Comments on: The Commons at Stake: The Enclosure of MediaLab-Prado

By: Therese

Therese — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 21:19:17 +0000

I was in Spain recently and notices many innovative ideas in the public sphere as I traveled about – particularly in the Bilbao area.
I wonder how many of these ideas for living were sourced in a setting like Medialab Prado.

The telephone company wanting the space for their “open future” project – What Cheek? – I’m gobsmacked.

Co-opting in progress.

By: Stacco Troncoso

Stacco Troncoso — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 18:52:09 +0000

I’ve just sent it, Silke. Give us a heads-up when it’s published.

By: Silke

Silke — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 15:42:57 +0000

Stacco, can you send me the TEXT-file, so that I can easily reblog it without having to copy and paste each image? Thanks
Silke
[email protected]

By: Stacco Troncoso

Stacco Troncoso — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 10:05:45 +0000

In reply to J.B.. Hi JB. We're trying to get in touch with José Luís to get a mailing or e-mail address (it may be the address of the Lab itself). I'll update the post as soon as I can.

By: J.B.

J.B. — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 10:00:22 +0000

hello Stacco,

You say: “For those of you with affiliations with universities, museums or companies, a signed letter of support with the logo of your organization. If you can send it to me I will get it into the website and also printed to send them all together to the City Council.”

But there is no email address. Where can people send those support letters?

best,

J
*

By: Stacco Troncoso

Stacco Troncoso — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 23:19:41 +0000

Hi David,

They’ve just started planning how to counter this blatant enclosure, so expect more info soon. For the time being here’s an excerpt from José Luis De Vicente Open letter for supporting Medialab-Prado’s campaign. We’ll publish the full text tomorrow:

“We need to show the City Council in clear terms that Medialab Prado is an important institution that is highly respected and valued internationally. One of the most ironic aspects of this situation is that given the problems they’ve always had to understand what is Medialab Prado -not being a museum, a gallery, or an arts production center- they have never been understood that this is one of the most influential and valued cultural institutions today in Madrid and Spain.

There’s no one better than you to help us to make them understand how important is protecting and preserving the valuable role that Medialab Prado has played in the last ten years. For this, we are requesting any of this three things:

1. A statement or blog post in your own website explaining why you appreciate and value the role of MLP and showing your concern for how the current situation could threaten it. We will link to it and translate it from the website of support we are currently setting up, that should go live in the next hours.

2. For those of you with affiliations with universities, museums or companies, a signed letter of support with the logo of your organization. If you can send it to me I will get it into the website and also printed to send them all together to the City Council.

3. A short video that we can embed in the website, offering your support. Here are some videos from 1 year ago -before the crisis started- that can be used as a model:

http://medialab-prado.es/article/medialabinternacional

That is all. If you have other suggestions or contributions, please let us know. Thanks for helping us keep Medialab Prado alive.”

By: david hartley

david hartley — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 19:21:32 +0000

thanks ! Very informative, and inspiring.. BUT:
I was drawn to read this by a facebook post, suggesting an imminent closure of the Madrid lab, and I was sort of expecting some kind of a ‘call to action’ .. how can people help to keep Telefonica from taking the lab’s space ?