[Apologies for the somewhat tangential nature of this posting, but I think this should be of interest to some of you, and I hope members from the Processing community, and other active communities will join tool-discuss.]

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www.beige-box.org

There is an exciting niche to be filled. The development of open-source platforms, applications and methodologies mean that there are now unprecedented options available to those working with   interactive art, media, and design. However, to make use of these tools effectively entire skill sets often must be acquired, communities must be found and joined, and a wide range of technical and theoretical issues must be confronted. There is no centralized forum devoted to examining the full spectrum of issues surrounding interactive media tools from the perspective of artists, designers, and theorists. The tool-discuss forum seeks to fill this niche. Currently the forum exists as a mailing list -- appropriate topics examine issue surrounding open-source software, hardware and methodologies from technical, artistic, critical, and sociological perspectives.

Some of the potential issues we feel worth exploring include:

Begin to question definitions. The idea of "open source" has already been pushed itself outside the world of software. How far can it be taken? Collage work from the early 20th century and sampling/appropriation in music both seem to be significant precedents for a kind of open methodology.

Begin to expand the range of discussion: a huge number of interesting software packages are out there. But what about hardware? How can we begin to make physical things and start to interface them with computers, software, people, institutions, stuff?

How do we choose what to work with, and how do our tools affect us?

How do people join communities of practice based around various tools, and how can connections be made between different communities? Some resources, like Processing, for example, have very healthy and active communities. How does something like this evolve?

How can we begin to provide a forum for people to present and discuss their work in interesting ways, and begin to make contact with others? Tool-discuss is intend to be only a first step: in the summer we'll begin work on a web-based forum. What should that forum look like?

We look forward to lively and active discussion, and further developing tool-discuss in the near future into a robust clearinghouse devoted to the intersection of open-source issues and media arts.

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Liav Koren,
tool-discuss list owner,
liav@beige-box.org