Medialab Matadero

What Medialab Matadero does

Medialab Matadero is a free-access citizen laboratory of production and research located within Matadero Madrid, a major cultural complex on the Manzanares River in Madrid, Spain. It operates as a platform for interdisciplinary experimentation at the intersection of contemporary art, digital culture, technology criticism, and artificial intelligence, serving as a venue rather than a technology vendor. The institution runs annual thematic LAB programs (LAB#03 Mentes Sintéticas, LAB#04 Futuros Raros, LAB#05 La mecánica de la verdad), a situated research residency program, weekly Repair Café community events, working groups (Wikiesfera, CoderDojo), exhibitions, film screenings, podcasts, and workshops. It is operated by MADRID DESTINO CULTURA TURISMO Y NEGOCIO, S.A., a Spanish sociedad anónima wholly owned by the Madrid City Council, and all programs are provided free of charge to participants worldwide.

The laboratory does not develop, sell, or commercialize any proprietary technology. There is no public API, no software-as-a-service product, no pricing tiers, and no patents. Its outputs are intellectual and cultural: long-form research, exhibitions, the Synthetic Minds podcast series, the Synthetic Mixtape soundtrack, and Creative Commons By-SA–licensed written content. The organization's go-to-market is community-led: open calls (convocatorias) for project proposals, free public events, and dissemination through its own website, email newsletter, YouTube, Spotify, Twitter/X, Instagram, and Facebook. Revenue is derived entirely from municipal funding allocated through Madrid Destino, with no paying customers, no external investors, and no private funding rounds. Customer segments are non-commercial: artists, researchers, and creators working on technology-critical projects, and the general public of Madrid engaging with community programs.

Name

Medialab Matadero

Legal name

MADRID DESTINO CULTURA TURISMO Y NEGOCIO, S.A.

Website

https://medialab-matadero.es

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Medialab Matadero is a free public citizen laboratory in Madrid, operated by the Madrid City Council through Madrid Destino, offering residencies, workshops, exhibitions, and research programs at the intersection of contemporary art, digital culture, and technology criticism.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Cultural Research Laboratory

NAICS

Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities (54172), Scientific Research and Development Services (5417)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Research & Lab-Based Short-Term Programs (Undergraduate/Graduate) (EDAIAIAF)

akta.pro secondary industry

Hands-on Science Exploration & Experiments (Lab Kits, Science Clubs) (EDAMABAA)

Keywords

• Citizen research laboratory
• Digital culture programs
• Creative research residencies
• Technology criticism workshops
• Community arts initiatives

Headquarters

HQ city

Madrid

HQ country

Spain

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Public Funding: Medialab Matadero is operated by MADRID DESTINO CULTURA TURISMO Y NEGOCIO, S.A., a public company owned by the Madrid City Council. The institution's services are provided free of charge to participants. Revenue comes from public municipal funding allocated through Madrid Destino.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

Medialab Matadero runs annual thematic LAB programs (such as LAB#03 Mentes Sintéticas, LAB#04 Futuros Raros, LAB#05 La mecánica de la verdad) that serve as multi-month interdisciplinary research frameworks exploring artificial intelligence, synthetic cognition, speculative design, and digital culture. It supplements these with open-call situated research residencies, free community programs (Repair Café Madrid), workshops, podcasts, exhibitions, and public events. All activities are provided free of charge and outputs are released under Creative Commons licensing.

Product overview

Medialab Matadero is a citizen laboratory of production and research operated by Madrid Destino (Ayuntamiento de Madrid), exploring collaborative experimentation and learning from digital networks. It is not a unified software product but a platform of interconnected programs. The core offerings are the LAB programs (LAB#03 Mentes Sintéticas, LAB#04 Futuros Raros, LAB#05 La mecánica de la verdad), which serve as annual thematic research frameworks. These are supplemented by the Investigación Situada residency program, activity programs like Repair Café Madrid, content series including the Synthetic Minds podcast and Synthetic Mixtape soundtrack, workshops such as Investigative Fiction, and exhibition cycles like Imaginarios Sintéticos. All content is released under Creative Commons By-SA license. The organization does not offer a commercial product, API, or software-as-a-service.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• LAB#03 Mentes Sintéticas (Synthetic Minds) An eight-month interdisciplinary research and speculative production program exploring the ontology of intelligence and the planetary potential of reconceptualizing synthetic cognition, featuring workshops, seminars, prototype labs, and public events. Designed for artists, researchers, and thinkers engaging with AI, synthetic cognition, and technology criticism.
• LAB#04 Futuros Raros (Rare Futures) A research program exploring rare and alternative futures with speculative design approaches. Structured as an annual thematic LAB series.
• LAB#05 La mecánica de la verdad (The Mechanics of Truth) Annual program exploring technological mechanisms redefining parameters of reality and their relationship with emerging communities, aesthetics, ideologies, propaganda techniques, and industrial sectors.
• Investigación Situada (Situated Research) Residency program for developing situated research projects in dialogue with Medialab communities. Three projects are selected annually through an open call to receive supported research residencies at the center.
• Repair Café Madrid Weekly collaborative neighborhood meetup held every Saturday from 18:00 to 20:00 for repairing everyday objects and learning more sustainable approaches. Open to local citizens and visitors.
• Podcast Mentes Sintéticas (Synthetic Minds Podcast) A five-episode podcast series exploring how large-scale computation both responds to and shapes human intelligence in novel ways, distributed via YouTube and Spotify.
• Investigative Fiction Workshop A two-day workshop on worldbuilding through investigative fiction, merging open-source investigation with imaginative worldbuilding.
• Cosmic Brains A week-long interdisciplinary workshop and public symposium bringing together minds from science fiction, philosophy, AI, neuroscience, arts, and design to explore artificial intelligence, AGI, and alien intelligence.
• Synthetic Mixtape (LAB#03 Original Soundtrack) Original soundtrack series produced by Claude Speeed for LAB#03, featuring AI-generated audio collaborations across five tracks released under Creative Commons.
• Imaginarios Sintéticos Exhibition cycle examining non-human agency across various contexts and scales, exploring how it shapes understanding of intelligence and free will.

Quantifiable outcome

• LAB#03 Mentes Sintéticas: 8-month interdisciplinary program with 3 research agendas, workshops, seminars, exhibitions, prototyping lab, and original podcast series (5 episodes) and soundtrack (5 tracks)
• +2 more outcomes

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Peter WattsminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 25 November 2023Science fiction author and researcher Peter Watts participated as a keynote speaker at the Cosmic Brains public symposium, contributing expertise on cosmology, alien cognition, and AGI through a keynote presentation and panel discussion with Benjamin Bratton.
• Nandita Biswas MellamphyminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 25 November 2023Academic researcher and author participated as a keynote speaker at the Cosmic Brains symposium, presenting on gestural ecology and inhuman cognition based on her work on Herbert's Dune.
• Julieta ArandaminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 25 November 2023Artist, curator, theorist, and historian participated as a keynote speaker at the Cosmic Brains symposium, discussing alignment between human and alien minds through the lens of Stanislaw Lem's work.
• Cineteca MadridcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 21 November 2023Medialab Matadero partnered with Cineteca Madrid to co-present the Cosmic Brains Film Cycle, screening science fiction films (Ex Machina and Annihilation) as part of the critical studies program. This collaboration integrated Medialab's interdisciplinary AI research discourse with Cineteca's film programming expertise.
• SingularityNETminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 21 November 2023Ed Keller, a mentor/curator for Medialab's LAB#03 Synthetic Minds program, also serves as Creative Director at SingularityNET. This personal linkage represents a thematic connection between Medialab and SingularityNET in the AI research space, though it is an individual rather than institutional partnership.
• Ed KellercoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 November 2023Ed Keller served as the primary mentor and curator for the Cosmic Brains workshop and the LAB#03 Synthetic Minds program. He is a designer, professor, writer, technologist, and musician, and co-founder of Spec.AE / AUM Studio. His consulting roles include Creative Director at SingularityNET.
• Mark CinkevichminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 November 2023Filmmaker and collaborator with Anna Engelhardt on the Onset film project presented during the Cosmic Brains program, addressing military visualization and open-source investigation.
• Anna EngelhardtminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 October 2023Research-based video artist and writer served as a workshop facilitator for the Investigative Fiction workshop, exploring synthetic storytelling and open-source investigation methods with participants.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Medialab Prado: Madrid's pioneering citizen laboratory operated by Madrid City Council, running open calls, residencies, and collaborative research on digital culture, urbanism, and civic technology. Direct institutional peer: both are publicly funded Madrid medialabs with overlapping audience and thematic territory (art, technology, citizen participation).
• Eyebeam: New York-based art and technology center providing residencies, fellowships, and public programs for artists working at the intersection of art, technology, and social justice. Strong functional peer in residency/research program structure and community-led model, though operating on a hybrid funded model rather than purely public.
• Ars Electronica: Linz-based institution operating the Ars Electronica Futurelab, Center, and Festival, focused on art, technology, and society with annual thematic programming. The global benchmark for art-technology cultural laboratories and a model Medialab's LAB structure echoes at a smaller scale.
• Hangar Barcelona: Barcelona-based center for art research and production offering residencies, open calls, and laboratories in digital and electronic arts, with similar community-led, free-participation model. Comparable in structure, scale, and mission as a Spanish citizen art-tech laboratory.
• Laboral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial: Gijón-based art and industrial creation center housed in a former labor university, operating residencies, exhibitions, and Fab Lab on art-technology intersection. Spanish regional peer with similar municipal-regional funding model and LAB-style programming.
• ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe: German center for art and media combining museum, research, and production facilities around digital culture, AI, and media arts. Comparable as a publicly funded, multi-program art-technology institution with exhibition, research, and residency offerings.
• V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media: Rotterdam-based center for art and technology research, production, and presentation, running artist residencies, workshops, and public events on unstable media and digital culture. Comparable European peer with similar residency/research program model and thematic focus on technology criticism.

Emerging players

• Akademie Schloss Solitude: Stuttgart-based international artist-in-residence program offering fellowships across art, science, and technology with a similar residency-and-workshop model. Comparable as a publicly funded international residency program, though with a more traditional fellowship structure and broader art disciplines than Medialab's citizen-laboratory framing.

Broad incumbents

• IRCAM: Paris-based institute for music and acoustic research with a broader portfolio of R&D, creation, and public programming in sound, computation, and contemporary music. Comparable as a large publicly funded research-creation institution in art-technology, but specialized in sound/music rather than digital culture broadly.
• MIT Media Lab: MIT's research laboratory for antidisciplinary research at the intersection of technology, media, science, and design. Operates as a much larger, industry-funded analogue to Medialab's citizen lab model, with comparable focus on speculative research and design but with vastly greater resources and commercial orientation.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/medialabMM
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCkHEa9kk6QvKUR3MXM2Ob6Q
• Facebookfacebook.com/MedialabMatadero
• Instagraminstagram.com/medialabmatadero
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/medialab-matadero

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Medialab Matadero