[microsound] usefulness of code and open standards

[derek holzer <derek@xxxxxxx>]

Alex Young wrote:

> I've been looking at a lot of software art recently, and I find it sad  
> that people don't distribute their code more often.  

I'm in complete agreement. Once you start to consider the artistry in 
creating and manipulating code, it seems ridiculous that people would 
want to hide that. Seems like people should be proud to show how they 
made something. I usually hate painting metaphors, but it's a bit like 
seeing the brush-strokes.

More on topic, however--if each video or sound is an instance or example 
of that code at work, then the code itself is really the "composition", 
and should be accessible as such. Now, I can read music about as well as 
I can read C++ [in fits and starts ;-) ], but if you restricted people's 
ability to appreciate Bach to a recital, and kept the scores hidden away 
from public sight, Classical music as we know it simply wouldn't exist.


> There's even less people using open standards such as SVG to create  
> art, rather than Flash/Shockwave.  

There is a lot of danger in creating something that only plays with one 
piece of software, and which requires an end-user license agreement from 
each viewer. I.e. it is not legal to distribute a copy of Shockwave 
player with your Shockwave file--each person has to go to Macromedia and 
get their own player and click on their own license agreement. This is 
exactly one point that the GPL is supposed to get around!

Besides that, think about all those early RealPlayer codecs that are now 
unsupported! No one else can legally make a player for them [the codec 
is closed + proprietary], so you are talking about almost two years of 
content encoded for Real which cannot be viewed or heard *ever* again 
[legally, at least]. Or old video game ROMS, etc.

Adam Hyde/radioqualia has written a nice rant about this in his open 
streaming manual:

http://www.radioqualia.net/streaming_manual

> By the way, what conference was it?

PIKSEL, at BEK in Bergen, Norway:

http://www.piksel.no/piksel04/index_html

ciao,
d.

--
derek holzer ::: http://www.umatic.nl
---Oblique Strategy # 53:
"Do something boring"

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