make art 2009
“What the Fork?! Distributed and Open Practices in FLOSS art”
Poitiers, France
From the 8th to the 13th of December 2009
Exhibition | Concerts | Presentations | Workshop

Aharon Amir (GB), Wayne Clements (GB), FooCorp (GB), Gijs Gieskes (NL), Gullibloon (AT/DE), Adnan Hadzi (CH), Lisa Haskel (GB), Reni Hofmüller (AT), Olivier Laruelle (FR), LAFKON (DE), Anne Laforêt (FR), Mattin (ES), Antoine Moreau (FR), Nathalie Magnan (FR), No Copy Paste (HU), Noyade (FR), Jean Sépulchre (FR), Wesley Smith (US), Koray Tahiroğlu (TR/FI), The Guardians of the Tradition (US), Taku Unami (JP), Milovann Yanatchkov (FR), Simon Yuill (GB), Jérémie Zimmermann (FR), IOhannes M. Zmölnig (AT), …

make art is an international festival focussed on Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS) and open content in digital arts. make art offers performances, presentations, workshops and an exhibition, focused on the blurred line between art and software programming.

What The Fork?!

This year make art focusses on distributed and open practices in FLOSS art. ‘What the fork?!’ is about decentralization. Forking is the new black. Work from one source, copy, patch, improve, experiment, change direction, inspire! Forking is not about quick hacks, but about creating room to experiment, letting go of the one working copy and creating a multiplicity of ideas.

Exhibition

Maison de l’Architecture, 1 rue de la Tranchée
Opening Thursday December 10 at 19:00
Opening hours: December 11, 12 and 13 from 10:00 til 19:00, free admission
Installations by Wayne Clements (GB), The Guardians of the Tradition (US), Aharon Amir (GB), Gijs Gieskes (NL), Gullibloon (AT/DE), LAFKON (DE) and Olivier Laruelle (FR)

Concerts

Placard
Maison de l’Architecture, 1 rue de la Tranchée
Thursday December 10 at 21:00, free admission
With a.o. No Copy Paste (HU), Wesley Smith (US), Noyade (FR), Taku Unami (JP) & Mattin (ES) duo, …

Galactic
Planétarium of Espace Mendès-France / Lieu Multiple, 1 rue de la Cathédrale
Friday December 11 at 21:00, 3€ discount 5€ full
With Koray Tahiroğlu (TR/FI) and IOhannes M. Zmölnig (AT)

Hardware
Carré Bleu, 1 bis rue de Nimègue (Couronneries)
Saturday December 12 at 21:00, admission: between 3,50€ and 12€
With Mattin (ES), Reni Hofmüller (AT) and Anne Laforêt (FR)

Presentations

Maison de l’Architecture, 1 rue de la Tranchée
free admission

Friday December 11
17:00 Secret agents, expressive programming and virtual machines
3 presentations on hyper creative programming in Pure Data, Fluxus and Lua. With IOhannes M. Zmölnig (AT), Gábor Papp & Agoston Nagy (HU) and Wesley Smith (US)

Saturday December 12

10:30 Breakfast Club
Start your day with croissants, coffee and a shower of refreshing short interviews by Nathalie Magnan. With several make art 2009 artists.

14:00 Totally f*rked
Simulating, daisychaining and forking Free Software
With Simon Yuill (GB), Wayne Clements (GB), Adnan Hadzi (CH), Lisa Haskel (GB) and FooCorp (GB)

18:00 Internet, Freedom and Creation
Debate on the recent changes in “Internet and Creation” French law(s) (HADOPI).
Moderated by Sylvain Cousin – Confort Moderne (FR). With Jérémie Zimmermann – La Quadrature du Net (FR), Antoine Moreau – art libre (FR) and Jean Sépulchre (to be confirmed) – SACEM (FR)

Sunday December 13

10.30 Breakfast Club
Start your day with a pain au chocolat and a cup of tea while bathing in inspiring ideas and good questions by Nathalie Magnan. With several make art 2009 artists.

14:00 Bottom-up! scriptable design
toolchain and work processes in open source architectural and graphic design. With Milovann Yanatchkov (FR), Olivier Laruelle (FR) and LAFKON (DE)

Workshop

Maison de l’Architecture, 1 rue de la Tranchée
December 8 to 11, see website for registration
Fork a house! , a 4 day workshop on creating forkable and FLOSS architecture using 3D graphics application Blender. With Milovann Yanatchkov (FR)

http://makeart.goto10.org

Talk on FLOSS+Art at a workshop on Open Source Urban Planning and Architecture, at Plan09, Cologne.

I’ve been invited to give a talk at a workshop on Open Source Urban Planning and Architecture. I was very intrigued by the notion of applying the term “open source” to these two domains, that seem to have nothing to do with software development. I know very little about urban planning and architecture, and have been asked to talk about my own philosophies regarding FLOSS and art. I’ve prepared a presentation of hello process! and puredyne as examples of how FLOSS is used in an art context (software art and creative tool development), and prepared some questions for a discussion with the participants of the workshop. The text below is the result (work in progress!).

My background

I am a (software) artist (and occasional author, editor, developer and curator), part of international digital arts collective GOTO10. I am editor of FLOSS+Art, a collection of articles on the relation between FLOSS and art/design practice, and the digital artists handbook, a series of articles introducing FLOSS tools and related methods and concepts to artists. I am interested in computers as a stage or theatre, life-like processes on networks (viral), distributed and collaborative processes in both software art development as software art itself, the influence of the use of FLOSS on artistic practice, and last but not least, copyleft and FLOSS as the only serious alternative to boredom and archaic (economic) models in the art world.

hello process! Black versus white box paradox

hello process! (in collaboration with Aymeric Mansoux) is an installation consisting of a computer, a printer and a wall covered in prints. It shows a machine doing what it does best; deleting, copying and moving blocks of data. All code written for the project is licensed GPL (and can be found here). A black versus white box paradox: the computer is a black box with its processes hidden to the outside, GPL licensed code shows it all. Hello process! gives very minimalistic output via the prints, showing the evolution of a world consisting of 128 blocks that can be filled with small programs. Each program has a strategy to conquer other blocks and have names that match their behavior (boobytrap, anti-eraser, swap-master to name a few). It presents the spectator with a puzzle trying to decode what is happening inside the machine, and with maps of past evolutions. Hello process! is a reply to the ‘hello world!’ program that most people write when learning a new programming language.

hello process! is designed in a bottom-up fashion: a simple system based on its underlying rules not on end results. It is part of “continuous design” art project metabiosis, and is an example of how FLOSS gives artists increased control over their tools and greater freedom in their creation process. We needed access to all levels of the operating system, and build this custom environment using multiple compatible open source tools (GNU/Linux operating system, shell script, Gforth, C). hello process! is collaboratively developed using SVN to manage the code. Making the code public is an intricate part of the project, it is part of the concept and puts it in a wider cultural context of opening source code as another layer of interpretation of software art.

Cowboy coding is good :) puredyne

Puredyne is cowboy coding in action. The community of developers is small and unmanaged. Cowboy coding is a derogatory term but in my opinion for all the wrong reasons. In small scale projects a completely autonomous and unmanaged developer team can move mountains. All puredyne developers are also users and users can (and sometimes do) develop. That is why it works. If something is broken, it will be fixed because the developers themselves need the tool to work. Puredyne started from a real need, not a supposed one. This is typical of open source projects, if you cannot get the developers motivated, then there is no project. Motivation is a big factor in the success or failure of FLOSS projects. Motivation out of personal interest is also the reason why the best open source projects are tools that are needed by the developers themselves (server tools for instance).

Open source outside of the software domain

I want to mention www.openorg.nl as an example of how the term open source is sometimes also successfully applied outside of the domain of software development. Openorg is a wiki where WORM, a Rotterdam based cultural organisation, made available all the paperwork they needed to set up a cultural organisation in the Netherlands. You can simply copy/paste your own organisation. They also invite other organisations to contribute their paperwork. “The wheel is already invented”, “download now! A professional organisation in a split second”, “this paper mountain is there specially for you”, … On a more light note, there is also the free beer project, where you can brew the same beer, branch or fork it. Here the term open source can be used quite literally because both projects replaced code to instruct a computer what to do with scripts of what a human is supposed to do, and made this code publicly available.

Free/Libre Open Source what?

So here starts the question part of my contribution to the workshop.

Q: Can you take the term ‘open source’ out of its software development context and apply it to other fields?

It can be an inspiring concept, but definitions need to be clear if we want to avoid typical transdisciplinary confusion of using the same vocabulary but different definitions.

On paper FLOSS is software with its source code available, that grants the Freedom to:

1. run the program for any purpose.
2. study how the program works, and change it to make it do what you wish.
3. redistribute copies so you can help your neighbour.
4. improve the program, and release your improvements (and modified versions in general) to the public, so that the whole community benefits.

In practice FLOSS is not a uniform phenomenon. Open source software development is a complex process (from code management to project management) and a very diverse one. It can range from a 1 person art project to the +- 1000 contributors to the Linux kernel, with management varying from truly non-hierarchical bottom-up collaborative and collective authorship to the “benevolent dictatorship” of Linus Torvalds.

Using the term outside of software development often refers to:

• decentralized development
• user generated content and technology
• concurrent input of different agendas, approaches and priorities
• constant feedback and peer review

These are all aspects of open source software development, but the main characteristic is making the source code of a project available, and strange enough, this is something that most projects using the term “open source” are missing. When looking into the topic of this workshop I ran into a project called “open source house”, that had a repository of files related to the design of the house available. All that was there were pdf files of plans of the house, and even those were subject to terms of use that blocked the use of the plans for any other purpose than to build that very project on that very location. An open source house should at least publish their files and plans in their original (and of course open) format, and preferably licensed copyleft. The term “open source” is becoming a fashionable add-on to projects or even professions, with its original meaning lost, just like the word “open” has been part of many new project names that are often very closed in nature.

Skill

According to Erick Villagomez from re:place magazine, urban planning is losing relevance in today’s rapidly changing society. He marks open source planning as the solution to overcome the slow processes of top-down and centralized planning. According to him a radical transformation of the profession is needed (The future of urban planning is open source, April 2009). How to bypass bureaucracy and fulfil real local needs…

The idea of “prosumers”, as in consumers that produce, is seen as antidote to top-down design. Users will generate content and shape their (software) environment. In FLOSS projects the border between expert/developer and user only occasionally blurs. In most cases the border simply is less thick, users can make requests more easily and developers get more direct feedback from their users. Developers usually listen carefully to the community of users, because without them the project dies. Users are more proactive in their involvement with software user communities because help desks (and often help files) are not available and people can only rely on others in forums or mailinglists to get support when facing problems. Users are able to hack, change and redistribute, but only very few can. It requires skill that is not yet common, and would take too much time investment for the general audience of today to learn (the children are the future).

Q: How does open source urban planning and architecture deal with this skill difference between expert and layperson?

Decentralisation

That depends on what open source planning actually is (I haven’t found a single clear definition yet). Based on what Villagomez writes, it seems to be involving emergence (for more on emergence in cities: Steven Johnson – Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software). The Open Source Planning blog mentions collective intelligence, but also open data and a common tool set for urban planners, in order to rapidly respond to climate change. I think open data and a common (FLOSS) toolset are the basis, but what about “using” emergence in urban planning…

Q: How does planning enter decentralised and self-organised processes?

You cannot “organise” self-organisation, so is open source urban planning about increasing or decreasing control? Or simply about applying the control at another (lower) level, trying to initiate or spark self-organisation?

Above is a picture of Mitchel Resnick’s book “Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams: Explorations in massively parallel microworlds”. In the book he describes all kinds of systems that are organised in a decentralised way (without organisers, planners or coordinators), like bird flocks, termite colonies and traffic jams. Resnick stresses we are all conditioned to think in centralised ways, but shows how valuable investigating the opposite approach is through numerous examples. This book is dated, but still points out some interesting concepts that can also be applied in urban planning and architecture. Be it through looking at ways to start decentralised processes (writing manuals…) but also researching existing processes with this mindset.

Giving up control

Open Source Software development is not without centralised control. Bigger FLOSS projects have management and strict planning procedures for every part of the project. For instance, at the most basic level, most projects have a roadmap. And many tools exist to aid the development process (see picture with logos of some popular open source software development tools for project management, bug-tracking and source code management). Even if a project is totally open, as in: here is a discussion forum, an empty code repository, feel free to initiate something, the project will most likely follow self-organisation rules until it grows to the point where some form of management is needed.

In a FLOSS project decentralisation happens only up to a certain level. For instance patches can be submitted by the community, but it’s up to the patch reviewer or project leader, or maintainer to test it and decide to apply it “as is”, partly, or not at all. There are unpredictable parts, but they never
enter the project without going through some form of decision making process. A fork and the decision of a community of users to either stay with the original or move to the fork is the most drastic and uncontrollable possible event in a projects history.

If Open Source Urban Planning is about self organisation and emergence, it will inevitably be about giving up a certain amount of control. Although similar strategies can be used as in FLOSS development, naturally a copy of this process is not possible when working with people and places instead of code. You can’t fork an existing neighbourhood or park (you could fork the design though).

Q: Bottom-up design of complex processes involves giving up control, is this possible an urban planning context?

Responsibility

FLOSS projects take NO warranty, the user is responsible. There is a growing debate (fed by lawsuits and lawyers) on the notion of liability in the open source community.

GPL waranty:

“THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.”

Q: When projects are developed by a large number of people, without legal binding factor like a company, where does responsibility lie? How would open source urban planning handle liability?

Intellectual property in architecture and urban planning

In architecture, there are “open houses” that use the term “open source” for the way they have been designed. But they are not necessarily copyleft (I haven’t found any), as in free for others to use, modify and redistribute. It is not hard to imagine how copyleft architectural designs could function, generating designs that can be copied, improved or modified by others, generating designs that solve certain global problems like energy efficiency, adjust them to specific climates or with local building materials, etc.

In an art and software development context copyright and patent law are usually not a problem as long as you’re not competing with big companies, and choose a strong copyleft license from the start of the project. There are FLOSS projects that have been shut down by lawyers over copyright and patent disputes. Submarine patent (patent issued but not published) are the biggest problem. In the Theora project for instance, which is blocked from inclusion in for instance Nokia systems because Nokia is afraid there are submarine patents present in the Theora codec). Copyright and patent work against progress by blocking developers in their freedom to experiment and forcing many to “reinvent the wheel”.

Q: Is copyleft a current practice in urban planning and architecture? Is there a need for a special architectural or urban planning copyleft license?

synth.f

Synth.f is a performance by Aymeric Mansoux, Tom Schouten and Marloes de Valk. It’s a live improvisation using home grown 1bit synths. The synths are build using the CATkit board, an open hardware project. The boards contain a PIC 18F microcontroller, and have 5 knobs and 4 buttons as interface. The microcontroller is programmed using the purrr programming language.

Synth.f was first performed at Piksel festival, friday the 13th 2006. During this performance 3 synths were used, 2 connected to computers and 1 stand-alone (in the shape of a toy piano), to produce a wall of 1bit sound. The second iteration of the performance took place on Sunday the 18th of November 2007.

catkit workshop

Workshop CATkit
15 – 16 November 2007
Techniker Kroen, Bergen, Norway
Price: € 30,- for the board + components
Guests: Tom Schouten, Aymeric Mansoux and Marloes de Valk
BEK and GOTO10

This is the latest evolution of what was drafted and shown at piksel06. We’re not playing with breadboards anymore, but we have designed a PCB, selected some components, and designed a complete standalone 1-bit synth that can be programmed interactively via a computer running GNU/Linux, connected to the kit using a TTL-232R cable.

In the two day workshop we will do the following:

* solder the components to the CATkit board
* get familiar with some basic Purrr (Forth) commands
* incrementally create a custum 1-bit synth controller Purrr program

At the end of the workshop, the development cable is disconnected, and you go home with a little battery operated toy synth.

Please note that the focus of the workshop is on programming, not electronics. However, the Purrr language is very easy to learn, despite it being quite lowlevel. A little bit of programming experience might help though. The Purrr programming toolchain is based on MzScheme, and we urge you to install it before the workshop starts, or use the pure:dyne distribution provided.

http://packets.goto10.org

Workshop Linux Audio and Live Impro
18-19-20 July 2007
Arteleku, San Sebastian, Spain
Guests: Enrike Hurtado, Aymeric Mansoux and Marloes de Valk
Ixi software and GOTO10

three day course exploring free and open source software available for live improvisation purposes such as real-time audio effects, controlers, audio and midi processing, as well as the creative possibilities of Pure Data in a live setup

The workshop is an introduction to GNU/Linux and audio for instrumentalists. No previous knowledge of GNU/Linux is needed but a basic knowledge of computers is! We’ll cover an introduction to GNU/Linux and all the classic software required for live purposes. Topics will include: an introduction to Linux audio, ALSA and soundcard configuration, using JACK to share audio and midi, real-time audio effects with JACK Rack and LADSPA, Linux audio distributions, how to set up a good working live audio station, and more!

Program overview

Day 1 11.00 – 13.00 Introduction to the pure:dyne operating system, tour of the software included on the liveCD and its extra modules, introduction to some basic GNU/Linux skills
14.00 – 15.15 ALSA and sound card configuration, and an introduction to JACK, the low latency audio server, that will be used to share audio and MIDI between the covered software
15.45 – 17.00 Simple example of JACK use: live input from an instrument, applying real-time effects using JACK Rack/LADSPA and recording the results with the Audacity sound editor

Day 2 11.00 – 13.00 Which GNU/Linux distribution is best for me? Live CD’s and regular distributions such as pure:dyne, APODIO, Musix, Debian Multimedia, Ubuntu Studio, 64 Studio, Planet CCRMA#
14.00 – 15.30 Introduction to Pure Data, build a simple sampler and connect it to the effect rack built the day before.
15.45 – 17.00 Interface design. Learn how to build a GUI in Pure Data to control your new live system

Day 3 11.00 – 13.00 Real time visuals with pdp, a small introduction to learn how to link sound events to video for a live set.
14.00 – 15.30 Extend your live experience with controlers, connect MIDI controlers to your system and use modified USB joysticks.
15.45 – 17.00 Live performance! play with the others using the system you built during the 3 days.

Prerequisites: bring your laptop, instruments, microphones, soundcards, mixers, USB joysticks, MIDI controlers!

http://packets.goto10.org

This year’s Summer School of Sound will be led by internationally acclaimed sound artist collective GOTO10.

Marloes de Valk and Aymeric Mansoux will lead a three day course, exploring open source software available for home studio purposes such as audio and midi sequencers, sound editors and virtual effect racks, as well as the creative possibilities of puredata in an audio workstation setup.

The Summer School of Sound will also include an evening performance on Thursday 28 June by goto10 artists de Valk and Mansoux, as well as Claude Heiland-Allen and Chun Lee.

The three day summer school is aimed at musicians, designers, artists and those with an interest in multimedia technologies who want to explore how new digital technologies can help and inspire us when working with music and sound.

Participants do not need a high level of technological or programming skills, although these would be beneficial. A strong interest in one or more of the following areas is essential: sound art, music, technology, open source software.

The Summer School is free, but places are strictly limited. To apply for a place please email Jennifer Stoddart, Programme Co-ordinator at jennifer.stoddart@folly.co.uk with brief details of your background, interest and experience in the areas listed above, and an indication of your level of computer literacy.

Please note you must be able to attend all 3 days of the Summer School.

For more information about make art 2007, please visit http://makeart.goto10.org/2007

Workshop Packet Forth and pure:dyne

A one day introduction to pure:dyne and Packet Forth for students of the KHM. You’ll be introduced to the GNU/Linux live CD pure:dyne, the basics of using it and most of all, how to generate visuals using the programming language Packet Forth. Because we’ve only got half a day, the workshop will take the shape of an interactive demo, where we’ll show you some example scripts and you will be able to try them out, alter them and get a feel for the system.

http://packets.goto10.org

http://puredyne.goto10.org

WORKSHOP OUTLINE

- Introduction to pure:dyne: booting cd, docking & nesting, included software
- Basic linux skills: terminal, shell commands, desktop and file browser
- Introduction to Forth: syntax, interpreter, dictionary…
- Packet Forth: fun with PF using prepared dictionaries
- OSC and Packet Forth: example of communication with PureData

PARTICIPANT PROFILE
No previous knowledge of programming required.

The workshop was taught by Marloes de Valk and Aymeric Mansoux. A small piece of software was written especially for the workshops. The software uses an Lsystem that takes a string of numbers (the “dna” of the plant), the amount of iterations of the Lsystem, an angle and a color. With this information entered, a “plant” is drawn on the screen. If the creator is happy with the results, the plant is given a name, a short description and eventually, a place in the herbarium. Herbarium is part of the Metabiosis project. (2006)

For more information about the Metabiosis project, please visit the project site http://metabiosis.kuri.mu

Metabiosis is made possible with support from: Netherlands Media Art Institute, Kunsthochshule fur Medien Koln, and the Digital Research Unit

1 day workshop Pure Data at The Canteen in Barrow-in-Furness. I’m covering all the basics to generate sound and image using Pure Data and GEM, plus some super handy patching tips and tricks.

Organised by Folly