still/open

welcome to still/open - our very distributed ANAT Emerging Technologies Lab for 2007.

With all the Web 2.0 hype around YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and Flickr, it is timely to re-examine the persistently growing Open Source Movement. still/open focuses on the creative practice of free sharing and cooperative content development in the arenas of artware, software, biology and publishing.

Over the last few decades our post-industrial culture that once worshiped the myth of individual heroics and thrived on fierce competition and the survival of the fittest, has been challenged by the idea that co-operation and sharing actually work to ones advantage. Ironically to attain a competitive advantage companies shared secrets, opened up their source code, blogged about products under development, made management decisions publicly, worked with rivals and admitted to failures. This phenomena has been termed Radical Transparency, but it sounds to me like good old fashioned Open Source culture dressed up in a shiny new suit.

Scientists too are gaining more evidence of how cooperation works in biology - from the network theories of immunology developed the 1970’s to recent revelations that the human genome might not be a collection of independent genes with each DNA sequence linked to a single function, such as a physical characteristic or predisposition to disease. Genes, its appears, are social beings operating in complex networks which interact and overlap with one another and with other components in ways not yet fully understood.

ANAT’s 2007 Still/Open Distributed Media Lab and free Public Forums will travel to the cities of Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane during September facilitated by Beatriz da Costa (USA), Alessandro Ludovico (IT) and Andy Nicholson (AU) . Coming together both locally and in this blog space almost 50 participants across Australia will engage in both simple and complex network interactions producing unforseen outcomes. Participants will invent, process, copy and modify the concepts, skills and products of the labs, and redistribute them back into their community further informing and inspiring others to continue the cycle.

As a network of people creatively engaged with emerging technologies, ANAT is committed to enriching the cultural context in which we operate. We do this by introducing skills, resources and ideas into diverse communities, and I would like to thank our many partner organisations who make this possible. In the next few months ANAT will produce seven events, forums, exhibitions and workshops across the nation including events at BEAP and Electrofringe Festivals.

Wherever you are I hope you can join us in generating new creativities.

Melinda Rackham

ANAT Director