Spirit of Workshop

PlayAround 09 –TechNomads – is the second edition of an intensely parallel and collaborative workshop of mediating the creative use of FLOSS (Free/Libre Open Source Software) and DIY practices to an audience of young students and artists of diverse backgrounds. It combines the knowledge creation and open distribution of new media technologies and contemporary art practices in a socially responsible and relevant context.

This year workshop continues in the spirit of PlayAround 08, aiming to integrate FLOSS (Free/Libre Open Source Software) with art practices and contemporary social subjects. The subtitle illustrates the theme of this year, to depart from a futuristic imagination; the workshop participants are considered as “TechNomads”, who try to upkeep their digital culture under the circumstances of an economic crisis. The use of FLOSS, recycled material and DIY practices allows new innovative and creative uses of digital technologies, which are socially and environmentally responsible. Similar to the Taiwanese saying that goes “crisis is the chance of change”.

These days we are surrounded with a boom of cheap electronic gadgets often provided with poor content and brain-washed by mass media's control. While some of these modern gadgets might lead to isolation inside of the urban environment, it also inspires the digital culture to new ways of interaction, learning and communication. The idea of the PlayAround 09 workshop is to highlight cooperative methods of making things together by applying FLOSS, puredata, soundscape, DIY electronics, recycling, networking, digital streaming, physical computing, and interactive media. And also to discuss/create an environment or a system, where we, considering ourselves as “TechNomands” can still be involved in the digital culture.

Our approach is to have the seed of FLOSS and DIY grow further, by giving a beginners level introduction to the attendants and develop it to a certain depth during the workshop. In other words, re-joint and share the creativities of open source art to a broader community. All the content of the wiki and the booklet will be published under a creative commons license. The use of creative commons allows future creative uses and modifications of the work, as long as the attribution to the original authors is maintained.