Userland, OpenMute Tour, 2005/2006
Events
UserLand is a project initiated by Mute in response to user experiences of its software/services project, OpenMute. Soon after the launch of OpenMute, it became clear that we had made certain assumptions about users' levels of internet experience that had to be addressed: even with OpenMute's explicit emphasis on accessibility, ease of use and user education, for many the platform was still too complicated, containing specialist language, as well as many illogical technical sequences associated with the underlying software which became an obstacle to people getting further than the initial sign-up stage.
There was a surprisingly high uptake in FLOSS- or new media-associated groups outside of the UK and Europe, but it was also clear that this followed the route of existing professional, social and cultural information networks. Aside from a few enquiring minds in the healthcare and small business sectors who frequently found a use for our tools (!), in a broad sense OpenMute users were concentrated in the cultural communities most closely associated with Mute's own. We therefore felt the onus was on us to perform the necessary 'outreach'. We wanted to explain and popularise the tools on offer, describe the context of free software from which they emerged, and generally make the effort less centred on London and other urban metropoles. The result is UserLand, a national tour devised in collaboration with ten new media organisations around the UK, in which Mute is programming 2 day workshops divided equally between presentations on the use of FLOSS in art and culture, and a how-to guide on creating your own website using OpenMute tools.
See the tour leaflet
USERLAND: FLOSS culture workshop tour :. 10 venues/ 10 artists
Venues and dates
2005
Folly, Lancaster - 6th & 7th July w/ Matteo Pasquinelli
Exeter Phoenix - 4th & 5th Nov w/ Furtherfield
Polytechnic/Isis, Newcastle upon Tyne - 10th & 11th Nov w/ Yves Degoyen
I-DAT, Plymouth - 15th & 16th Nov w/ Jaromil
Norwich Arts Centre - 1st & 2nd Dec w/ Mongrel
2006
Jellied Eel Shed, Southend-on-Sea - 21st & 22nd Jan w/ Simon Yuill
Cambridge Junction - 26th & 27th Jan w/ Aymeric Mansoux
The Cube Cinema, Bristol - 14th & 15th March w/ Agnese Trocchi
The Whitechapel Centre, London - 24th & 25th March w/ Aymeric Mansoux/PureDyne
Artsway/SCAN, Sway New Forest - 3rd & 4th April w/ Diane McCarty
FLOSS cultural groups and artists
Agnese Trocchi, Candida TV
Aymeric Mansou, GOTO10 / Pure Dyne
Diane McCarty, ReBoot radio network
Furtherfield, Artists led group
Heath Bunting, Irational
Jaromil, Rastasoft & dyne:bolic
Matteo Pasquinelli, Rekombinant
Mongrel, Cultural network
Simon Yuill, Artist
Yves Degoyen, Hackitecture
