Making digital fabrication accessible to all

Two recent projects, supported by the Barcelona City Council, will fight the emerging gap created by the possibilities offered by digital fabrication technologies

• Makers for inclusion, led by Cooperativa Colectic and to take place at the Raval quarter, and with the participation of the Department in the design and execution in training activities around sound technologies (by Juan José Bosch, member of the Music Technology Group) and the evaluation of the impact of the project in terms of promotion of the interest in science and technology and the definition of new professional profiles linked to technological activities in non-formal educational contexts (by the TIDE research group on Educational Technologies at DTIC). DTIC already supported Barcelona Activa in the training of similar profiles for courses at the network of public libraries. This project is linked to the existing support and activities with schools in Raval (Escola Drassanes and Institut Milà I Fontanals)
• ÀGORA 4.0, A democratic school of knowledge and digital fabrication to overcome social inequalities, a project by Associació Àgora, Adaptabit – UB and the Group of Interactive Technologies at DTIC, which aims at carrying out participative, inclusive and free activities to foster the digital empowerment of citizens who either are or run the risk of being socially excluded (ex. immigrants, older people, adult people who are unemployed), to co-create dialogic knowledge, and to democratize technologies related to digital fabrication and the co-creation of (digital) knowledge.