Institutions in Crisis

Andrew Newman, Sophie-Carolin Wagner, Matthias Tarasiewicz and Teresa Dillon / Australia, Austria, Brazil, Poland

University of New South Wales, Research Institute for Arts and Technology, Instituto de Humanidades, Artes e Ciências

Panel

http://karlabru.net/site/, http://www.formerwest.org/Contributors/KubaSzreder, https://riat.ac.at

Free Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) is an encompassing term, which refers to the licenses associated with making the source code that is the instructions and language per se, which define how software works and is made available for others to read, modify and share. Providing a brief history of FLOSS, this paper presents a hypothetical situation, whereby elements of FLOSS are applied to reimaging institutional change within the context of a contemporary arts venue and organisation. Framed as an artistic intervention, the art institutions structure and its existing forms are considered as the living, materiality of the practice.

The paper presents a set of processes, defined as ‘Acts of Transition’, whereby the values of Free Libre and Open Source are collaboratively explored with the institutions staff and executed together, across and within the organisations teams. As ‘Acts of Transition’ they aim to support more commons-based peerproduction processes, by reimagining the arts organisation, as an open source civic organisation.