Open Source System

How might the open source system of sharing and collective narrative be a creative inspiration and approach for artists? 

The open source system is a

quasi-utopian form of peer production that inspires transparency, collaboration, collective processes, non-proprietary methods of production and distribution, and a commitment to the creative process as a social exchange”.- Randall Packer

It challenges the current dominant capitalist society by allowing artists to experiment, innovate, appropriate and collaborate within something like a reservoir of creative genius. Despite this idealism (or maybe because of it) projects like Linux have expanded and thrived, becoming a rival to commercial giants, Microsoft and Apple. This could only be possible through the collaboration of many people who all held the same ideas of working together to improve society and rebel against the monopoly of products and information.

Personally, I find collaborative modes of working to be extremely rewarding, allowing me to draw on other people’s expertise, ideas and experience to shape a project in a way that wouldn’t have been possible by myself. With the internet we are able to connect more people with more people. It is a space in which collaborative ways of working thrive and your work can reach a larger audience much faster without worrying about censorship and professional gallery curation. However in a capitalist society, it is easy for your work to be exploited without copyrights and intellectual property, but with them the piece is no longer open and collaborative. Creative Commons is a compromise between open source and commercialization. It allows the contributor to establish how their work can be used and stipulate whether it can be used for free even for commercial practices or not. This allows the artist to express creative freedom without supporting commercialization of art and share their own work to inspire others’.

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Paige

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