LABoratorium is an artistic research residency programme promoted by LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial (Gijón) and iMAL – Centre for New Media and Digital Arts (Brussels), aimed at supporting projects that explore the relationship between art, work and digital technologies.
The programme stems from the exchange between both institutions and their common interest in promoting artistic research in the field of digital art, automation and contemporary transformations of work. Through various calls for applications, LABoratorium and LABoral offer one-month research residencies aimed at artists and collectives linked to Asturias, Spain and Belgium, promoting both individual development and international co-production and collaboration.
The residencies take place in the workspaces of LABoral and/or iMAL, providing the selected projects with technical infrastructure, specialised equipment, professional networks and artistic and technical support. LABoratorium conceives the residency as a time for research, experimentation and critical reflection, not necessarily oriented towards the production of a finished work.
From a clearly critical perspective, the programme promotes projects that question the effects of digitalisation, automation and technoliberal ideologies on working, social and living conditions, and that propose new forms of resistance, collaboration and cultural production. LABoratorium thus presents itself as a space where artistic practices, critical thinking and technological experimentation intersect, strengthening dialogue between artistic scenes from different European contexts.