Visual Art
power
‘ALTERNATIVE TO MONEY-GRABBING CAPITALISM OF SOFTWARE INDUSRY'
FREE OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE is revolutionising our computer use and the artistic community isn’t missing a trick, as Jack Mottram explains.
()SS has been around since the 70s but recently this free software has become user- friendly and up to the same standards as
corporate versions. Born out of the goodness of
geeks‘ hearts and for a hit of insider cache the slow burning revolution is set to explode. providing an alternative model to the prevailing money-grabbing capitalism of the software industry.
Your Machines is a programme of events aiming to introduce this democratising force to the artistic community. with workshops on new tools for making art and talks on the wider issues. Where Microsoft and Apple require a hefty fee for their software and keep the code under wraps. FOSS developers make their programs available for free. allowing anyone to modify and redistribute them. working together to offer the best software they can. FOSS is both free as in ‘free beer' and ‘free speech‘. both gratis and lihra.
So far. so geeky. But how does this movement of
programmers relate to the artistic community'.’
For Simon Yuill. organiser of Your Machines. it's a combination of the practical and the philosophical that appeals. ‘The social aspects of Free Open Source Software are interesting.‘ Yuill explains. 'It's not just about the programming and technical things. It‘s about a way of working. and a culture within which
to work.‘ In fact. given the prevalence in Scotland of artist-run spaces. and a strong tradition of
collaboration between artists. the ideas behind FOSS are already in place in the arts community. ‘The different way of distributing work also appeals to a
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lot of people.’ Yuill continues. 'lt’s interesting now that artists are working with Open Source. they‘re seeing connections with older forms — things like mail art or conceptual art. in the sense that it takes the approach that the artifact isn‘t the work. I'm working with (‘had McCail (pictured) and in the past he‘s made work for billboards and postcards. so there are analogies between that and Open Source. Last year Sue Tompkins released a tape called ('aimtrv Grammar which was freely distributed. following the Open Source model.‘
Truly Open Source art moves further still from the traditional constraints of the art market. For instance. I picked tip a poster by Slateford. an Open Source art collective. bearing the slogan 'We Belong To You'. Since the poster is an Open Source work. I was free to make a derivative — a web page that displays alternate versions of the poster's text. and within a week. further derivatives appeared on the web. This is. obviously. quite a shift away from the norm. where an artist creates a work and sells it to a collector. Instead. Slateford released their work into the wild. collapsing the distinction between artist and viewer in the process and drawing non-artists into the creative fold.
Your Machines, CCA, Glasgow, throughout October and November. Visit www.slateford.org/fac/fac_2.html to see the Slateford poster and find links to other versions.
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THE BEST EXHIBITIONS
:2: Ed Ruscha The Los Angeles artist whose fusion of text, landscape and imagery from America's highway has marked him as the west coast's defining artist rides into town for this major show. See feature. Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Wed 3 Nov-Sun 76 Jan.
=Z< Robert Therrien Y0ur last chance to experience the strange world of another west coaster, Therrien. Giant installations give way to silver tear drops and stacks of toppling plates. Inver/eith House, Botanic Garden. Edinburgh, until Sun 37 Oct. :3: Roger Ackllng Remember causing fires with magnifying glasses? It‘s the same idea — the sun's rays are harnessed and focused here onto tiny pieces of wood with intricate intensity. See review. lng/eby Gallery. Edinburgh, until Sat 30 Oct.
Noonday Demons Got the blues, baby. Four Icelandic artists have, or are at least exploring the feeling through a mixture of video, installation. animation and drawing. See review. CCA, Glasgow, until Sun 21 Nov.
:5: Simon Starling Beyond the hype there's some serious adventuring and thinking going on here. Starling takes his hydrogen-powered moped across the 41 miles of Spain‘s Tabernas desert. See review. The Modern Institute, Glasgow, until Fri 5 Nov.
tic Rosemarie Trockol Final fling with Trockel the German artist whose work takes on issues of femininity and sexuality through photographs, drawing and painting and knitting machines. Tramway, Glasgow, until Sun 31 Oct.