Freestyle - FLOSS In Design

Seminar, May 19th, 2004, Rotterdam

Original URL: http://pzwart.wdka.hro.nl/mdr/Seminars2/floss/

READ A TRANSCRIPTION OF THIS EVENT:

• Part 1
• Part 2

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Freestyle - FLOSS In Design

A seminar on Free, Libre and Open Source Software in Design

Time: 10.30-17.00

Date: Wednesday 19th May, 2004

Cost: 5euro, 2.50euro concessions

Advance Reservations: Eliane Roest (V2_), (010) 206 72 72, email: eliane at v2.nl

Location: V2 Eendrachtstraat 10, Rotterdam

Directions to V2

Over the last few years ‘Free Libre and Open Source Software’ FLOSS, a form of collaborative software development has proven itself as a driving force of digital networks, especially the internet. Now this approach is beginning to open up new approaches in design and visual culture. This seminar will present clear information on this software and how it both challenges and provides new opportunities for media design.

Art and design work using computers can often get stuck in the use of the same old tools. One thing that FLOSS does is to allow for new ideas to become software on a much faster timescale and with less reliance on conforming to a ‘mass’ market. Learning design increasingly means learning to use the applications of a smaller and smaller amount of companies. FLOSS offers one possibility for escaping such a trap.

At the same time FLOSS itself could do with a good dose of design. Born as it is through the energy and imagination of software developers, FLOSS can in some cases fall behind in meeting the needs of users who aren’t also programmers. On the one hand this creates an important demand for greater technical literacy amongst users, but it also means that interfaces to, for instance, cultural practices, need creating.

The morning session will present an introduction to FLOSS software in design. The emphasis is on a realistic survey of the possibilities this way of working is opening up.

The afternoon will present a number of case studies. Artists and designers using FLOSS software will show and talk about the tools they work with, the culture of use of the software. Software developers will present their projects and open them up to questions and debate.

Confirmed speakers:

Kit Blake – Silva, content management system, Rotterdam; http://www.infrae.com

Erik Dooper - Open Source Software Lab, Amsterdam, will demo Scribus, SodiPodi and Inkscape. DTP and vector graphics applications. http://www.ossl.org/

Rishab Aiyer Ghosh - Economist and editor of FirstMonday, Maastricht; http://orbiten.org/rishab.html

Graham Harwood - artist, London, speaking about The GIMP, image manipulation software http://www.scotoma.org/

Jaromil - GNU/Linux developer, South Italy, currently resident at Montevideo, Amsterdam; Dynebolic, http://www.dyne.org/

Willi LeMaitre & Eric Rosenzweig – PlayList, software tools for collaborative video work, http://www.w----e.net

Roger Teeuwen – Graphic Designer, Rotterdam

Antoine van de Ven – V2_Lab, Rotterdam, presents V2_Jam, research on combining and integrating open source media software, http://lab.v2.nl

This seminar is jointly held by: Media Design Research, Piet Zwart Institute, the institute for postgraduate studies and research of the Willem de Kooning Academy Hogeschool Rotterdam http://pzwart.wdka.hro.nl/

Interactive Media, Hogeschool van Amsterdam

V2_Organisation, Institute for the Unstable Media http://www.v2.nl/

Stream

This seminar will be streamed via http://www.v2.nl/live/

Freestyle Reader

A selection of texts and resources developing the use of Free, Libre and Open Source Software in Design and the use of Design in Free, Libre and Open Source Software.

Eric S. Raymond

The Luxury of Ignorance: An Open-Source Horror Story

http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cups-horror.html/ An account of how to print under GNU/Linux by the renowned advocate of Open Source. A substantial case for design.

Lawrence Lessig

The Future of Ideas, the fate of the commons in a connected world, Vintage Books, New York, 2002. See also http://www.lessig.com/

Armin Medosch

Piratology: the deep seas of open code and free culture Kingdom of Piracy. http://residence.aec.at/kop/DIVE/cd/text/pirate.html/

Richard Wareham

The Command Line - Best Newbie Interface? OS News http://osnews.com/story.php?news_id=6282