FLOSSTV Free, Libre, Open Source Software (FLOSS) within participatory 'TV hacking' Media and Arts Practices

This research operates in the context of a European political discourse, where the main concern is counter­cultural approaches to non­ mandatory collaboration and contractual agreements. FLOSSTV (Free, Libre, Open Source Software TV) covers a broad range of practices, from television via documentary up to media arts productions. This thesis documents the endeavour to formulate a policy for FLOSS culture. FLOSSTV studies the impact of new intellectual property legislation on media production, as well as conceptions and applications of collective authorship and alternative licensing schemes. FLOSSTV sets out to explore methods that can facilitate media and arts practitioners wishing to engage in collaborative media productions. The thesis sets out to investigate the theories and histories of collaborative media and arts productions in order to set the ground for an exploration of the tools, technologies and aesthetics of such collaborations. The FLOSSTV thesis proposes a set of contracts and policies that allow for such collaborations to develop. It is through practice that this research explores FLOSS culture, including its methods, licensing schemes and technologies. In order to focus the research within the field of FLOSSTV I initiated the practice ­based Deptford.TV pilot project as the central research experiment for the FLOSSTV thesis. DVD ONE contains a series of films produced collaboratively for Deptford.TV that express the characteristics and contractual arrangements of FLOSS culture. Deptford.TV is an online audiovisual database primarily collecting media assets around the Deptford area, in South­East London, UK. Deptford.TV functions as an open, collaborative platform that allows artists, film­makers, researchers and participants of the local workshops in and around Deptford, and also beyond Deptford, to store, share, re­edit and redistribute their footage and projects. The open and collaborative nature of the Deptford.TV project demonstrates a form of shared media practice in two ways: audiences become producers by submitting their own footage, and the database enables the contributors to interact with each other. Through my practice­lead research project Deptford.TV I argue that, by supporting collaborative methods and practices, FLOSS (Free, Libre, Open Source Software) can empower media and arts practitioners to collaborate in production and distribution processes of media and arts practices

A Novel Production Workflow and Toolset for Opera Co-creation Towards Enhanced Societal Inclusion of People

Opera uses all the visual and performing arts tocreate extraordinary worlds of passion and sensibility. It is rightly recognised as a great achievement of European culture. And yet a form that once inspired social and artistic revolutions is often seen as the staid preserve of the elite. With rising inequality and social exclusion, many see opera-if they think of it at all-as symbolic of what is wrong in Europe today. This paper presents technological and scientific approach of the European H2020 TRACTION project that aims to use opera as a path for social and cultural inclusion, making it once again a force for radicaltransformation. TRACTION wants to define new forms of artistic creation through which the most marginalised groups (e.g. migrants, the rural poor, young offenders and others) can work with artists to tell the stories that matter now. By combining best practices in participatory art with media technology's innovations of language, form and process, the project is defining new approaches to co-creation and innovation, exploring audiovisual formats based in european cultural heritage, such as opera