Make Art is a key event for the FLOSS (Free/Livre/Open Source Software) community. Started in 2006 by GOTO10 collective, it takes place every year in Poitiers, France. Its name refers to the UNIX make utility, a build tool that allows programmer to build source code into a version of a program. The geeky metaphor should be clear enough to understand the aim of this international festival dedicated to "free software artist, open hardware hackers and command-line fetishists".
From 8th to 13th December the city of Poitiers will host a rich schedule of workshops, presentations, performances and exhibitions focusing on the theme of "forking": copying a source, modifying it, improving it or turning it upside down to create a completely new concept. Nowadays the closed industry of books, softwares, hardwares and cultural contents made us rejecting the practice of copying one's work since it can harm the infamous exclusive, commercial rights of its author. The only practical result of this subtle process is a lethargic population waiting to be fed with measured, selected tiny pills of knowledge. Open source practice tries to improve self-determination through the free sharing of information, a human right we lost around 30 years ago when the first software patents were born.
Fore more info see the Make Art 2009 program.
