This week in Madrid, at the Libre Graphics Meeting 2013, I have the pleasure to share with Aldje van Meer and Deanna Herst some progress on one of my current work at the Willem de Kooning Academie: advising the “open source” domain, which is a collection of new specialisations and BA minors that relate to the topic of free culture and how the latter can be paired to classical studies in graphic design, animation, fine art, fashion, etc.
Next to that I will be also hosting a small meeting as a first step to develop an informal network of educators interested in sharing resources and keep each others updated with bits and bytes relevant to the practice of teaching free and open source software in art and design. Please drop by if you teach FLOSS art and design workshops as a freelance or as part of a course within formal education!
Both the presentation and the meeting happen Friday the 12th of May. More information on the LGM website.
Presentation and meeting blurb belows:
Willem de Kooning Academie strikes back: open source approach in art and design BA education
Aymeric Mansoux, Aldje van Meer, Deanna Herst
Three years after the LGM presentation “How to Run an Art School on Free and Open Source Software” that described the central role of free software and free culture in the networked media branch of the Media Design and Communication Master at the Piet Zwart Institute, today the Willem de Kooning Academie is back to share its current progress on a new and exciting challenge in its approach to formal education: the design of three new open source related curriculum for art and design BA students. In this presentation we will give you all the what, when, how and why aspects of these new courses and we hope to open up the discussion on topics rising from such a project, namely on the question of openness of open source driven curriculum, technological forecasting within art and design free software communities, hybrid proprietary and open source software environments, licensing and the use of free software tools and infrastructures in digital literacy.
Towards a network of free culture aware educators in art and design education
Aymeric Mansoux, Aldje van Meer, Deanna Herst
During the last decade, topics such as free culture and open knowledge have been increasingly present in formal education. The latter often manifests itself as: the choice of open source software for course preparation and assessments, the teaching of free software tools for art and design students, the use of free culture licenses for curriculum and research publications, the shift from top-down to bottom-up course structure, the transformation of classrooms into hacklabs, or simply the inspiration provided by free, libre and open source software development to approach art and design in a novel way. Regardless of the form, it is undeniable that the philosophy behind free software is transforming the academic field by its re-interpretation and re-contextualisation in art and design education. However, most of these efforts are often initiated by individual and groups who by either lack of knowledge or by “not invented here” pressure, tend to reinvent the wheel or miss opportunities to expand their educational palette, whether it is technical or conceptual. By hosting a meeting on this topic at LGM, the open source domain team at the Willem de Kooning Academie hopes to provide the first step towards the building of an international network of peers interested in the link between free culture and art and design education. More than a network with yet another platform, we want to think of a simple way to build upon each others experience and tap into everyone skills and specialisations when an educator tries to solve a concrete problem (which software can I use for this?), needs advice on a specific issue (what license to use for that?) or needs to be connected with a broader scene of artists and designers using free, libre and open source software (who can teach this?).