Audiência Zero is a Portuguese cultural association formed in 2006 with the goals of fighting the dispersion of people and means in cultural production, to help form new audiences for culture and to embrace the Internet and new technologies as platforms for cultural development.
Since 2008 the association has been developing a training program called Centro de Criatividade e Tecnologia (Center for Creativity and Technology) through which it organizes courses and workshops focused on the creative applications of technology, with a special emphasis on free and open source tools and the active sharing of knowledge they inspire.
From this project's activity came forth the need for an informal space where people who are starting to learn how to use technology for creative purposes could gather to continue learning, to share knowledge and experience, and to develop projects together. That's how the Laboratórios Audiência Zero (Audiencia Zero Labs) project started, and in just two years it has grown from one to three spaces nationwide, Altlab in Lisbon, LCD in Porto and xDA in Coimbra.
Nowadays these spaces serve as a regular meeting point for a new generation of creators, whether artists or not, connected across a countrywide network, without fear to tackle any technology and knowledge needed to bring their ideas to completion in an environment of open sharing and experimentation.
This exhibition presents the results of a unique experiment. For 17 days, 30 members of the Audiencia Zero Labs for all over the country and also from abroad lived and worked together on collective projects. New teams were formed, infinite ideas proposed, new tools and technologies were experimented with, incredible adventures were lived and new friends were made. The projects we can find at this exhibit are just the tip of the veil, the true impact of this experience is yet to come.
