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| openspace_and_openlabs [2008-08-27 03:19] – created 121.45.36.39 | openspace_and_openlabs [2008-08-27 03:20] (current) – 121.45.36.39 |
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| ====Open-ended processes, open space technologies and open laboratories==== | ====Open-ended processes, open space technologies and open laboratories==== |
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| Maja Kuzmanovic and Nik Gaffney | by Maja Kuzmanovic and Nik Gaffney |
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| "It is a fearsome thing, like diving into water. And yet it is exhilarating - because you aren't controlling it." | "It is a fearsome thing, like diving into water. And yet it is exhilarating - because you aren't controlling it." -- Christopher Alexander |
| Christopher Alexander | |
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| === What is FoAM? === | ==== What is FoAM? ==== |
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| FoAM is a laboratory for people engaged in hybrid practices, people whose knowledge tends to fall through gaps between disciplines (or ties together disparate disciplines), people who thrive in the interstitial spaces between culture and science, technology and ecology. Since its inception in 2000, FoAM has changed appearances, from a department in a private research lab, to an independent artist-lead organisation, to a networked entity, with studios and partner organisations worldwide. Its collaborative structure allows FoAM to remain small and flexible, able to change directions and contexts as appropriate. | FoAM is a laboratory for people engaged in hybrid practices, people whose knowledge tends to fall through gaps between disciplines (or ties together disparate disciplines), people who thrive in the interstitial spaces between culture and science, technology and ecology. Since its inception in 2000, FoAM has changed appearances, from a department in a private research lab, to an independent artist-lead organisation, to a networked entity, with studios and partner organisations worldwide. Its collaborative structure allows FoAM to remain small and flexible, able to change directions and contexts as appropriate. |
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| ===Knowledge sharing=== | ====Knowledge sharing==== |
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| In the process of developing MR works, our collaborators have gained substantial knowledge, skills and contacts, which tend to be uncommon amongst artists or other members of the cultural proletariat. This is perhaps due to a lack of contact with scientific communities, the prohibitive cost of proprietary technology or the knowledge and persistence required to participate in open source communities. As an organisation which can function as a 'mediator' between the scientific & technological and the artistic worlds, we feel that we should share this knowledge with a wider group of our peers and audiences. | In the process of developing MR works, our collaborators have gained substantial knowledge, skills and contacts, which tend to be uncommon amongst artists or other members of the cultural proletariat. This is perhaps due to a lack of contact with scientific communities, the prohibitive cost of proprietary technology or the knowledge and persistence required to participate in open source communities. As an organisation which can function as a 'mediator' between the scientific & technological and the artistic worlds, we feel that we should share this knowledge with a wider group of our peers and audiences. |
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| ===Designing and planning=== | ====Designing and planning==== |
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| Designing our workshops and other professional development activities can begin with particular goals, a specific topic, or solidify from vague ideas of how to bring several themes together. These can be collected from within FoAM, as well as from suggestions from previous, or potential workshop participants. The subjects can cover anything from teaching kids how to make their own computer games; to helping a group of prominent artists to make their practice more ecologically sustainable; to working with families on urban guerilla gardening. | Designing our workshops and other professional development activities can begin with particular goals, a specific topic, or solidify from vague ideas of how to bring several themes together. These can be collected from within FoAM, as well as from suggestions from previous, or potential workshop participants. The subjects can cover anything from teaching kids how to make their own computer games; to helping a group of prominent artists to make their practice more ecologically sustainable; to working with families on urban guerilla gardening. |
| Finally, an important element of the design are the participants themselves. In our workshops the participants usually include a mixture of those who have been invited and those who responded to an open-call, selected primarily based on their motivation. The second important selection factor is the overlap of interests and the complementarity of the skills of different people in the group. Each person should share some common characteristic with at least one other person (who should have something in common with at least one other participant). Selecting a group in such manner assures a compact, yet diverse team that can learn a lot from each other, in addition to learning from the workshop leaders. | Finally, an important element of the design are the participants themselves. In our workshops the participants usually include a mixture of those who have been invited and those who responded to an open-call, selected primarily based on their motivation. The second important selection factor is the overlap of interests and the complementarity of the skills of different people in the group. Each person should share some common characteristic with at least one other person (who should have something in common with at least one other participant). Selecting a group in such manner assures a compact, yet diverse team that can learn a lot from each other, in addition to learning from the workshop leaders. |
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| ===Open space and individual responsibility=== | ====Open space and individual responsibility==== |
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| As workshops are usually concentrated, short term and often unique learning opportunities, their quality should be high. In order to get as much out of the workshops as possible, we share the responsibility for the quality and depth of the event with the participants. We state this clearly at the beginning of each workshop, making sure that the participants are aware of the 'principles' of their engagement. | As workshops are usually concentrated, short term and often unique learning opportunities, their quality should be high. In order to get as much out of the workshops as possible, we share the responsibility for the quality and depth of the event with the participants. We state this clearly at the beginning of each workshop, making sure that the participants are aware of the 'principles' of their engagement. |
| Open space events enable the participants themselves the shape the agenda, allowing everyone involved to present and discuss issues that are most important to them. There is no passive consumption of knowledge, only pro-active participation, learning and sharing. OST may not be suitable for all workshops, but its principles can be applied in a broad range of situations, regardless of topic, or the teaching method. | Open space events enable the participants themselves the shape the agenda, allowing everyone involved to present and discuss issues that are most important to them. There is no passive consumption of knowledge, only pro-active participation, learning and sharing. OST may not be suitable for all workshops, but its principles can be applied in a broad range of situations, regardless of topic, or the teaching method. |
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| ===Soft-wear and Soft-ware, two case studies=== | ====Soft-wear and Soft-ware, two case studies==== |
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| Two examples of FoAM's workshops using OST are 'Soft-wear' and 'Soft-ware'. The workshops were designed to explore different ends of the mixed reality spectrum - responsive textiles (soft-wear) and real-time CG animation (soft-ware). Both workshops involved a mixture of hands-on and theoretical sessions, requiring active participation and creative commitment from the participants. Both were held in the same studio and each concluded with a public presentation. During the course of the workshop, all participants had the opportunity to present and discuss their artistic practice, which assured that common interests and collaborative possibilities were expressed in a face-to-face situation. | Two examples of FoAM's workshops using OST are 'Soft-wear' and 'Soft-ware'. The workshops were designed to explore different ends of the mixed reality spectrum - responsive textiles (soft-wear) and real-time CG animation (soft-ware). Both workshops involved a mixture of hands-on and theoretical sessions, requiring active participation and creative commitment from the participants. Both were held in the same studio and each concluded with a public presentation. During the course of the workshop, all participants had the opportunity to present and discuss their artistic practice, which assured that common interests and collaborative possibilities were expressed in a face-to-face situation. |
| The Soft-ware workshop, which focused on the emerging realm of 'real-time' animation (lead by Dave Griffiths and Nik Gaffney), had the advantage of a common technology which was used by all participants - 'fluxus', a programming environment for generating digital graphic worlds. The main challenge for this heterogeneous group was to balance the range of skills in computer programming and to keep the group conversations alive, without the participants disappearing into their glowing screens. Each morning the workshop leaders went through theoretical and practical tutorials on a single large screen, or scribbled on large sheets of paper. In the afternoon, the participants would work in pairs, designing small experiments to implement some of the techniques learned that morning. This 'pair programming' technique was borrowed from a software development method known as 'extreme programming'. As one person enters code, the other will keep track of the overall structure of the programme, ask questions, discuss the code being written, as well as notice typos or potential errors. This tends to make programming more social, the teams work faster, make fewer obvious mistakes and have fun seeing each others results, mishaps, or amazing feats of abstraction wrangling. Often, similar question arose from different pairs, so the pair's screen would be projected the on the wall, enabling the discussion with the whole group. In this way, people would be temporarily drawn away from their own projects, giving them a few minutes of distance, or a new idea. In the same space, we brought a collection of movies, animations and books, so that participants could take breaks from crafting their own animations, while still being immersed in wondrous animated worlds. The evenings were reserved for informal 'fiddling' and screenings of different materials. At the end of the week, there were dozens of little animations; abstract and figurative, glitchy and slick, responding to movement, ambient network traffic, or the rhythm of music. | The Soft-ware workshop, which focused on the emerging realm of 'real-time' animation (lead by Dave Griffiths and Nik Gaffney), had the advantage of a common technology which was used by all participants - 'fluxus', a programming environment for generating digital graphic worlds. The main challenge for this heterogeneous group was to balance the range of skills in computer programming and to keep the group conversations alive, without the participants disappearing into their glowing screens. Each morning the workshop leaders went through theoretical and practical tutorials on a single large screen, or scribbled on large sheets of paper. In the afternoon, the participants would work in pairs, designing small experiments to implement some of the techniques learned that morning. This 'pair programming' technique was borrowed from a software development method known as 'extreme programming'. As one person enters code, the other will keep track of the overall structure of the programme, ask questions, discuss the code being written, as well as notice typos or potential errors. This tends to make programming more social, the teams work faster, make fewer obvious mistakes and have fun seeing each others results, mishaps, or amazing feats of abstraction wrangling. Often, similar question arose from different pairs, so the pair's screen would be projected the on the wall, enabling the discussion with the whole group. In this way, people would be temporarily drawn away from their own projects, giving them a few minutes of distance, or a new idea. In the same space, we brought a collection of movies, animations and books, so that participants could take breaks from crafting their own animations, while still being immersed in wondrous animated worlds. The evenings were reserved for informal 'fiddling' and screenings of different materials. At the end of the week, there were dozens of little animations; abstract and figurative, glitchy and slick, responding to movement, ambient network traffic, or the rhythm of music. |
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| ===Open labs=== | ====Open labs==== |
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| Many workshops have some kind of public moment as their culmination. This is not always a good way to finish a workshop, as it can put an unnecessary emphasis on presentation and can destroy the process of careless exploration, which is crucial for informal learning. We are therefore very careful in designing these public presentations, in a way to satisfy both the participants and the audiences. The format that we used in both Soft-wear and Soft-ware is the 'Open lab' - simply opening the doors to anyone interested. | Many workshops have some kind of public moment as their culmination. This is not always a good way to finish a workshop, as it can put an unnecessary emphasis on presentation and can destroy the process of careless exploration, which is crucial for informal learning. We are therefore very careful in designing these public presentations, in a way to satisfy both the participants and the audiences. The format that we used in both Soft-wear and Soft-ware is the 'Open lab' - simply opening the doors to anyone interested. |
| For Soft-ware, we felt that the fluxus environment should be shown in its full glory - used by an expert (Dave Griffiths), so the audience could better understand the relevance of the different experiments. We also wanted to bring an element of physicality amidst the forest of flickering screens, so we invited Stevie Wishart to play her augmented hurdy-gurdy, a very analogue instrument which incorporates movement sensors able to influence synthesised soundscapes and visuals generated with fluxus. After being flooded with hypnotising images and sounds, the audience was was invited to chat with the participants, whose experiments were projected throughout the space, lingering for hours, while sipping thematic cocktails and tasting 'animated' foods. | For Soft-ware, we felt that the fluxus environment should be shown in its full glory - used by an expert (Dave Griffiths), so the audience could better understand the relevance of the different experiments. We also wanted to bring an element of physicality amidst the forest of flickering screens, so we invited Stevie Wishart to play her augmented hurdy-gurdy, a very analogue instrument which incorporates movement sensors able to influence synthesised soundscapes and visuals generated with fluxus. After being flooded with hypnotising images and sounds, the audience was was invited to chat with the participants, whose experiments were projected throughout the space, lingering for hours, while sipping thematic cocktails and tasting 'animated' foods. |
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| ===A few recommendations=== | ====A few recommendations==== |
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| There are many different ways of organising and designing workshops and many exciting topics to be covered. We approach the process differently each time in consideration of the people involved, the contexts in which the workshops are held, or the subject matter. However, there are a few recurring threads that we try to improve upon each time; | There are many different ways of organising and designing workshops and many exciting topics to be covered. We approach the process differently each time in consideration of the people involved, the contexts in which the workshops are held, or the subject matter. However, there are a few recurring threads that we try to improve upon each time; |
121.45.36.39