Open Source City



 

 
Project duration: to June, 2008

Open Source City was a micro-festival of open source practice in the production of media art and music.

folly and SoundNetwork kicked off Summer 2008 with an exciting collaboration which brought a micro-festival of art and music to Liverpool, as part of the European Capital of Culture.

Liverpool has a strong history of doing innovative things with electricity, from the birth of the power grid (Sebastian Ferranti) to the early computer games industry (Psygnosis, Ocean, and ZTT). Liverpool also has a formidable musical legacy inevitably centred around the pop phenomenon of The Beatles but which spans every musical genre from classical to electro.

Open Source City tipped its hat to Liverpool’s pioneering spirit by offering a programme of art, workshops, masterclasses, talks and concerts that shed light on the growing impact of Free/Libre Open Source Software on the creative practices of today, in particular in media art and music.

"FLOSS" offers opportunities to users, and developers at every skill level to participate in the creative process, starting from the writing of code all the way up to the final mix of your masterpiece. These are tools that have the power to bring people together through creativity, collaboration, knowledge sharing and, importantly, technology. Open Source City asked how will Open Source play a part in the music and art scenes of the future?

Artists and speakers involved included GOTO10, Access Space, Polytechnic, Simon Blackmore, Tom Chance, MediaShed and 64 Studio… 

  • Watch highlights of the Saturday night's performances - OSC Live on vimeo
  • Have a listen to this podcast by Neil Morrin -  ArtinLiverpool.com podcast

What participants said:

  • ...Overall really cool, it was nice to meet some new people with similar interests and hear about their ideas...
  • ...Very interesting, nice friendly vibe, very welcoming...
  • ...Terrific...

In fact, 95% of the people said their overall impression of the festival was "good" or "excellent", and nobody rating it less than average!

Open Source City was a Cultural Commission for Liverpool 2008 European Capital of Culture. Supported by Arts Council England and P H Holt Trust.

image credits:
image 1: AdHoc Live at Open Source City
image 2: Workshop: Creating Open Source Projects – with the Random Information Exchange Alpha 0.2
image 3: Mark Pilkington Live at Open Source City
image 4: Workshop: Making Music with Pure:Dyne