Friday, 31.05.


10:00

Teaching the Art with the Open Source – Two experiments in integrating FLOSS into fine arts education

Presentation

Eylul Dogruel

The lack of adoption in professional settings is one of the bigger hurdles FLOSS faces outside of the tech fields that is already familiar with its existence. One part of the solution to this issue is through replacement of commercial alternatives with open sourced software within the classroom. However, how can we achieve this while maintaining the focus on acquisition of domain specific knowledge and ensuring the students can remain conversant in a field that is still dominated by commercial alternatives? Also, how can we ensure the students not only use open sourced software but also integrate into the FLOSS culture and mindset?

Through the exploration of two experiments in teaching art using open sourced software within a university classroom setting – a 4-day long workshop on creative coding for students in an open source conference and a full semester university course of introductory level photography- this presentation will propose possible answers these questions and discuss the challenges.

Eylul Dogruel is a Turkish artist whose work focuses on the interaction between materials and styles. She works with a variety of media both digital and traditional. Her work has been shown in international events. She is also an advocate of use of open sourced software in art and a former volunteer in Ubuntu Studio project.

www.eyluldogruel.com


10:25

Open Design, Libre Graphics: Why terminology matters

Presentation

Ana Isabel Carvalho & Ricardo Lafuente

What do we mean when we talk Open Design? What about Libre Graphics? Do they overlap? How do these terms define and contaminate our practice? In this talk, we want to reflect on the Open Design movement, how it presents itself and how it encapsulates a range of differing approaches, from critically engaged grassroots practices to other, more mainstream agendas that could hardly be classified as „open“, if not for the vagueness of the term. The schism between „Free/Libre Software“ and „Open Source“ is also a necessary starting point for this discussion.

Is it about tools and licenses, or is there something else to an open/libre approach to design? Can we call something open because it was made collaboratively? Does open mean that one needs only to publish the source? Could we make a checklist to see if a work could be called open? Principles, tools, methodologies and licenses: can each of these be taken separately?

We’ll go through some examples of work and approaches to frame the issue, pinpoint existing dilemmas and attempt to provide ways to navigate the quirky waters of terminology when explaining what we are doing as practitioners.

Manufactura Independente is a design studio based in Porto, Portugal. It was founded in 2010 by Ana Isabel Carvalho and Ricardo Lafuente as a space for both comissioned work and self-initiated projects. Their design practice orbits around the principles of free software libre culture and critical engagement with design tools.

http://manufacturaindependente.org


10:50

Non-destructive procedural 2D-vector modelling

Presentation

Pascal Bies

Traditional vector graphic applications such as inkscape and illustrator are great to create artistic vector art. However, it is very hard to enrich the document with semantic meaning. This becomes a problem if one wants to modify a complex document afterwards. E.g., imagine a fence with ten copies of a slat. If you like to modify each slat in the same way and slightly enlarge the spacing in between, you’d have to modify and translate each copy individually.

Procedural modelling solves this problem by encouraging the user to _model_ a document rather than just drawing it. Consequently, the user is rewarded with vital relationships, dependencies and constraints between objects. These inter-object-relations make it easy to modify even complex scenes with only few clicks. E.g., imagine a slat-template which was cloned nine times; you can change the template and each slat will update its appearance. The spacing and many more options can be adjusted with a single click, too.

In this talk, I will introduce the ideas of procedural modelling and propose a concept on how to implement them in an 2d-vector graphics application. Finally, I will talk about the use-cases, advantages and drawbacks of such an implementation compared to traditional vector graphics applications.

Pascal Bies – During high school I discovered my penchant for computer graphics. Since my artistic talent was very limited, I decided to study computer science to understand how to build computer graphics applications. After internships at a locksmith’s shop and a toolmaker, where I got in touch with CAD and CNC, I completed a B.Sc. at KIT under supervision of the founder of darktable with a thesis about color conversions. The focus during my M.Sc.-studies at UdS was on applied mathematics, machine learning and computer vision. Currently I work at K|Lens in Saarbrücken as a software engineer, mainly on topics like 3D-reconstruction, camera calibration, ray-tracing and back-end-design. I have professional coding experience from working at Max Planck Institute for Informatics (C++, Python, LaTeX, TikZ), Dialogika (Powershell, Java, C++), Fraunhofer IZFP (C++), Daimler R&D (C++, Python, TikZ) and Villeroy und Boch (AD, Powershell), and of course years of leisure-coding.

https://github.com/pasbi/ommpfritt


11:10

BREAK

 

 

11:30-13:30

Free Culture Aware Educators

BoF

Ginger Coons

Since 2013, art and design educators have been meeting at LGM to share their experiences, methods, tactics, and hopes of integrating F/LOSS and Free Culture into pedagogy and practice. This session aims to keep that conversation going, and to continue expanding the network of educators who have an interest in F/LOSS and Free Culture.

An educator, researcher, and designer, ginger „all-lower-case“ coons was founding editor of Libre Graphics magazine (2010-2015). She is an advocate for Free/Libre and Open Source Software in art and design, and is currently Course Leader in the undergraduate Graphic Design major at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam.


11:30-13:30

librtprocess: combining efforts for early raw processing functionality

Meeting

Carlo Vaccari, Ingo Weyrich & Johannes Hanika

By sharing existing code and future developer effort to create a library for common raw processing functionality, we can improve performance for all and lower the barrier of entry for developers of new raw editing tools.

This is a collaborative effort by various members of different raw image processing projects to consolidate their efforts and hopefully benefit others.

https://pixls.us


11:30-13:30

GEGL and GIMP non-destructive capabilities workshop

Workshop

Øyvind Kolås, Michael Natterer & Jehan

With 2.10 out GIMP has now been been fully ported to GEGL, and we now have much more than feature parity with 2.8. Having Gained advantages in bit-depth, live previews, lack of gamma trouble for transformations and painting, color management, soon CMYK and more. One of the still missing core capabilities in GIMP from GEGL is non-destructive editing; which is coming up on GIMPs roadmap. Non-destructive features includes layer effects, adjustments layers, alternatives to script-recording, editable strokes, smart-layers and more. Non-destructive editing can be just another set of features to add to the existing architecture – but is also an opportunity to revisit and reduce complexity/technical debt. New tools and progress on non-destructive UI experiments in GEGL land will be presented in an interactive session before time set aside for Q+A and talking about future capabilities and roadmaps.

The introduction will be held by Øyvind „pippin“ Kolås, GEGL and babl maintainer and long time GIMP contributor. Keeping him in check and on track will among others from the projects be Michael „mitch“ Natterer – the longest reigning GIMP maintainer, and Jehan of Studio Girin; who has been working as a in-house one-man GIMP engineering team for artistic productions.

https://gimp.org/


12:30 – 14:30

Twilight

Workshop

Peggy Sylopp

„Twilight“ is an mixed media installation out of ice, light and sound. After realizing many projections and digital installations for about 20 years I felt like working also with other senses, like haptic and feeling of temperature. Since 2009 I installed for about 8 times clear ice blocks (left overs of a ice sculpture company) and let them melt down (takes about 36 hs, as the blocks are about 15 kg each). I meassured and vizualized the time interval between falling water drops, setting up a system with Arduino, and Python on Raspberry Pi. Interestingly it looked quite like heart beats, reminding on ECG.
For this workshops I’d bring some smaller ice blocks and explain and experiment with the meassurements and the visuals and their associative impact.

Peggy Sylopp
*1966, computer scientist (since 2009) and artist (since *), mother of two girls working with interactive installations using OS software and hardware (from S8 to Arduino), many international exhibtions,
atm researcher for better hearing at Fraunhofer Institute IDMT
2015 Scholarship Goethe-Institut Porto Allegre, Brasil
2009 Sound-video installation „SPECTRUM“ added into Skulpturenmuseum Marl
2008 Nomination German Soundart-Price

http://www.peggy-sylopp.net/


13:30-14:30

LUNCH + ORGA MEETING

 

 


14:30

A new spline

Presentation

Raph Levien & Jacob Rus

What is the best way to interactively draw 2D vector graphics? The Bézier pen tool has been the standard for the past half century, a testament to its mathematical and computational simplicity and its flexibility as a design tool, but it has a steep learning curve and often leaves even experts drawing lumpy shapes or spending excessive time smoothing them. Interpolating splines are a promising alternative with a more direct user interface, but haven’t caught on yet. The Euler spiral spline (the basis of Spiro) gives smooth results but doesn’t converge reliably; the Hobby spline (Metafont) is the reverse.
In this talk, we present a new spline which is the best of both worlds, giving G2-continuous curves by construction, very robust, and with good locality. The spline also has explicit control over tangents, which is important for font design and is designed to have a better user experience than the “one-way” constraints in Spiro. The goal of this presentation is to present the work and open a dialog both with users about what they want from curve design tools, and with open source developers about how to ship a better curve design experience.

Raph Levien is a long-time open source developer of graphical software, with contributions including Gimp, Ghostscript, font tools, and major improvements in the Android text stack. His PhD from UC Berkeley is on Spiro, an interpolating spline tuned for font design. His Inconsolata font was designed using those tools. Based in Berkeley, CA, after 11 years at Google, he is now independently working on a variety of projects, including Rust graphics and sound infrastructure.

Jacob Rus is a professional dabbler, with broad interests in information design, cartography, color vision, photography, computer input ergonomics, and more abstractly in understanding and improving human–computer interfaces. His recent research projects include new tools for photo color grading, vector graphics curves, world map projections, alternative computer keyboard designs, interactive online explanations of mathematical topics, and chasing a 2-year-old around town.

https://spline.technology


14:55

Streamline and automate: Scripting Linux-based Photographic Workflow

Presentation

Dmitri Popov

Although I can’t code to save my life, I’ve cobbled together a handful of scripts and tools that I use heavily in my workflow. The presentation will provide an introduction to some of these tools along with practical examples of how anyone can integrate them into their Linux-based photographic workflow.

Dmitri Popov – I’m a tech writer, and I’ve been writing exclusively about Linux and open source software for almost two decades. I’m also an amateur photographer, and my entire photographic workflow is based on Linux and open source software.

https://writing.tokyoma.de/


15:20

No design without research – Why and how to incorporate design research practices into our free software projects

Presentation

Belén Barros Pena

Very often in free software design circles I come across people who seem to understand design as this whimsical, quintessentially creative activity based on nothing but pure, pristine talent. For these people, design research undermines the authenticity of the design process by introducing spurious input into it.

When I go hang out with product designers (and by this I mean people trained to design physical products), and I tell them about this concept of design, they get phenomenally pissed off. For them, design is about lots of hard work, gazillions of iterations, and most importantly, about understanding context. It is within this context understanding work that research becomes essential for all design: industrial, product, service, experience, graphic … you name it. There are tons of design research techniques and methods, from usability testing to creating mood boards, but all of them contribute to a designer’s understanding of the context they are designing for.

It is time for the free software community to understand there is no design without research. This talk will make a case for why and how we should incorporate research activities into all our free software projects, including those that build tools for designers.

My name is Belén. I have been an interaction designer for over 10 years, and I spent 5 of them contributing to a free software project for pay. These days I contribute to free software for pleasure – which is way more fun – while undertaking a PhD in Human Computer Interaction. I organised the very first open source design devroom at FOSDEM, and have been involved with the Open Source Design group since its inception. With them I advocate for the importance of incorporating human-centred design approaches to free and open source software.

https://belenbarrospena.github.io/me/


15:45

USER PERSPECTIVE in the funding model

Presentation

Livio Fania

Like any other kind of software, Open Source software needs upkeep and maintenance, and people who contribute to the development should be paid fairly for their job.
Though, counting on donations from the community is maybe not the best business model for generating revenues. It’s a fact that no large open source company has successfully survived solely on donations.
Despite its community-driven nature, very often Open Source software focus more on solving technical problems rather than understanding user needs. Should we rethink our funding model by learning from success stories and putting the end user at the center of the design process?
As a professional of the art industry, I would like to share how this topic is perceive by somebody with no knowledge in business or coding.

Livio Fania is a freelance illustrator and architect working with Open Source software for many years. He is a bike activist, a language enthusiast, an ECV teacher, and a vegetarian. He is Italian but lives in Bordeaux, France. He likes lentils.

http://liviofania.com


16:30 – 18:30

PIXLS.US Community Meeting

Meeting

Pat David, Mica Semrick, Darix, Ingo Weyrich, Morgan Hardwood, David Tschumperle & Tobias Ellinghaus

This is an opportunity for many members of the PIXLS.US community to meet and discuss current operations and outreach potential for helping newcomers navigate their way around a Free Software photography workflow. This is also a chance to meet others and talk about the future of the community.

Pat David is a member of the PIXLS.US community and a website janitor for the GIMP team.

https://pixls.us


16:30 – 18:30

From Bauhaus to Libre Graphics: Image-makers for social reform and environmental protection

Workshop

Larisa Blazic

With the Bauhaus Centenary and us being in Saarbrucken this year, it is almost impossible not to do something that combines Libre Graphics software, culture and practice and reflect how it relates to the Bauhaus. At the moment I’m thinking of a small workshop where we can do visual explorations by the way of code or by the way of GUIs and see what comes out! While we collectively simulate a Bauhaus workshop, we tell good stories too…

Larisa Blazic is a London-based artist focusing on critical examination of digital technology, its impact on power relations, dominant narratives surrounding it and consequences of lack of ethical consideration and/or framework in the world of digital innovation. Over past 20 years, Larisa combined hybrid interests ranging from creative use of the Internet to intersections of video art and architecture and initiated, collaborated and participated internationally in projects ranging from net.art to FLOSS art and design.

http://www.e-w-n-s.net/


16:30 – 18:30

Explore Inkscape—from the Basics to the Latest Features

Workshop

Mihaela Jurkovic, Jabier Arraiza

Benefit from this hands-on session where you’ll learn how to use Inkscape by completing a series of small design tasks. Each task has a specific drawing as a goal. By performing the steps to create the drawing you learn how to use Inkscape tools and when to use them to get to the end result in the most efficient way. The workshop is structured to lead you through the basics all the way up to the latest features that make complex tasks easy.
By completing the workshop you’ll be able to create many different types of drawings (colorful illustrations, infographics, line-based preparation for cutters, web-design). Come draw in Inkscape and learn techniques from an Inkscape insider.

Mihaela Jurkovic has been involved with all things Inkscape for over 12 years. She has contributed to all aspects of Inkscape community. Author of Inkscape 0.48 Illustrator’s Cookbook, which is aimed at helping new Inkscape users learn how to accomplish specific goals designed to help them learn Inkscape as fast as possible. As a member of the Vectors Team, Mihaela helps with marketing, branding and technical tasks, while putting her business experience to work for the project.

Jabier Arraiza has been actively involved in developing Inkscape for the past five years. He is the main brain power behind the professional Live Path Effects in Inkscape. He has also contributed many improvements to other tools, including the measure and spray tools, UI, extensions, in addition to helping newcomers within the community use Inkscape. As a member of the Vectors Team, Jabier helps promote the software. He welcomes the opportunity inherent only to open source projects to be an advanced user who can tangibly influence the development of the application he is using.

https://www.inkscape.org


16:30 – 18:30

GIMP and large scanned images

Workshop

Liam Quin

I’ve been cleaning up print-sized scanned images for more than 20 years – see https://www.fromoldbooks.org/ – and in this session i’ll share some of the things i’ve learned; participants can also share their own techniques. The focus will be on engravings, mostly black and white (greyscale). I’ll bring some sample scanned images, including smaller ones for people with laptops with less memory.

Topics will include:
* software, techniques and workflow for scanning and for managing the image files;
* understanding what dots per inch means in a scanner (buyer beware!);
* tradeoffs around scan resolution, bits per pixel, and colour/greyscale;
* handling foxing or yellowing in old books;
* the difference between engravings and woodcuts and photographs/half-tone, and why you care;
* maintaining accuracy and detail when editing;
* rotating, straightening, squarifying (scripts, curve-bend, perspective);
* working efficiently: global (overall) and local (small-scale) work;
* despeckle and remove most paper texture with three easy steps;
* downsizing for the Web and for print use;
* ways to make GIMP work well with less than 128GBytes of memory;
* printing and dot gain;
* why you shouldn’t wear shoes when using the computer;
* archival image formats
* most important of all, open discussion and round table of techniques and ideas.

Liam Quin – I’ve been involved in digital typography & formatting since undergraduate days at Warwick in 1981; I helped to create XML and for many years led the XML work at the World Wide Web Consortium. I sent out my first open source (public domain) C program for Unix in 1983 and have been at many of the LibreGraphicsMeeting conferences. I work from home on a farm on an island on Lake Ontario, in Canada.

https://www.fromoldbooks.org/


21:00

KNEIPENTOUR / BAR-HOPPING

Discover the night life in Saarbruecken with locals LGMers!

 

 

 

 

 

Sponsors  &  partners