...further discussion on collaborative practices on empyre this month...
----- Original Message ----- From: "Felix Sattler" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "empyre-list" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, February 05, 2003 3:55 PM Subject: [-empyre-] welcome to february's discussion on open source-open art Dear empyreans and artists of the backup.lounge|lab, when Christina and Melinda proposed to discuss our experiences with the open source - open art project �backup.lounge|lab� publicly in the empyre forum I was very happy to be granted this possibility of extended discussion and reflection. I. Introduction When Alexander Klosch, Carina Linge and I developed the idea for the .lounge|lab our aim was not to create an art project for people who are involved in open source (however open source programmers where invited as long as their work applied to be of artistic nature). The theory of open source had proven to be one working model for collaborative work on a certain subject. Its regulations, structures and its ability to improve something's complexity by the contribution of many people's skills rather then to have individualistic narrowness made it our choice for the theoretical background of the lab. Furthermore it has been discussed widely not only within specialist forums but also in the public broadcasting media which makes it easier to understand our goal. We believe there is a lot of thrilling collaborative work happening (even before .lounge|lab!), we are definitely not innovators on this field. Anyway these collaborations mostly remain bound to the realm of artists who are dealing with new(er) media and networking structures. Even if these groups exist there are heavy differences between groups, (i.e. being more scientific, artistic, applied...). What we therefore tried to do is form a group of creatives (there is more than artists here) who were so different on all possible axis' (genre, age, experience, gender...) that they were hardly to meet outside the lab. To have this group examine and shape a shared physical space (which we though to be a good framework to hold on) was the aim of the lab. II. Questions During the process of .lounge|lab I came up with a variety of questions based on what we experienced while working together. I would very much like to start the discussion with these questions, however anybody might feel free to ignore these questions and pose others - or answer those not posed yet (remember this is an open source theory-based project!). They are more offers on what to talk about than guidelines. III. questions a) sources: 1. What does the term "source(s)" mean to an artistic environment? 2. Which elements of the artistic process can become exchangeable sources and how can they be determined -> Basically meaning "what is it I would like to contribute and what do I want to receive/learn from the others" (i.e. technical knowledge, conceptual approach, material, files,...)? 3. Open source code development is bound to a certain programming language and the knowledge of this language. The language will generalise the discussion/development and makes it possible to understand it. What kind of catalysts/interpreters may be used to create such a generalised environment for a collaborative art project in order we have to speak the same language? This refers also to the meaning and relations of the virtual and the tactile dimension. For .lounge|lab we tried to use the physical space of the exhibition as a catalyst everybody could understand and deal with; it might be worth to find out what the virtual space may offer here? I guess that might give us enough to start here, at least I hope so, please feel free to demand more (or less!) background information on the lab and our concepts. Anyway I am very sure this discussion here should not be bound to a single project but extend beyond and reflect on it. Thank you all for contributing! Felix _______________________________________________ empyre forum [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.subtle.net/empyre ------------------------------------------------- a m b i t : networking media arts in scotland post: [EMAIL PROTECTED] archive: http://www.mediascot.org/ambit info: send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and write "info ambit" in the message body -------------------------------------------------
