SPACE launches CoLAB, London’s first Art + Technology prototyping incubator

CoLAB -  SPACE’s new Art Technology incubator – opened its doors to the  inaugural cohort of CoLAB Associates this April. The group of 13 artists and creative technologists will work on a series of projects  at the intersection of art and technology during the 12 month incubation period.Competitively selected and emanating from a variety of interdisciplinary backgrounds, the Associates’ main focus will be the experimentation of and boundary hopping between the prototype and the act of prototyping in all of its forms and manifestations.

A place at CoLAB provides Associates with the time, space, support and resources to develop Art-Technology ideas, processes and potentially products. Using commercially proven approaches to fostering artist led innovation, CoLAB is supported by a rich network of industry mentors.

Rachel Falconer, SPACE Head of Art & Technology said: “CoLAB’s vision is to act as a dynamic nexus between fine art practice, creative innovation and technological evolution. By placing prototyping at the heart of creative provocation, CoLAB’s  unique approach to celebrating process over product recognizes the act of incisive failure as a vital mechanism of the innovation process”.  

The inaugural group of Associates form a creative community with complementary expertise, a diverse collective knowledge base and a dynamic and growing network of collaborators and research partners. The Associates project trajectory and network will inform the responsive public programme running in SPACE’s new venue Open SPACE. Appealing to a diversity of publics -  including peer-to-peer networks, industry specific and the wider general public, the programme will take the form of :

  • Group Crits
  • Beta release events    
  • Keynote talks
  • Workshops
  • Lunch time talks
  • Forums
  • MeetUps

The events programme  is split into 3 semesters over the course of the year and will concurrently track the CoLAB Associates as they progress through their project stages of prototype - making - beta release.

A snapshot of the Inaugral Associates:

  • Sitraka Rakotoniaina & Andrew Friend - working with satellite systems exploring the reach of human and technological obsolescence
  • Jon Clair - the boundaries of human integration with IoT sensors
  • NootNootNoot Andres Ayerbe and Camille Le Proust - critical and satirical reflections on technology in the workplace
  • Rosie Munroe Kerr - solar integrated sculptures
  • Kat Thiel - 3D scanned wearable habitats
  • Fabio Lattanzi Antinori - technologically integrated sculpture with a critical reflection on financial crash data
  • Romain Meunier - a critical project on the interaction between artisan and technology
  • Madeleine Botet De Lacaze - technologically integrated performance art practice
  • Gareth Foote - Natural Language Processing interactions with poetry
  • Daniel Samson - live action virtual reality