Participatory Cultures

At the Department of Media Study I started a graduate student reading group on participatory cultures, the application of open source principles to art, and artists as providers of cultural contexts. On our reading list are Umbert Eco's "Open Work," Pierre Levy's "Collective Intelligence," "What We Want Is Free" (edited by Ted Purves), Howard Rheingold's "Smart Mobs," and his text on Cooperative Technologies, "Code. Collaborative Authorship and the Digital Economy," edited by Rishab Aiyer Ghoshy and "Economising Culture" (part of 3 volumes of DATA browser). We will also look at the themes of Open Congress, in which I will participate in a few weeks as well as the "COde Of practice" online panel at Tate Modern. Alongside these texts we will read the "A Grammar of the Multitude" by Paulo Virno and Brian Holmes' "The Flexible Personality." We will read, present and look at relevant artwork and exhibitions such as "Making Things Public." If you have suggestions for artwork that would fit well into this context (or if you think we should add particular readings) please email me (trebor/at/thing/./net).