our philosophy and everything we do. That’s why we are also trying to invite people to build their own prototypes instead of mass fabricating them and selling them. We do believe we will sell some pieces we designed that can complement their prototypes and have some earnings from that.
We like to be seen as collaborators of other collectives with similar values to us. For the MDEFest we will be collaborating with other creatives from our class and participate in an exhibition around ancient methods for food preservation around the world. We found this interesting in the sense that we are also trying to bring back ancient technologies and adapt them to our present context. We value the knowledge in them and the emotional value added which makes us connect and relate to them. This will also be with the intention of starting conversation and spread our movement. This will also help us be seen as more than just solar ovens but rather a collection of tools we can adapt into in order to mitigate our environmental footprint.
