Grow Your Own Media Lab (GYOML)

December 9th, 10th and 11th (Fri to Sun), 2005.

“Grow Your Own Media Lab” (GYOML) is a project to develop creative, open access IT centres across the UK, combining the latest free software with locally recycled computers. The project was funded by Arts Council England and led by Access Space Sheffield. This three day workshop was hosted by Mongrel at its space in Southend and led to the setting up of the current MediaShed whose web site you now have the pleasure of viewing.

What is a Media Lab?

A “Media Lab” means a place equipped with computers where people can come to learn, create and communicate online. It’s a place where you can share technical information and creative ideas, where you can experiment without the fear of screwing something up. It’s a place where you can show things you are working on, meet potential collaborators and find new artistic uses of digital technology that suit you. The “Media Lab” is about how to organise and pool our resources so that everyone gets the most out of digital media.

What happened?

Over three days James Wallbank from Access Space worked with Mongrel to show people how to set up and run a Media Lab using recycled computers. The intention being that afterwards the Media Lab would be available for artists and local people to use and run.

The three days were a mixture of discussions, demonstrations and hands-on workshops.

• Day 1 (Fri): open presentation and demonstrations to get people excited about the Media Lab model. Why do we need a Media Lab in Southend? How can free and open source software and trash technology make a difference?
• Day 2 (Sat): practical workshops on setting up and running a Media Lab, topics like LINUX installation on recycled kit and basic desktop software like word processing and image manipulation.
• Day 3 (Sun): practical workshops on running a Media Lab and how participants can use it as a resource and as an organisation in their work. Finish with a surgery on ideas for individual or group project work.

Around these events there was also plenty of time for questions, demonstrations or just hacking around. At then end of the workshop the group decided that this would be a good model on which to begin building a Media Lab style space hosted in Mongrel's shed. The MediaShed was born soon after and the rest is history...

To see what sorts of things other people have done in the past, see Access Space’s project site at rit.lowtech.org.