Autonomously created with the help of local communities at 3 of the poorest districts of the city of são paulo, Brazil (ermelino matarazzo, são miguel paulista and itaquera), Autolabs are thought to be laboratorial prototypes of media literacy and technical formation in new technologies and media. All based on tactical concepts, Autolabs use cheap DIY media, allowed by the digital revolution accessability, promoting the development and improvement of independent individual and/or collective media production, in a creative way and using free sofware/open source operational systems. Autolabs are centers of orientation, documentation and self-education with free and open access, where human mediation prevails in the process of accessing knowledge as a generalized exchange of wisdoms, stimulating participation and collective work.

Reaching the center - as opposed to the peripheries, since it`s a local and cultural dichotomy very present in Sao Paulo - is part of a tactic to rethink the much debated digital divide. In Brazil, the establishment is used to believe that the antidote to the digital divide could be what they call “digital inclusion”. A very Brazilian expression, “digital inclusion” is a concept pervaded by very obscure, paternalistic and demagogue allusions. By merely meaning “to give digital access to those who don`t possess computers”, the “digital inclusion” itself reflects the same historical social problems that it refers to. Implemented in a one-way policy by the State and usually lacking a deep comprehension of the everyday life practice, uses and local needs of the communities, the “digital inclusion” policy faces the consequences, not the causes, and generally creates more problems than solves them. It reinforces the belief that providing hardware is the only solution and gives emphasis more on mere consumption than critical/creative production.

The new global economy and new technologies demand renewed skills, competences, forms and practices of writing and reading. In this sense, through hypermedia use and integrated systems in a network of cooperative learning more and more connected to independent professional formation, Autolabs intend to supply a literacy on media development and production for those who cannot afford it, teaching sound, radio, graphic and web production, uniting various autonomous social initiatives, mobilizing actions based on collective strategies of creation, and having a lively, organic and nomadic dynamics.

Among other things, Autolabs are planned to generate new practices, new forms of work, teaching how to use new media as means of action and transformation of worlds, opening a space for cultural, artistic and media interaction, instructing individual or groups excluded from the new paradigm raised by the technological revolution, proposing useful ways of integrating informational technology and the needs of a given community, promoting the exchange of experiences (ideas, perceptions, insights) and collectivization of information, creating new spaces for political participation on the territories explored by this very formation, developing visual, sonic and textual sensitivities, thus making social actions of collective utility possible.

But did it all work?
http://www.midiatatica.org/autolabs
More about Autolab’s ‘Oficina de Histórias’ soon