OPEN Down the Rabbit Hole
“Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her; and to wonder what was going to happen next�
through my research and tutorials I found that the type of enchanting experiences that I analyzed in my case studies were created using open source soTware. This meant that by having an open platform, I could see how the interactive systems were created, and I could try to understand and learn in order to create an interactive experience that was enchanting. I found myself following the white rabbit into this working ethos and I discovered that, as in a magic incantation, you can create magic with numbers and code.
MATHEMAGICIANS
Being able to use a program that allows you to create interactive art or design, as you want it to function involves getting to know the underlying works of it. And here is where we encounter that it all works with a series of commands, orders, and mathematical formulas. There are numbers behind the magic. This means that in order to create or design something that uses open source programs, there is a need to understand or become familiar with the numbers that make them work. By using numbers to create magic, mathematicians turn into mathemagicians. The term mathemagician suggests that the process of inventing a magic trick and a theorem is quite similar. It has been applied to Martin Gardner, a mathematician and author who wrote The Annotated Alice in Wonderland (Gardner, 2000). The idea of using numbers in order to create magic made me want to explore their use in a design context. Part of what makes magic enchanting is not knowing how it works: it is part of the illusion. When you want to create it, however, then you do need to know how it’s done. Knowing that code is a tool too, and what you can do with it, is part of the process that can be allowed by the use of open source soTware. As a graphic designer the tools I had did not allow me to create interactive systems. I needed to know the tools that would allow me to do so. To find what was appropriate for my project I went into looking what a tool is in the first place.
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OPENNESS AS DESIGN ETHOS
“The magicians of the future will use mathematical formulas.” –Aleister Crowley
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TOOLS
Bret Victor explores what a tool is: “A tool addresses human needs by amplifying human capabilities. That is, a tool converts what we can do into what we want to do. A great tool is designed to fit both sides.” (Victor, 2011). Seen in this way, a tool is a bridge between our constraints and our vision. Knowing the tools we use allow us to explore our material, and by knowing our material we can make informed decisions when it comes to designing something specific: be it a situation, an object or an experience. As designers, the better we learn our tools, the better design we can create, both in the material qualities and in the intangible experiential part. When we learn to use and make our own tools (code among them) we become more like craTsmen: “CraTsmanship names an enduring, basic human impulse, the desire to do a job well for its own sake. CraTsmanship cuts a far wider swath than skilled manual labor; it serves the computer programmer, the doctor, and the artist… In all these domains, craTsmanship focuses on objective standards, on the thing in itself.” (Sennett 2003: 9). When encountered with designing situations and experiences that use technology as a tool, the question arises: “how to think like craftsmen in good use of technology?” (Sennett 2003: 44). When we have an idea about creating an interactive design or an experience that requires capabilities beyond our repertoire, we face a limitation with the tools we normally use: “To go beyond these limitations, it is necessary to customize existing applications through programming or to write your own soTware.” (Reas 2011: 25). It is in this moment of materializing an idea that requires more than a mock-up, that the use of open source soTware becomes a very useful tool in the designer’s pencil case: “These tools, original and customized, are increasingly easy to make and share through open source and digital communities of practice. In this way I suggest that despite computation’s requirement of categorization and logic, the tools enable creativity by acting as stepping stones for creative practice.” (Hansen, 2012: 2). It is more likely that the program we use to create a certain interactive design was originally used for a different design situation, a completely diferent brief. We can see then, how we can manipulate and tweak the original code behind that program, to fit our design situation. The tool then becomes malleable: “Any tool should be useful in the expected way, but a truly great
As part of my research I used these tools, open source soTware in specific, for both my pilot project and my final piece. The process of these explorations will be detailed in further chapters.
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tool lends itself to uses you never expected.� (Raymond, 1999). The malleability of these emergent tools make it easy to get carried away in their potential. We could be in danger of fetishizing the tool itself, instead of what it enables us to do. This is quite a challenge, but as designers it is important to make them part of our design process as we would any other tool: a pencil, our sketchbooks or our grids. By treating all tools as equal, we concentrate on the vision, on the idea and the concept we want to create. We are not dictated by the tools, and the technology behind it, but rather use that technology to empower our design.
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OPEN SOURCERY
Open source soTware is an alternative to closed systems. The speed of learning through an open source environment is faster for at least two reasons: the first is that since it is available for everyone to download for free, there are far more forums and tutorials on how to use it. There is a strong sense of community in the part of sharing projects and asking questions. The second reason is that you can see how it is built. You don’t only get the final application, but the source code as well, and therefore you can modify it to your own project’s needs, and by modifying it you learn how it works. This makes every person using it a co-author, by creating a new “version” of the original system. This new improvement is then put back into the commons, in the form of a file library for instance, and then the feeling of contributing back and belonging to this community is a reward in itself to share your tweaks and work. The open source movement started in soTware development. The operating system Linux is one example: it was built in an open and collaborative way, with free and redistributable sources: “Activist Richard Stallman founded the free software movement in 1983 with the launch of the GNU Project. In combination with Linux, the GNU Project became the first completely free software operating system, inspiring an ongoing spirit of mass collaboration among programmers, amateur and professional alike.” (Abel 2011:w14). Nowadays this working ethos has spread, mainly due to the internet, to other fields such as science, academic research, arts and design. The reason the open source approach works is because people build from each other’s work, and everyone can contribute on a small part of the whole project, simultaneously. You don’t have to start from scratch in creating a program or a system; that would take years of research, funding and learning. Instead, you can build-up from each other. This creates a fluid work flow, and through this collaboration and rapid iteration, programs to build complex systems and interactive works are within reach.
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However, not everything runs smoothly when using open source platforms. We have come to a point where our business models and linear systems (law among them) do not fit precisely the flow and ebb of online collaboration. It is important as a designer to acknowledge this in order to place ourselves in practice, especially if our work is based on contributions online, our tools are open source and we want to develop a new way of thinking that embraces these alternate models of distribution of our content and designs. I wanted to place my MA project in context in order to realize where my project stands in terms of the principles held by the open source movement.
“Open source creates active communities, this spirit leaks into the rest of your life, and you start asking questions about things like physical possessions and privacy, changing yourself and others.” –Kyle McDonald
When we start modifying code in order to achieve a behavior in the interactive system, we manipulate the tool in diferent ways and we also start thinking in diferent ways. This involves taking a complex system and breaking it up into smaller pieces (small mini-programs that relate to each other making bigger programs work). These iterations improve previous work creating a more eficient program. In this way, coding becomes a craT. This iterative way of working with code is similar to the way we work as designers: seeing both the details and the big picture allowing us to have a holistic view. The way of thinking that coding provides can make our design thinking richer. As more and more of our experiences happen through interactive systems (found in our smartphones or computers) it is important to know how they work and how we can make them work, both in our lives and in our practice. Rushkoff mentions that we need to not only read but also know how to read/write: “When we gained literacy, we learned not just how to read but how to write. And as we move into an increasingly digital reality, we must learn not just how to use programs but how to make them.” (Rushkoff 2012: 13). As designers it is necessary to learn or at least understand how these emergent tools we use are built and what we can make with them, in order to not lose agency to technology.
A DESIGNER’S PERSPECTIVE
All of this made me realize that I, as a designer, have a broader palette of tools to use and tinker with. It is important that we are aware of the benefits as well as the bias of these to make better design choices. As for our design practice, being aware of the communities that form around open source tools allows us to contribute, learn and create professional relationships, both online and offline: “Programming is the designer’s new literacy. In the twenty-first century, design authorship means access to the code. Open source tools welcome use without requiring full comprehension of the underlying programming structure. This efficiency encourages designers to experiment in ways previously prohibited by the need for in-depth technical mastery.” (Rushkoff 2012: 126). At this point in my research I could understand the relationship between using tools like open source soTware and the way they can create a magical experience. This is why I used these tools in projects described later on in this thesis. n
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MAGIC NUMBERS: CODE AS THE NEW LITERACY
Code is handmade