Interactivos?'13 Tools for a read-write world advissors' approaches

Approach by Libre Graphics Magazine

"The term "Libre Graphics" is packed with interesting meanings. It pulls in Libre/Free/Open licensing. It pulls in Libre/Free/Open code. It pulls in ideas of collaboration and cooperation among developers. But it hasn't always meant collaboration between developers and artists. That's a change we're interested in exploring. We'd like to see how a context of open discussion can change the output of Libre Graphics development.

"Graphics," in itself, has always been an interesting word for us. We've struggled with how much it encompasses. We know about print graphics and screen-based graphics. But what of the relationships between the two? The last twenty years have seen a move in graphic design, to a common practice where most everything is digital first, even when designed for print. Analog ways of composing and laying out have been emulated in the digital environment. They were transposed with the help of metaphors and symbolism, forgetting to explore the specificity of the new medium.

Our knowledge and usage of F/LOSS software for graphics makes clear that there is still a huge space to explore in regard to tools and process. The existing softwares allow us to perform the basics tasks, serving the needs of what we could call a traditional design workflow. Taking advantage of the “Libre/Free/Open” aspect we would like to challenge a more engaged and critical usage of software.

The shift in our relation to tools also reflects itself in the production process. It means unfolding the black box of design. Finding ways to make the process visible, opening space for collaboration and interaction. We're interested in new tools for Libre Graphics work, collaboration and intersection. How do we build new modalities and meanings for graphics, with the support and inspiration of libre? How do we imagine our practise to shape new tools?" by Libre Graphics Magazine editorial team.
The Libre Graphics Magazine editorial team:Ana Isabel Carvalho, ginger coons and Ricardo Lafuente.

Approach by Kune

"In Free Culture’s ecosystem, digital collaboration tools are absolutely essential. We have excellent theoretic tools and legal tools that enable the creation of free contents, but there is still work to be done in order to obtain technical tools that can encourage co-creation in every field.

We see our parents facing the web, always astounded, but with the same attitude that they have in front of the television; used to consuming, they consume contents. For them the web is still, as it is for many people, another medium “just for reading”.
The fact is, all tools are political, they imply certain ways of doing things, they are biased, and they hold hidden interests. We can speak in such terms of television, but it can also be applied to the way Facebook and Google push us to certain behaviours with their tools, with a simplistic, utilitarian, vision of the user as a “mass-man”, who’s possibilities of action and liberties are reduced.

We need tools that, having been constructed by everybody, imply other dynamics, dynamics that are closer to the commons; tools that, in a simple way, motivate open work, collaboration, going beyond individualisms, co-construction and sharing, through open licences, in order to distribute knowledge and our creations.

We are collectively responsible for the common. Elinor Ostrom proved how woods were more, and better, protected by the local community than by the public administration or any private enterprise. We should do the same with the free digital tools that we use, and that we must build and sustain among us all, as another communal good. Even if we are not developers, we can contribute in other ways to these tools. We must encourage their existence by using, promoting, and installing them, as well as by supporting their creators, so they can keep working for the common. Having woods and free tools depends on you." by Commons colective.

Approach by Jennifer Dopazo

"When I think of a Read-Write World, I see a world full of possibilities. Combining this idea with tools made for, and by, artists, writers, developers, hackers… the common citizen, the possibilities are simply endless.

This world allows artists to be developers and developers to be artists. It allows people’s roles to change depending on their needs, their context, and their vision of a project. It allows us to become hybrids. It allows us to develop tools we thought were impossible, and it allows us to share with others in our community. It allows us to have different roles. This world grants us access to tools, platforms, and communities, allowing us to surpass the image of the artist as a hermit, solitary and isolated in his or her craft.

Not only are we able to create our own tools, we are capable of working with others in a community, and of sharing our own process with the public. Opening spaces for the development of more, and better, tools based on our abilities and experience." by Jennifer Dopazo