Week 20: Beyond Participation: Toward Massively Collaborative Worlds of Art

Hi Everyone,

This Tuesday is another event in a year-long series of weekly conversations and exhibits in 2010 shedding light on examples of Plausible Artworlds.

This week we’ll be talking with Carl Skelton of the Brooklyn Experimental Media Center, co-initiator (with Martin Koplin, University of Applied Sciences, Bremen) of Beyond Participation: Toward Massively Collaborative Worlds of Art. The project focuses on the case study of the digital platform Betaville.

While in recent weeks, we have tended to celebrate usership and participation, these terms may be fraught with a side-effect that Betaville is designed to prevent: the implicit acceptance of a separation between active designers, determinant clients, and taking-it-or-leaving-it-end-users.

The extensibility of concepts and practices of “participatory culture” to fully peer-to-peer collaboration with citizens beyond the art world is a practical matter and a challenge to artists. The session chairs work together on Betaville, a massively multiplayer online environment for previsualization, development, and public participation in new proposals for public art, urban design and development – stretching the current “city limits” of participation by artists in public culture. With Betaville, the project seeks to enquire into “massive participation”, that is, an extreme form of relational aesthetics praxis, within which the role of the artwork is as a framework, rather than a procedure or product, and subject to evolution/adaptation at the behest of anyone with the gumption to do their own work with/on it.

Transcription

Week 20: Beyond Participation: Toward Massively Collaborative Worlds of Art

[Scott]: Hello there for those of you who are here already! It’s great to have you!

[Steven]: Hey Scott, hello! Good to hear your voice after all this time! It’s really great of you to be so quickly reactant and to be with us tonight. It’s going to be very interesting to talk to you.

[Carl]: And to year yours! I’m glad it will be interesting. I’m more than happy, if I get tipsy, to over share or go on to long.

[Scott]    Or give you enough rope to hang yourself with (laughing).

[Carl]: (inaudible 00:01:53)

[Scott]: We are looking at this page, the page that we put up to give a small introduction to everyone.

[Steven]: The one about the Yuengling Lager.

[Scott]: Yeah, we’re checking out the lager. For everybody who doesn’t know, maybe it would be worth introducing Carl, Steven?

[Steven]: Um, I think I’m just going to let Carl jump right in here. But I have to say that Carl is, I don’t know if it’s relevant information or not, Carl runs a very interesting department. Department which I thought was called the Integrated Digital Media Department which is an experimental media center in Brooklyn.

(Inaudible/Silence 00:02:42 - 00:05:04)

[Scott]: I sort of, I followed some of it. I just don’t know the back story on some of it.

[Carl]: Anyway, (inaudible 00:05:18 – audio feed lost)

(Inaudible/Silence 00:05:19 – 0:08:12.2)

[Scott]: Carl, what is that? Sorry, the spirit of what?

[Carl]: (inaudible 0:08:00).

[Scott]: Oh, okay.

[Carl]: So, you know, it’s like (audio feed lost 0:08:22.8)

(Inaudible/Silence 0:08:22.8 -0:14:29.0)

[Scott]: Yeah, yeah. I definitely have a couple questions but I think other people have a few questions too. Maybe we’ll just write them down, you know, just quick notes and we’ll…

[Steven]: I’ve just been posting a few notes as I’ve been following along Carl (Audio feel lost 0:14:50.09

(Inaudible/Silence 0:14:50.09 0 – 0:15:21.4)

[Scott]: Um, do have it just locally or is it online somewhere?

[Carl]: Um, I think I have it locally, I’m not sure.

[Scott]: Yeah, if it’s not a humungous file, what will happen is if you drag it into your Skype window it will send it to everyone in here which probably will be good unless their gigantic..

[Carl]: Okay, let me just…

[Scott]: You know if it’s over a megabyte or two, it might take a little while, otherwise its fine to drop it in.

[Carl]: I don’t know it’s something crazy like that. Hold on a second.

[Scott]: Okay.

[Carl]: So what (Audio feed lost 0:16:00.3.

(Inaudible/Silence 0:16:00:03 – 0:16:17.5)

[Scott]: Oh no. What we have is just 300 and something kb.

[Carl]: Can you see it?

[Scott]: It’s downloading now. Skype isn’t the greatest file transfer thing, but it’ll probably be here in a minute or so.

[Carl]: Okay, so we’ll see how that goes.

[Scott]: Cool.

(Inaudible/Silence 0:16:42.4 -0:19:02.0)

[Scott]: Carl, do mind if we post this image up on the webpage for the people who can’t get them?

[Carl]: That’s fine.

[Scott]: Okay. (Inaudible 0:19:15.8) for real (laughing).

(Inaudible/Silence 0:19:20.2 -0:29:56.2)

[Scott] Q: Carl, do you often think fifty years in advance?

[Carl] A: Well, you know, it’s a funny thing. Brooklyn (audio feed lost 0:30:04.3)

(Inaudible/Silence 0:30:04.3 – 0:30:40.09)

[Scott]: (Laughing) right, definitely

[Carl]: We should start an (Audio feed lost 0:30:44.2)

(Inaudible/Silence 0:30:44.2 -0:32:30.8)

[Scott]: I’m not sure.

[Carl]: Hugh Ferris (Audio feed lost 0:32:36.3)

(Inaudible/Silence 0:32:36.3 -0:35:24.7)

[Scott] Q: So Carl, how can, this is my lack of understanding about Betaville and this project. But how can tools like this are used to encourage people to be involved? And large scale public art projects used to discourage that definition of sustainability or the same kinds of ideas or the same kinds of approaches?

[Carl]: Because the (Audio feed lost 0:35:59.2)

(Inaudible/Silence 0:35:59.2 -0:45:48.6)

[Scott]: Carl, we have a…

(Male Audience Member): I just want to say that (Audio feed lost 0:45:51.9)

(Inaudible/Silence 0:45:51.9 -0:53:32.4)

[Scott]: And this is where you can leverage things like open source technology.

[Carl]: Okay, so (Lost audio feed 0:53:45.8)

(Inaudible/Silence 0:53:45.8 -1:02:33.8)

[Scott]: We’re doing great. I think we have like a zillion questions sort of queued up if we can go back and try to address them. I not sure exactly where to start except that someone here has a question so maybe we should start with that and we can just kind of start going backwards.

[Carl]: Sure.

[Chris]: Yeah, I’m thinking, I don’t know if you’re familiar with Tom (inaudible 1:02:59.5) and things like that. I’m wondering, like, how long would anybody stay in Sims City live? Would it only be like a month and then everything would change and die or something? Like they are with the others?

[Carl]: Well, I mean, let me say that first, without a doubt something like that is hard. There are enough people that have to (inaudible 1:03:31.2) that they don’t have to make each other crazy about it. Like 4 or 500 obsessed persons per generations. You might see that (inaudible1:03:45.4) which is very active. But you might want to use it to develop a particular contact. Uh, and part (inaudible 1:03:59.4) So they may want to do that and repeat that over the course of the year or (inaudible 1:04:13.6) might be interested to live within a particular district and they might start playing with thing instead of bridge or batch ball or something like that (inaudible 1:04:33.0) recreational form, in that sense. And so, what we’re figuring, really, is that there will be (inaudible 1:04:49.0 – 1:06:13.8).

[Chris]: Oh, okay.

[Carl]: (inaudible then lost audio feed 1:06:21.8)

(Inaudible/Silence 1:06:21.8 -1:06:37.8)

[Chris]: But would they grow old and die and everything?

[Carl]: Oh (inaudible 1:06:39.0)

[Chris]: I mean would they, do they stay a set age or do they go through a whole life process?

[Carl]: Um, well, okay. This (inaudible 1:06:58.0). What if we would make a prototype that would actually…? (Inaudible 1:07:04.1)

(Inaudible 1:07:04.1 – 1:10:31.8)

[Chris]: Oh. Okay.

[Carl]: And I know a lot of people would do that kind of thing (inaudible 1:10:38.1)

[Scott]: I was actually backing up in reverse through the last hour of chat and I think the first question that really didn’t get addressed, or directly, maybe it didn’t. Erin was asking if this was a consensus process and that’s always something I’m curious about in any group process because it defines a lot of things, or at least it points to other interesting questions. I don’t know if you’ve read this one yet, but basically how are decisions made through this? Do people do this as a group and then kind of get a lot out of that like a consensus or is it sort of like every person for themselves. You know, encouraging more activity through autonomy.

[Carl]: Um, (Audio feed lost 1:11:49.2).

[Scott]: Okay, is a process of how these things get built, is that something that is not being sort of an issue right now is that being built into the idea then or is that something that is sort of yet to be determined?

[Carl]: (Audio feed lost 1:12:24.5)

(Inaudible/Silence 1:12:24.5 -1:18:13.5)

[Steven]…public (Lost audio feed 1:18:14.4)

(Inaudible/Silence 1:18:14.4 -1:25:41.8)

[Scott]: (Laughing) well a lot of things just came out maybe in the last two minutes. I don’t think I’m that slow but I sort of want to address them but there are people who asked things earlier. So, I am scanning and there have been a lot of text discussion that we haven’t really addressed yet.

[Steven]: I think what’s interesting, Carl, is that (Audio feed lost 1:26:09.6).

(Inaudible/Silence 1:26:09.6 -1:26:20.5)

(Laughter)

[Steven]: I think whets intriguing about you’re proposal, I mean, it’s obviously (Audio feed lost 1:26:40.8)

(Inaudible/Silence 1:26:40.8 -1:27:48.6)

[Scott]: Steven, are you asking if it’s mainly discursive or if it’s sort of byproducts or mainly a conversation or if it has some practical benefit as an application?

[Steven]: Well, I kind of get the sense (Audio feed lost 1:28:03.0)

(Inaudible/Silence 1:28.03.0 -1:32:00.4)

[Scott]: Definitely a lot of tee shirts can be made from this conversation (laughing). Yeah, maybe we can use the application to design them.

(Laughter)

[Scott]: That was a question I had earlier, actually a couple of technical ones. I almost hate to ask them now because the conversation that comes out of it seems, you know, kind of what you said Steven. At least half of it, right? At least part of what can come out of this is that there is a contemplative value of this as an art project. We’re supposed to have a conversation internally or with other people and something interesting come out of that, maybe unpredictable. Also, like you both said, there is something specific that this is going to do to and I guess that’s where the practical stuff comes in. So, I was curious about scale. And Chris was asking earlier about time and that side of things. I think you kind of address it but I’m not sure. Like, you know, I mean we haven’t really used this but are this kind of like a… There was an emphasis on a grand scale and I was just kind of curious. Public art projects are, and the way this was described as sort of extending some ideas that were popularized by reflationary aesthetics. I think you’re talking about artist social practice and I was curious.

[Carl]: Yeah, you don’t want to (inaudible 1:33:42.9)

[Scott]: No, no, no. Not at all.   I guess I was trying to sort of frame it without getting sort of trapped inside a whirlpool of conversation that is uninteresting. There’s a focus on art as a social practice on some level. It sounds like it. But also a focus on public art and on structures and the built environment. And I was curious form an application stand point, what kind of things this could… A lot of art as social practice is people and like small things. I was curious if that could be a part.

[Carl]: Gosh I hope so.

[Scott]: Okay (laughing).

[Carl]: The thing that I can think of that would be really cool to happen either specifically or just in terms of situation types. But, do you know what I mean?

[Scott]: Yeah.

[Carl]: But it really doesn’t detail a whole lot (inaudible 1:34:49.1 – 1:34:59.1)

[Scott]: Do you need beta testers?

[Carl]: YES! Yes! Omigod!

[Scott]: (Laughing) okay.

[Carl]: And (Audio feed lost 1:35:07.2)

(Inaudible/Silence 1:35:07.2 -1:38:04.6)

[Scott]: Well, definitely. All the time. And I wouldn’t want to either open an invitation that’s not there or open anyone in this conversation to take the responsibility as a beta tester, but I know that a lot of people here are involved in these kinds of projects generally. Some of us are involved in virtual worlds, one kind or another. Some of us are also developers and others are involved in these projects without any kind of virtualization at all. It just seemed like the application itself, I mean every system or micro system has its own… Something comes out of it in response to the way that it’s built. Or at least you sort of see the limits and potentials, partly through the way that it’s set up. And I was just curious to get in and sort of dork around with it I guess.

[Carl]: Do it.

[Scott]: (Laughing) Okay! How do we do that?

[Carl]: Absolutely (inaudible 1:39:14.7).

[Scott]: Okay. Should everybody who is interested send you an email or should we try to follow up on the discussion list we have? What do you think is a good way to do it?

[Carl]: Okay, we can…

[Scott]: Well, you can sort of think about it later. I know that you didn’t have a lot of lead time to prepare for follow up (laughing). I think it was something like a few hours maybe.

[Carl]: Wait a minute! Hold on a second. Hold on please! There are at least two Canadians on this call and we’re like nice and smart. Can I ask some questions?

[Scott]: Oh definitely. Yes, please do. We should, I think everybody involved to should feel not necessarily as a presenter, although it’s great to have gotten all the information about this but I think a conversation is definitely called for.

[Carl]: Okay, Scott, what do you do?

[Scott]: I’m a collaborative artist and organizer and wear other hats, you know? I’m a person. I’m part of this group called BaseKamp in Philly, or, based in Philly. We also run a space here and work with people in different places, like Steven and other people on this call, a few of them. Like Adam who lives in Tennessee and Salem who lives in Chicago and Meg who is here and lives in Philly, and other people who are present and elsewhere. And what our group focuses on is group activity and mainly collaborative in the creative culture sphere. For lack of a better term. Yeah, we have an organization that’s sort of set up for that and have been doing it for twelve years and we do different kinds of projects, that we can sort of get into later. But that’s sort of the main thrust that I do and usually tell people about.

[Carl]: I’m going to have to Google the whole place.

[Scott]: Yeah (laughing) yeah, totally. We could definitely as a follow up, we could use all sorts of methods, but a quick and easy way would be to use this mailing list that we have. We could also use the comments on your webpage to do it. Unless somebody has a better suggestion on where to do that. But anyone interested should totally do it.

[Carl]: Absolutely. Send me in email (inaudible 1:42:25.4)

[Scott]: Okay, yeah. Could you, yeah. I could actually post that. Okay. And in fact, I want to encourage you to ask the other things that you wanted to because I know we started a few minutes late, but we often end exactly at 8:00 just to be nice to the people who are not in our time zone and who would be interested enough to stay up until ass o’clock in the morning. We want to encourage them to come back for the whole year. But, since you started late, maybe I should just throw that out there that anyone who really needs to go should definitely feel comfortable just sort of heading because it’s just chimed 8:00. But if you want to stay around for a few minutes we could time box it to like five minutes or something. Then you could still get into your questions because I’m still curious.

[Carl]: Technically we do mostly undigital stuff, so to speak. Digitally supported. Anybody coding on here?

[Scott]: Yeah, a number of us at BaseKamp code, but historically most of what we’ve done is use digital tools. We’ve sort of mashed them up, not even as a focus. Just for practical benefit because most of the people we work with are in desperate locations sometimes. But largely what we’ve done has been stuff like in real space with real people, um, meet space. But now, weirdly, after all this time and being involved in open source culture, a number of us are involved in open source software experimentation and work as day jobs too.

[Carl]: Oh, cool. Do you want to hear a happy Google story?

[Scott]: Okay.

[Carl]: Okay, so (Audio feed lost 1:44:32.0)

(Inaudible/Silence 1:44:32.0 -1:48:00.7)

[Scott]: Yeah, it may be worth mentioning, Carl, that we’ve basically chosen that, I hate to use the work “platform” but as a platform of choice for a lot of the work that we do culturally and otherwise. I don’t want to go on about this because we actually are about to get into, probably we should end this. But I just wanted to mention that we have been doing this open triple studio where we both have a kind of open learning exchange, kind of along these lines. People also help to make sites for commercial stuff to help fund our space and what we do as kind of an exchange for learning this stuff with us. And we also do pro-bono projects. So, it’s something that may be good to talk about together.

[Carl]: (inaudible 1:49:12.9)

(Inaudible/Silence 1:49:12.9 -1:53:16.5)

[Scott]: Yeah, absolutely. I won’t assume that you’re not privy to it because maybe you’re really active on there, but there is a lot of effort in the druple community or using druple as an educational platform. But increasingly lately, and maybe you’re really in agreement with that. But if you’re not, we’d be really psyched to connect with you on that point.

[Carl]: It’s huge. It’s HUGE! I mean (inaudible 1:53:36.8)

[Scott]: I think maybe we can end on this point only because I can see the capacity for us to just go like totally nuts now.

[Carl]: Yeah, I think we could talk till 6:00 am.

[Scott]: (Laughing) but we should definitely all stay up till 6:00 am and drink heavily and keep talking, just not on this Skype chat. But, it’s been really great.

(Inaudible background comment 1:55:23.4)

[Steven]: Here, it’s about 2:15 am so I’m going to have to…

[Scott]: Yeah, I’m going to take my rollers and moderator and say we should end this particular one. Yeaahhhhhhh.

[Steven]: And Carl, you’re invited to join us every Thursday night at the same hour and I think we have a definite infinities and people were having interest. So I think it would be really great to, if you have time, to drop by any of our potlucks.

[Carl]: Alright, I will.

[Steven]: We’ll definitely be in touch in the future about Betaville (inaudible 1:56:15.8).

[Carl]: And one thing on that point and it comes from (inaudible 1:56:28.1) is that (inaudible 1:56:29.7) through the TAA next February and If you guys want to be in on that then my all means, let us know (inaudible 1:56:50.1).

[Steven]: That’d be cool.

[Scott]: Yeah, we should definitely chat. Thanks so much Carl.

[Carl]: My pleasure.

[Scott]: We won’t hesitate to follow up.

[Carl]: Cool, I’ll be ready.

[Scott]: Bye everybody, thank you all for coming

END OF TRANSCRIPTION
1:57:19.7
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Backchannel

Chat History with basekamp/$aa0b248a22c6b97d" title="#basekamp/$aa0b248a22c6b97d">Beyond Participation: Toward Massively Collaborative Worlds of Art http://bit.ly/cFtVyb (#basekamp/$aa0b248a22c6b97d)

Created on 2010-05-18 20:30:59.

BASEKAMP team: 17:59:28: hi everyone -- how are you all doing tonight?
BASEKAMP team: 17:59:48: we're waiting on a few people -- namely, tonight's guest ]
stephen wright: 18:00:23: Hello all
Jason Wilson: 18:00:28: hi hi
BASEKAMP team: 18:00:38: hi Stephen
Cecilia Guida: 18:00:38: hi
bojana romic: 18:00:40: hello!
Greg Scranton: 18:00:59: hello all
Greg Scranton: 18:02:35: Stephen thanks so much for your poignant and insightful email to Nick!
stephen wright: 18:03:21: Hi Greg -- not at all, thanks to Nick for his interest. Hope to pursue that conversation
BASEKAMP team: 18:04:01: btw have you all had a chance to take a quick look at the webpage describing tonight's chat?
BASEKAMP team: 18:04:09: http://bit.ly/cFtVyb
BASEKAMP team: 18:04:44: here at the Basekamp space, things are slightly slow... weather is rainy again
BASEKAMP team: 18:04:54: but, there's beer on the table! and some food...
BASEKAMP team: 18:05:32
Carl Skelton: 18:06:44: Hi everybody! Carl here in NYC
BASEKAMP team: 18:06:45: some of you may have noticed we sent out the announcement a few hours before our get-together tonight
BASEKAMP team: 18:06:57: hi Carl !
stephen wright: 18:06:59: Hello Carl!
bojana romic: 18:07:05: hi!
stephen wright: 18:07:14: Yes, Carl kind of saved the night!
BASEKAMP team: 18:07:19: indeed
Carl Skelton: 18:07:29: My apologies for being a bit late, I've had an advneture
stephen wright: 18:07:30: THough he had a longer standing invitation
stephen wright: 18:07:47: Tell us carl, what happened to you on the way to P@W?
BASEKAMP team: 18:07:51: no worries Carl
BASEKAMP team: 18:07:56: chuckles
BASEKAMP team: 18:08:22: just to help make this smoother -- would everyone mind holding tight for a minute or two while we call Carl to test audio?
BASEKAMP team: 18:08:32: are you set up for that Carl?
Carl Skelton: 18:08:40: Had to load Windows on top of 389 GB to run an experimental chat client to field test in Haiti... and get across town in a downpour
BASEKAMP team: 18:09:00: you made it though!
Carl Skelton: 18:09:32: Absolutely.
stephen wright: 18:09:41: Are you then going to call us, Basekamp?
BASEKAMP team: 18:10:04: yes
Greg Scranton: 18:12:23: slaats!
BASEKAMP team: 18:13:19: ok, so who's ready for a call?
atrowbri: 18:13:30: <----
bojana romic: 18:13:45
BASEKAMP team: 18:13:48: and... are any of you all eating or drinking where you are?
Carl Skelton: 18:13:55: should we?
atrowbri: 18:14:01: rum+coke
Carl Skelton: 18:14:07: brb
BASEKAMP team: 18:14:08: w00t
stephen wright: 18:14:08: Yeah, here it's beer at midnight
Greg Scranton: 18:14:33: ready. I have green tea from the fine dining establisment "WaWa"
BASEKAMP team: 18:14:37: this is where we're at: http://87coop.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/yuengling-lager-002.jpg
Matthew Slaats: 18:14:53: It's never too early for a gin and tonic.
Greg Scranton: 18:15:37: Stephen, yes I will surely follow up with Nick and should anything come of it feed it back onto you. Thx again.
Carl Skelton: 18:15:41: Okay I'm back with a little bit of St. Chinian (did I spell that right?)
BASEKAMP team: 18:15:57: very nice!
stephen wright: 18:16:04: Spelling's good, how's the taste?
BASEKAMP team: 18:16:16: ok, we'll just call everyone - even the few of you who can't or don't want to pick up can just not pick up
Carl Skelton: 18:16:18: I'm enjoying it!
BASEKAMP team: 18:16:39
Greg Scranton: 18:16:45: do it BK!
Greg Scranton: 18:17:58: whoa!!!!!
BASEKAMP team: 18:18:05: http://bit.ly/cFtVyb
BASEKAMP team: 18:19:47: howdy megfrisch
Meg Frisch: 18:19:54: waves
BASEKAMP team: 18:21:27: also eating http://www.nexternal.com/vegane/images/TingsNewImageXL.jpg
atrowbri: 18:22:14: did they get your permission to use your likeness on that Scott??
Meg Frisch: 18:22:31: !
BASEKAMP team: 18:22:50: atrowbri -- LLLOOOOLLLLL
BASEKAMP team: 18:23:01: we're also eating http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll14/lollerkates/511483941_1740fca525...
BASEKAMP team: 18:23:26: and listening to http://jmonkeyengine.com/blog/betaville/
BASEKAMP team: 18:23:48: L –O-O– KING at i mean
Meg Frisch: 18:23:50: thanks for the contextual visuals!
Meg Frisch: 18:24:10: helps ...
BASEKAMP team: 18:24:11: what r u eating mf?
Aharon: 18:24:24: oh.. got lost the audio..
BASEKAMP team: 18:24:36: ok rea-adding you aha
Aharon: 18:24:43: ta
stephen wright: 18:25:31: RFC?
BASEKAMP team: 18:26:00: for those only on text, FRC = request for comment
BASEKAMP team: 18:26:17: Carl is also talking about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds
bojana romic: 18:26:31: audio lost
BASEKAMP team: 18:26:41: bojana asking re-adding you
stephen wright: 18:28:26: everybody knows that open software really works, whereas public participation in urban space projects doesn't. So we need to vulgarize the capacity of artists to try out their ideas in open source logistics and platforms.
Aharon: 18:29:58: is this an exercise in concensus making?
stephen wright: 18:31:04: low overhead of producing digital prototypes, plus ready availability of models -- makes this online game a way of versioning ideas for urban space
BASEKAMP team: 18:31:38: * by vulgarize do you only mean to make readily available, to popularize, or to make a lot more coarse (etc)?
stephen wright: 18:31:43: taking on relational esthetics in a project where 98% of people have no idea it is even art
Aharon: 18:32:02: kinda sense.. do u want to make sense..?
BASEKAMP team: 18:32:13: bak in greg?
bojana romic: 18:32:25: (I still miss audio, sorry...)
BASEKAMP team: 18:32:30: another Q -- * what is the minimum size of the proposals - we can see the max size can be really large - but are public art / size concerns built intp the software?
stephen wright: 18:32:53: just post it
Greg Scranton: 18:33:15: yes ty bk
Carl Skelton: 18:33:20: posted file v14.11.png to members of this chat<files alt=""><file size="379676" index="0">v14.11.png</file></files>
Aharon: 18:33:40: i wonder how do u think it mi8 work if one/single person "participated in that mass project..
Aharon: 18:33:49: oh
Aharon: 18:34:01: well.. u gotta b friends to c the dld
BASEKAMP team: 18:34:32: Q: also - earlier you mentioned open source economics - i think - just curious about if and where finances come into play here
stephen wright: 18:36:12: Sim City for real!
BASEKAMP team: 18:36:14: we're looking at the image now
BASEKAMP team: 18:36:37: fur reals
Aharon: 18:37:26: is the img on the site?
stephen wright: 18:38:50: Scott, where did you put the image online?
BASEKAMP team: 18:39:03: almost up...
stephen wright: 18:39:08: ok
BASEKAMP team: 18:39:41: uploading to main page
BASEKAMP team: 18:39:45: ok - it's there: http://basekamp.com/about/events/beyond-participation-toward-massively-c...
BASEKAMP team: 18:39:51: click on the 2nd image from the top everyone
stephen wright: 18:41:07: average computer is now able to deal with sophisticated 3d imagery, and can use free software that'll make a game that looks as good and acts as good as high priced game software
Jason Wilson: 18:41:36: where does the geodata come from? the city?
Aharon: 18:42:42: paying?? not always..
BASEKAMP team: 18:44:29: 26:45 that is incredibly quotable Carl
Aharon: 18:44:38: ..but we have more energy for game than so called reality.. thats a given..
stephen wright: 18:44:42: big time time / energy available -- if one considers the amount already invested in Sim City etc as opposed to how much time / energy exists in a human lifetime
Aharon: 18:48:30: how long ahead is too long atime..?
BASEKAMP team: 18:48:38: we will try to queue up the questions... there have been a few here
Aharon: 18:49:11: u make me feel like a teanager, carl..
Aharon: 18:49:21: teen even.. lol
BASEKAMP team: 18:49:22: BTW, Miachael @ basekamp is involved in a project in New York seeking proposals that have a 100 year span
Aharon: 18:49:50: no id
BASEKAMP team: 18:50:34: http://www.google.com/images?q=hugh%20ferriss
Cecilia Guida: 18:50:55: thanks
stephen wright: 18:51:03: very good point!
stephen wright: 18:51:40: sustainability -- a euphimism for "same old shit" as long as you can get away with it!
stephen wright: 18:52:40: as soon as there is an image in a debate, that's what it's about. So we need to get collective images into collective debates if they are to be collective and proactive
Aharon: 18:54:04: how do u know all these things in terms of how things will/will not happen?? r u based these ideas on what, a research? what kind of research? a vision? not sure what all the axioms are based on..
Aharon: 18:55:12: (these things = the effects that you thing will happen..)
stephen wright: 18:55:57: straight out of Constant's New Babylon, but part of a participatory game of what is intended
BASEKAMP team: 18:56:02: Carl talkign about Constant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Babylon_(Constant_Nieuwenhuys)
BASEKAMP team: 18:56:34: images http://www.google.com/images?q=constant+new+babylon
stephen wright: 18:59:30: providing some public oversight into use of public space while allowing / encouraging unfettered imagination around public project making.
stephen wright: 19:00:51: I got dropped
stephen wright: 19:00:56: can you call me back?
stephen wright: 19:02:09: help -- I can't hear anything! Please call me!
BASEKAMP team: 19:02:20: calling
stephen wright: 19:02:26: thanx
BASEKAMP team: 19:02:38: sry for delay - went to get a beer while listening!
stephen wright: 19:02:58: good reason
Aharon: 19:03:25: u presuppose certain things will affect in the way you want.. the whole point in life is that only dead things react that way.. where is the unknown in this stuff?? only the input??
BASEKAMP team: 19:05:16: btw, also eating http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/dwinkles-old-fashioned-pecan-s...
Aharon: 19:05:22: (stephen.. scott n i r doing vote-swaps..)
BASEKAMP team: 19:05:56: and http://farm1.static.flickr.com/8/10785568_27d5d70c2a.jpg
BASEKAMP team: 19:06:07: aharon, yes - do you want to mention this?
Aharon: 19:06:28: was that a secret?
BASEKAMP team: 19:06:41: aharon - no - i mean, might be good to mention out loud
BASEKAMP team: 19:06:51: btw, there is another park-related question here - a technical question about the software
stephen wright: 19:07:18: We have some questions in queue. Let's take them one at a time.
Aharon: 19:07:18: oh. well.. u can tlk of it as well or better than i can
BASEKAMP team: 19:09:10: Catherine, calling you now
BASEKAMP team: 19:12:21: Kris here has a question - about the paarts of your application that represent the natural world rather than the built elements -
BASEKAMP team: 19:12:54: is time represented - for example, does grass grow like a tamagotchi?
Aharon: 19:13:23: it is interesting how we ppl in general tend to imagine stuff based upon what we think is the cutting edge of tech in our time.. the amount of refs to "open source" nowadays kind of reminds me how the term "frame" was used in the 80's when video seemed really advanced stuff.. or how, everything was a system before it turned into networks and then platforms.. or historically, how the universe was a clock work just after clocks became wide spread and seemed high tech..
stephen wright: 19:14:29: Let me try and formulate a question about the "undigital" potential of all this. One of the most interesting things about our potluck with Freenode people -- major advocates, users and developers of open source software -- is how down-to-earth they are (for geeks). It is a way of life, as if it didn't matter if we were online or in the street, 2.0 or 0.0. What is the potential for using/ doing Massive collaboration without the technology? Maybe there isn't the possibility. But what is the degree of technical determinism here?
stephen wright: 19:16:30: so this is a way of bypassing expert culture.
Catherine Page Harris: 19:17:06: I'm interested in the translations, and retranslations of what seems like freedom in the virtual world, which is actually scripted by technology, and the analog world, the world of cars and freeways and houses and dinner and local food and networks sit on the ground. I like the idea of doing Massive collaboration as street action, as innovation in farmer's markets. We need to be down to earth, to learn our localities.
Aharon: 19:17:27: not much of an expert bypass.. in both ways, stephen..
Catherine Page Harris: 19:18:33: Stephen, all culture is expert and all culture is amateur.
Aharon: 19:18:43: cos many times u need to exhibit some expertees to b a meaningful cog in the "community" - for one
BASEKAMP team: 19:18:51: Catherine i know you have to go soon - it was good to have you - would be interesting to have you in on the discussion a bit more at some point
Catherine Page Harris: 19:19:04: I look forward to it!
stephen wright: 19:19:17: Catherine says: all culture is expert and all culture is amateur.
stephen wright: 19:19:36: well tell that to the people who have to live with their expert decisions imposed on them
stephen wright: 19:19:44: who were never consulted
Aharon: 19:20:19: what do u all think it might mean when a person/group thinks they can engineer society..?
stephen wright: 19:20:44: I think there are is already a class of people who think that!
BASEKAMP team: 19:20:47: ^_^
stephen wright: 19:20:48: the expert class
Catherine Page Harris: 19:21:27: I do have to go, but I usually find that public process often hopes to invite everyone to the table, but somehow ends up with very few stakeholders able to come to it -- I guess I'm thinking about public process in landscape architecture which I've spent some years in and around. I think that experts are often just well educated amateurs and often well meaning. But perhaps that is too much optimism. Then there are awful examples of experts who fail...
Catherine Page Harris: 19:21:35: good bye and more soon!
BASEKAMP team: 19:22:19: till then
Greg Scranton: 19:24:05: sorry guys need to cut out. lil man needs food. many thx Carl et al.
stephen wright: 19:24:30: see ya greg
Greg Scranton: 19:25:29: I will be @ BK next Tue Scott. Will bring "country women" book to scan/return to Brett & Bonnie then.
BASEKAMP team: 19:25:31: later greggg!
Greg Scranton: 19:25:37: bye Stephen.
BASEKAMP team: 19:25:51: ah ok -- great! -- though -- i think they're in a little more of a rush than that :/
BASEKAMP team: 19:25:59: maybe Fedex? we can talk after
BASEKAMP team: 19:27:35: So how are decisions made in and around this application?
BASEKAMP team: 19:27:40: Is it a protracted yet meaningful concensus process?
BASEKAMP team: 19:27:57: Or is it a "Do-ocracy", where everyone is free to step up as they're able and willing?
BASEKAMP team: 19:31:16: the 'objects' and context in the virtual world = the 'current state of the conversation'? or is there an a place for other kinds of discussio (text, audio, etc?)
stephen wright: 19:33:46: but concensus is not then the telos, not the goal and finality of the process?
bojana romic: 19:33:48: I have to go, it's very late here. Great talk, thanks!
BASEKAMP team: 19:34:32: see you next time Bojana!
stephen wright: 19:34:50: good night Bojana
bojana romic: 19:34:58: sure thing!
Aharon: 19:35:25: so.. in order for something to be done there needs to be a general agreement - in this case, what are the mechanisms that make sure it is not a dictatorship of the users/the-many? what is there to support the individual??
Jason Wilson: 19:36:17: gotta run, will definitely be involved in conversations and thoughts
BASEKAMP team: 19:36:28: aharon's question is sort of the opposite of stephen's current question on audio...
Aharon: 19:37:54: not sure if the opposite.. more like another fascet, i think
BASEKAMP team: 19:39:38: similar question - yes, maybe focusing on another point in the discussion
stephen wright: 19:40:09: Here is the example I was thinking about -- the Karl Lueger statue.

Karl Lueger to be tilted

The winner of the competition to Transform the Karl Lueger Statue into a Monument Against Anti-Semitism and Racism in Austria proposes that the statue be reset with a permanent tilt.

From the 220 international proposals submitted, the jury selected the design by Viennese artist Klemens Wihlidal. It envisages that the statue, and a part of the plinth on which it stands, will be tilted to the right by 3.5°. The jury stated that the reason for their selection was the fact that the design made the City of Vienna’s attitude to Karl Lueger clear and also showed the current state of discussion. Both Karl Lueger as a person and the statue’s reception are (more than) a little unbalanced. The intervention breaks the vertical character of the monument and thus questions the myth of Karl Lueger as a Viennese father figure. The tilting is also indicative of the problems the City has in its dealings with its anti-Semitic past.

According to Wihlidal the transformation “…irritates the viewer. The monument becomes involved in turbulences intended to provoke the question: what is going to happen to it now? Contrary to the situation when a monument is pulled down, the tipping transforms the statue into a memorial.”

The working group and its supporters now demand that it be implemented. In a few weeks the design will be handed over to the City of Vienna at the City Hall. Thus the motion can be put by those responsible in the Vienna City Council before the summer break.

Negotiations are underway with the artists so that all the submitted proposals can be prepared for presentation on the website (www.luegerplatz.com). In addition a publication and an exhibition is planned for autumn 2010 / spring 2011.
Aharon: 19:40:50: one of the interesting things that come to mind, is that actually, making virtual elements in the public space, can do away with the need to even question consensus, because the physicality of things do not play..
stephen wright: 19:40:53: Like the basekamp website!! Tilted!!
BASEKAMP team: 19:42:26: ^^ indeed Stephen!
BASEKAMP team: 19:42:50: http://basekamp.com/ =

/* Disorient me */

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  -webkit-transform: rotate(-3deg);

  -moz-transform: rotate(-3deg);

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BASEKAMP team: 19:45:41: a serious joke
BASEKAMP team: 19:46:28: "the idea of art being a serious proposition is kinky"
stephen wright: 19:46:49: who said that?!
BASEKAMP team: 19:47:32: ^^ ? i think Carl did -- slightly paraphrased
stephen wright: 19:48:09: "it doesn't have to be theater"
stephen wright: 19:48:43: we're having a blast already. And it might work!
BASEKAMP team: 19:48:49: if all i thought would come out of this is a negative hegelian dialectic 2.0, i wouldn;t be working this hard
Aharon: 19:49:06: what do u think makes it art even if it "works"??
stephen wright: 19:53:14: We've talked about participation, usership, the "built environment" as Scott nicely calls it. And we've done it in respect to a plausible type of artworld which we haven't explored at all before: a virtual-based one. But one which acknowledges it virtual status.
Carl Skelton: 19:59:52: carl@ultratopia.com
stephen wright: 20:01:41: got dropped again
BASEKAMP team: 20:01:48: htttp://drupal.org/
stephen wright: 20:01:49: can you call me back.......
BASEKAMP team: 20:01:53: calling u back stephen
Cecilia Guida: 20:02:08: scott i should go (here it's 2 a.m.). thanks. i'll talk/join you next tuesday. bye bye
BASEKAMP team: 20:02:18: see you soon Cecilia!
BASEKAMP team: 20:02:21: great to have you here
BASEKAMP team: 20:02:23: hey
BASEKAMP team: 20:02:27: cecilia
Matthew Slaats: 20:02:32: Great talk - Have to run off to vote for the school budget. Hope to catch you next week.
BASEKAMP team: 20:02:36: speking of drupalare you still in Copenhagen?
BASEKAMP team: 20:03:17: we would like to come to the next Drupalcon in CPH, and may be good to hang out at Learning Site while there
Cecilia Guida: 20:03:25: great to join you, as usual! interesting presentation. good night!
BASEKAMP team: 20:04:11: http://cph2010.drupal.org/
BASEKAMP team: 20:04:26: Cecilia ^^ we can follow up about that
BASEKAMP team: 20:04:56: Learning site link: http://www.learningsite.info/
Cecilia Guida: 20:04:56: yessss! for sure.
BASEKAMP team: 20:05:02
BASEKAMP team: 20:05:08: maybe a residency... we can talk
Cecilia Guida: 20:05:45: a residency??!
Cecilia Guida: 20:05:51: why not...
Aharon: 20:07:27: java is very restrictive - isnt it?
Aharon: 20:08:02: i mean.. compair to perl or python.. even php come to think..
Aharon: 20:08:22: y is it written in java?
BASEKAMP team: 20:09:05: BTW.. it's coming soon so thought I'd throw this out there- --- FOSSCON is still looking for peopel to set up "tables" and present experimental and truly social projects http://fosscon.org/ on June 19th @ Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY.
stephen wright: 20:09:29: we need to talk about that scott
BASEKAMP team: 20:09:43: i mention in part because we're talking about Free and Open Source Software, and that Basekamp is giving the keynote speech (with close collaborators of course)
BASEKAMP team: 20:09:50: Stephen yes
Aharon: 20:09:51: int link - ta scott
stephen wright: 20:10:19: I'm in Amsterdam tomorrow night -- maybe we can skype briefly around 6pm?
BASEKAMP team: 20:12:01: re Drupal & Moodle - http://www.drupaldelphia.com/sessions/2010/lightning-talks#comment-29
Aharon: 20:12:24: i c ur speakin there on foss scott..
Aharon: 20:12:30: nice
BASEKAMP team: 20:13:42: they put my name but it is noy onl yme Aharon - bsekampp sa group + collaborators
BASEKAMP team: 20:13:55: less of a keynote than a key - chord? or something
Aharon: 20:13:57: hum.. loox like orily and ubuntu sponsor that..
alemcj" title="salemcj">salem collo-julin: 20:14:16: gotta go, y'all. thanks
Aharon: 20:14:21: well.. a key.. aint too bad
Aharon: 20:14:26: thanks
Aharon: 20:14:32: ciao ya'all!
BASEKAMP team: 20:14:49: bi everyone!
BASEKAMP team: 20:15:25: See you next week!
Meg Frisch: 20:23:07: dance party?