About this project
Show list of needs
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Minimum | Optimum |
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Moving of the machines and equipment
Letterpress printing machines and equipment are delicate objects which require a special form of move carried out by qualified technicians. This move includes the disassembling, transportation and installation of the machines and equipment in the new premises.
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€ 8.000 |
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Minimum | Optimum |
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Basic adaptations of the new premises
The refurbishment of the electrical system in the new space and the fixing in place of the machines in their new location are essential.
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€ 4.000 | |
Adaptation of new premises to the real needs of L'Automàtica
Given that one of L'Automàtica's main activities is carrying out workshops, the space must meet the minimum requirements for this purpose (lighting, safe flooring, painting of space, chemical storage, furniture, etc.)
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€ 3.200 | |
Total | € 12.000 | € 15.200 |
General information
We are being forced to leave our current space. Help us keep L'Automàtica alive.
L'Automàtica is a non-profit cultural association and local print shop. Established in 2011 to salvage and keep the machinery running in an old family run print shop (established in 1963) on Carrer de Grassot in the Gracia area of Barcelona, we are currently dedicated to self-publishing, experimentation and dissemination in the field of graphic arts.
We have managed to maintain this space, full of history and testimony to the recent trajectory of the graphic printing industries, with our own resources and were carefully and patiently fixing it up. But with the coming into force of the Ley de Arrendamientos Urbanos (Law on Urban Leases) on the 1st of January 2015, we are now being forced to abandon this marvellous space, very much against our will.
This move by far exceeds the economic reach of our self-managed non-profit association. This is why we urgently need your help, both economic and/or logistic.
Description of the project. Main features, strengths and differentials.
This campaign aims to raise the necessary funds to keep L'Automàtica alive.
Due to the expiration of the lease contract that we have in our current space in the Gracia neighbourhood (one of the many old leases that have expired with the coming into force of the aforementioned LAU law) and fed up with the pressure exerted upon us by the owners of the property, we now find ourselves forced to put our activities on hold in order to rebuild the project in a new and safe headquarters. One that hopefully grants us guarantees of continuity.
This means transferring all the material we currently have to a new location. The material we have is complex and delicate: two Heidelberg windmill platen presses (weighing around 2 tons each), a manual-feed semi-automatic Iberica platen press, a GTO 52 offset printing machine and a Haas guillotine are the heavy-weights. Along with various other machines, we have tons of lead and wood type, office furniture, distributors, inks, paper, tools, etc… Everything that's needed for L'Automàtica to continue being what it is.
Why this is important
This campaign is directed at everyone who believes in projects constructed from the heart, who believes in self-managed horizontal structures and believes in the development of the fabric of the cultural basis.
We would especially like to address everyone who is passionate about graphic production and traditional printing techniques: designers, artists and communicators as well as collective projects, schools and institutions. To all those who with their projects, visits and workshops have helped transform L'Automàtica into a place of dialogue and collaboration. And to everyone who has participated in the activities, concerts and performances programmed in L'Automàtica who, like us, believes in the need to maintain the continuity of open spaces like this one.

Goals of the crowdfunding campaign
The primary objective of this campaign is to raise the necessary funds to make the transportation of L'Automàtica's machinery and material to a new location possible. It is also fundamental to be able to carry out basic technical refurbishments for the new space's adaptation and proper functioning of the machines.
Being a self-funded and self-managed association, we don not have the capacity to bear the costs of such a delicate endeavour, but we do have the tremendous will to make this endeavour a reality.
This brings us to our second objective: the small but no less important human contributions that any one of you can offer, all be it logistic advice, helping hands to pack boxes, making sandwiches for lunch or whatever useful ideas come to mind.

Team and experience
L'Automàtica was established in 2011 as a non-profit cultural association. We are made up of a group of people who work actively in cultural and graphic communication projects. Even though we are all independent professionals in these fields, we have become apprentices of the fascinating world of printing. Thanks to the knowledge and teachings of Ferran Fandós, the master printer and heir of the old IFA print shop, we have learnt the foundations of the trade and prepared ourselves to be able to teach them to others.
During these past few years we have carried out multiple workshops with both local and international design schools and universities. L'Automàtica has also become a hub for the creation and production of countless projects related to independent publishing and experimental music, amongst many others, thus offering a new space in the city where dialogue on the state of current cultural issues can be generated.
On our website - www.lautomatica.org - you can find images, documentation and information relating to many of the projects and activities carried out by the association, as well as a list of the current members and links to the projects they are actively involved in.


Social commitment

Educational
Shared materials
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Open house
Collective visit to the new workshop with a general explanation of the production possibilities that L'Automàtica has to offer along with a presentation of the activities carried out by the Association. -
Basic manual
Vector PDF file for people who are interested in movable type printing. Includes a graphic guide for the distribution of type in the Spanish type box, anatomy of movable type and basic glossary of letterpress composition and printing terms.CC0 Universal (Public Domain)
Creative Commons License for works dedicated to the public domain, by which all intellectual property rights over a work are waived -
Advice for the setting up of projects similar to L'Automàtica
We offer our knowledge and experience to advise people interested in recovering letterpress printing equipment. -
Celebration!
Once settled in at the new space, we will invite you to come and meet it with a beer or vermut in hand, music playing... to celebrate this new period of L'Automàtica.