Embrace the Swarm
Exploring Collective Authorship

'Michael Shamiyeh Michael Shamiyeh

Embrace the Swarm—Exploring Collective Authorship is a long-term research project that was initiated by the University of Art and Industrial Design in Linz, Austria and is being carried on in the form of classes held in cooperation with the Ars Electronica Center / FutureLab.

Since the emergence of the World Wide Web, many institutions have begun to experiment with temporally and geographically dispersed joint ventures taking advantage of the communications possibilities afforded by the Internet. The research project being described here, however, goes far beyond the usual modes of utilizing the World Wide Web in that it attempts to investigate the creative potential of networked collaboration in the fields of art and design (architecture, industrial design etc.).

Embrace the Swarm is conceptually oriented on strategies of creative cooperation, which means that sharing ideas and designs with others, discussing and evaluating them with respect to their qualities, and working on further developing contributions made by others are fundamental elements of the project. The World Wide Web serves as a means of enabling individuals at a variety of locations to cooperate with one another. In other words, the undertaking calls into question both traditional educational concepts in the sense of a master-student relationship as well as the belief that high-quality creative work can result only from one individual working alone. Thus, the project’s primary objective is to ascertain:

a) the extent to which computer networks like the World Wide Web are currently able to open up completely new models of collaboration in the fields of art and design;

b) whether there are realistic alternatives to conventional teaching methods in the artistic field, and

c) whether the quality of the output can match—or even surpass—the results achieved by individual authors.

An essential criterion for the development of Embrace the Swarm—and one that sets it apart from the experiments of other institutions—was to take into consideration the entire spectrum of means of expression in the (free creative) arts. This means that the mode of communication in the collaborative process ought not to be reduced to a few hard and fast rules regulating interaction such as those stipulating a particular software package (AutoCAD, 3D MAX etc.); rather, the preferred means of expression (hand-drawn sketch, blueprint, physical model or sculpture, video etc.) of each respective artist, architect or designer was to be permissible.

The way in which Embrace the Swarm has gone about this is easy to explain. A virtual design studio “set up” in the World Wide Web enables geographically dispersed collaborators to interact. A databank, the Design Process Recorder, stores all individual contributions as well as the overall progress of the joint project and makes this transparent to all parties involved. The tools for interaction and the utilization of the virtual design studio are set up in such a way that all participants—whether artist, architect or designer etc.—can use them in relatively simple fashion and without specialized computer skills, and can also communicate their ideas by means of their respective preferred means of expression (handdrawn sketch, blueprint, physical model or sculpture, video etc.). The sole requirement for the cooperative creative process is that all contributions must be submitted in a digital form. The visual arrangement of the virtual design studio was done so as to motivate interaction with the work of others.

Development of the virtual design studio began in the fall of 2001. In the summer semester of 2002, students from several departments of the University of Art and Industrial Design in Linz, Austria and the Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication in Kent, England “officially” commenced collaboration on a design project in this virtual design studio. (The Art Institute of Berlin Weissensee and the Technical University of Vienna have already indicated their interest in participating too.) Experience gained thus far shows that the virtual design studio’s simplicity of use as well as the free choice of means of expression have an especially motivating effect on the exchange of ideas and designs, and that, above all, high design quality becomes the determinative criterion in the kooperative effort. The ongoing results of the project as well as a documentation of the collaborative working process will be presented at the Art+Tech Institute in an exhibition conceived by the participating students.

Translated from the German by Mel Greenwald

Michael Shamiyeh (Linz University of Art and Industrial Design / Architecture): project coordination and thematic assistance
Gerhard Funk (Linz University of Art and Industrial Design / Central Information Service): technical assistance
Dietmar Offenhuber (AEC / FutureLab): thematic and technical assistance
Helmut Höllerl (AEC / FutureLab): thematic and technical assistance
Michael Breidenbrücker (Ravensbourne College, London / Media Design): thematic assistance
Karel Dudesek (Ravensbourne College, London / Media Design): thematic assistance

Students Linz:
Nikolaus Diemannsberger, Peter Freudling, Joachim Koll, Margit Nobis, Tina Reisinger, Regina Raml, Bettina Steinmaurer, Heike Nösslböck, Vinzenz Naderer, Clemens Mock, Simon Wilhelm

Students London:
Julieta Leveratto, Zoe Papadopoulou, Chan Ming Yee Amy, Martine Hermsen, Jon Cambeul, Steven Cullen, Wai-Sang Damon Yau, Nadia Kahn