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Artengine and the PureData Convention Collective

L’Œuvre ouverte | PureData Convention 07

PureData Interface
PureData (1) is an open source project that uses a real-time graphical programming environment for the creation of interactive computer music and multimedia works. Freely distributed on the Web, this collaboratively developed new media tool has made its way into visual art, music, sound art, theatre, dance and VJ culture.

From August 21-26, 2007, the second international PureData Convention, L’Œuvre ouverte, brought together artists, developers and theoreticians who develop, use and reflect on PureData. Hosted by the PureData Convention Collective and the PureData community in Montreal, the convention examined the broad range of artistic disciplines that make use of software and addressed questions of openness and accessibility. The convention reflects on the aesthetics and politics of the Free Open Source Software (FOSS) culture by focusing on the development and artistic uses of PureData as well as critical writings about the project. L’Œuvre ouverte aims to advance the collective development of PureData through group coding sessions and by fostering a constructive dialogue among programmers, users and theoreticians.

The Foundation has partially funded L’Œuvre ouverte, which consisted of a series of conferences, workshops, demonstrations, round table discussions, performances and exhibitions. Throughout the convention, many of the conferences and performances were broadcasted online. The convention was also an opportunity to exhibit new media artworks, interactive installations, and performances that have been realised with open source software.

The PureData convention has the support of some of Canada's key media arts organisations as partners, including Artengine, Oboro, The Society for Arts and Technology, Studio XX, and Vidéographe. University partners include Concordia University, McGill University, the Ontario College of Art & Design, Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium), the University of Plymouth (England), and the University of Ottawa.

The PureData Convention Collective consists of Andrew Brouse, Alexandre Castonguay, Marc Fournel and Darsha Hewitt.

Founded in 1996, Artengine is an artist-run centre that promotes projects designed specifically for the Web and the artistic exploration of new technologies. Artengine acts as an electronic resource for artists, curators and the general public by offering technical assistance in the creation of artworks and encouraging discussions on contemporary art practices. Since 1999, Artengine has actively participated in custom scripting and programming for specific open source projects, including PureData and GridFlow. These projects seek to bring together both artists and programmers in the continued development of real-time audio and video processing. Artengine’s mandate is to increase artists’ presence on the Internet and to initiate engagement in the artistic applications of digital media.

© 2007 FDL

(1) For more details on PureData, please go to: http://puredata.info/