A panel discussion about new platforms for collaboration, creativity and distribution with Mushon Zer-Aviv + Dan Phiffer (ShiftSpace), and Kyle Buza + Brent Fitzgerald + Amber Frid-Jimenez + Takashi Okamoto (OPENSTUDIO); moderated by kanarinka.

ShiftSpace provides a transparent social layer above any website. It is an open source (and free software) platform that enables users to comment, add to, and modify websites. ShiftSpace allows users to experience the web as a continuous public space rather than a collection of isolated and privately-controlled islands. Through ShiftSpace artists, developers, poets, activists and others can freely meet, play, create art, debate protest and enjoy the full potential of their online freedom.

Mushon Zer-Aviv was born in Israel in 1976. He has been involved in and initiated cross-media projects in art, design, comics, animation, online culture and media activism. Co-founder of Shual.com design studio. A teacher at Shekar College of Design & Engineering. An active contributor to Pixelsurgeon.com, Exego.net and Maarav.org.il online magazines. Curated BD4D Tel-Aviv and started Upgrade! Tel-Aviv events, both series aimed at creating and developing the Israeli new-media creative network. Mushon is currently studying at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunication Program.

Dan Phiffer is a new media hacker from California, interested in exploring cultural dimensions of inexpensive communications networks such as voice telephony and the Internet. Drawing on his computer science background, Dan's software projects seek to provide meaningful creative opportunities through intuitive user interfaces. Dan now lives in Brooklyn, New York and is pursuing a Masters from NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program.

OPENSTUDIO is web + art + community + economics. It is an open ended experiment that couples a very simple drawing tool with an economy of artists, curators, collectors, dealers and viewers. Members can create and modify drawings, set prices and licenses, exchange and exhibit work, view financial records, and commission one another. OPENSTUDIO breaks free of the shackles of the tired gallery/patron model representative of the classic schmism between the creative and the lucrative. It is a declaration of the new post digital ideals: transparency, community, and cooperation, yet grounded in economic reality. The lone artist is powerless against the old model. OPENSTUDIO is an assertion that through collaborative effort, creativity and intelligence can bring about positive change in our world.

Kyle Buza is a software engineer who produces creative works through the use of technology. He graduated Cum Laude from Cornell University, receiving dual bachelor's degrees in Chemistry and Biology, as well as a Master's degree in Computer Science. He is currently a graduate student in the Physical Language Workshop at the MIT Media Lab.

Brent Fitzgerald is a second year Master's student in the Physical Language Workshop at the MIT Media Lab. His work focuses on design of systems and tools to enable new forms of authorship and collaboration. Currently he is building a service to support creation of and participation in lightweight contracts that are socially constructed, community enforced, and procedurally executed. Prior to joining the Media Lab, Brent worked for a few years in educational software design. He holds a B.S. in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University, with a concentration in natural language.

Amber Frid-Jimenez is an artist and researcher working towards her masters with Professor John Maeda in Physical Language Workshop at the MIT Media Laboratory. With her colleagues, she is designing tools for creating digital content in a networked environment, as well as the means to leverage creativity as capital within an experimental online micro-economy. Prior to that she spent a year as a research designer in the Cognitive Machines Group at the Media Lab. Frid-Jimenez was a visiting artist at the Banff New Media Institute in 2005 and an artist-in-residence at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in 2003.

Takashi Okamoto is a graphic designer, programmer and technology artist. He received his Honours Bachelor of Science in Astrophysics from University of Toronto and a Master of Fine Arts in graphic design from Yale University. Currently, he is a masters student in the Physical Language Workshop at the MIT Media Lab.

kanarinka is an artist and the Co-Director of iKatun, an organization whose mission is to present artwork that fosters public engagement in the politics of information. kanarinka's research interests include participatory culture, critical cartography, sex/gender studies and the emotional landscape of Homeland Insecurity. She works collaboratively to write essays and software, conduct performances, and organize experimental social gatherings. She is also a member of the Institute for Infinitely Small Things, collaborates with groups like spurse and Sifting the Inner Belt, and is co-editing the publication "A Thousand Tiny Sexes". She teaches at RISD’s Digital+Media graduate program.

ShiftSpace
OPENSTUDIO
OPENCODE
kanarinka