"Userland" - The OpenMute Tour at the MediaShed, Southend-on-Sea

January 21st and 22nd, 2006 (Sat & Sun)

“OpenMute” is a set of free open source web tools and web hosting to help individuals and arts organisations to easily integrate web publishing and collaboration into their day to day practice. It has been developed by MUTE - the UK’s leading arts magazine covering digital media and culture, and supported by the Arts Council of England. Since its launch in 2004, the OpenMute software has been used to build over six hundred web sites.

The “Userland” touring workshops was designed to show how Free/Libre and Open Source software (FLOSS) like “OpenMute” is creating new possibilities for artists, non-profit and creative organisations to build web based and networked projects and organise themselves online. It consisted of two days in which complete beginners could find out what leading FLOSS based practitioners are doing and learn how they can use the software themselves.

Free Software + Free Web Space = Free Media

Each day consisted of a mixture of presentations, demonstrations and hands on workshops. MUTE magazine invited one of the foremost contemporary artists using open source Simon Yuill to give a talk on their work. Then in the workshops participants were shown how to use straightforward FLOSS tools including OpenMute to build web sites, create online media, collaborate more easily and reach an audience more effectively.

The two day programme:

Day 1 (Sat): Open Source and the Artist – Talks and Presentations

• AM – Mute members explain the history of Free and Open Source Software as a social movement, public knowledge base, design methodology and a model of cultural practice.
• AM – Workshops to show participants the variety of FLOSS packages to generate their own projects. Create images, video, audio and text using the FLOSS equivalents of Photoshop, iMovie, Audition, Dreamwaver and Microsoft Office. Copies of the software for use on any computer - LINUX, Windows, Macs - were taken away.
• PM – A presentation of some major cultural projects that have been completed using FLOSS.
• PM – Artists talk by the truly amazing SIMON YUILL, including an opportunity for an in depth discussion on his work (see details below).

Day 2 (Sun): OpenMute – workshop for artists and arts organisations.

• An all day hands on workshop on how to distribute your work on the web using the OpenMute FLOSS tools and their free web hosting services. Participants were able to create a dynamic web site including discussion groups, news feeds and online galleries. They learnt how such tools can generally help them to engage with their audience and/or work collaboratively.

Artist’s Talk Saturday 4:00pm – Simon Yuill.
Simon’s recent work includes “Spring Alpha” - an open source game like “SimCity” that allows players to rewrite it as they are playing it. Against the background story of a ‘social uprising’, players can experiment with simulated societies, creating new types of behaviour and social interaction in ways that are well beyond the limitations of commercial games.
www.spring-alpha.org