open_gates

"open_gates" is an interface between steirischer herbst and Grazer Freie Szene which reflects the festival's leitmotif-guided reflections on control, collaboration and open source.

"open_gates" uses problem-solving strategies from the world of open source software for art production. Such projects involve numerous programmers working on specific parts of a problem, gradually improving their solutions and then transferring them into the official source text of the program.

Analogously to this process, "open_gates" invites Graz-based artists in the fields of music, film, performance and object art to provide partial contributions to the overall project - always in line with the tasks of the project moderators, the maintainers. These tasks reflect questions that could grow out of any art project: self-documentations, making one's own communication processes in the network visible or audible, inventing merchandising objects …

In small collectives in Internet forums, the participating artists develop process-based and transparent solutions to the individual tasks. The contributions form the source text of the project - or, in the language of art theory: this is a social sculpture. On the one hand, the material of the sculpture is the communication itself that will be taking place until October 2006 on the Net. On the other hand, this sculpture grows through the installations and performances of the individual tasks at the festival centre during steirischer herbst.

Konzept / Idee: Karin Koschell
Konzept / Idee: Michael Pinter
Konzept / Idee: Fränk Zimmer