🔨Technology

Get to know the tech philosophy we apply to Food Tech 3.0

Technology as seen through the eyes of Food Tech 3.0 and Fab Lab Barcelona is not a product. It is an artefact that embodies a methodology in which users have a participatory role in the technology's design and creation. It is a process centered around democratisation: through the technological artefact, agency is restored to its user, enabling them to actively participate in their environment.

In addition to encouraging innovators to consider technology as a methodology, the technology track broached how innovators could take advantage of a space like a Fab Lab to prototype their initiative. We supported innovators to produce or improve a minimum viable product through support from Fab Lab Barcelona's fabricating technologies and mentors.

For the innovators that prioritised this track, we measured their Technological Readiness Levels (TRL) based on the improvement of their minimum viable product and their relationship to the approach of producing their technology. Technological hands-on support during the program was limited to innovators that already had experience working with fabrication tools, as the program did not provide enough space to teach innovators how to use tools from the beginning.

Overall, the technological sessions and track sought to:

• Increase the initiative's TRL

• Provide a framework and tools for the design and prototype production process that centers user well-being and collaboration

• Assist in the development of a minimum viable product through mentoring and accessing Fab Lab tools

• Build the community's capacity to think critically about current (and alternative) food system(s)

• Promote technology that is more just, inclusive and transparent