Tagtool

We were talking about the Tagtool community when it was three guys living in the same house. It was wishful thinking more than anything else. We thought, surely we can’t be the only ones who are trying to do what we do. And we started talking about doing a developer’s convention, about half a year ago, when we got awarded some price money and wanted to put it back into the project. We had a very vague concept of it all. The emphasis should be on software development, because we were desperate for new perspectives in that regard.

Now, looking back at the Tagtool Think Tank 09, we couldn’t have imagined a better outcome. Not only did we have a weekend of very focused and fruitful discussions, invaluable advice from people we respect for what they do, and a lot of ideas. A real Think Tank in the aquarium-of-ideas sense (not the American Republican let’s-fuck-the-world one).

So, here’s a brief overview of what was going down this weekend. It started off on Friday with iink, gnu and me presenting some of the ideas for the next generation Tagtool Software – dubbed “Zeichenstern” (we changed the working title from the original “Zeichenspiel”). The gist of it was that while we would like to make the system even easier to use, we would like to expand the animation features, in order to really make it a capable live animation system – think digital puppeteering.

After that, Rob Bateman of NaturalMotion Ltd. gave some insight into techniques of software development in the software industry. He stressed the importance of using (and writing) the right tools for development, and talked about the challenges of managing teams of developers in a corporate environment, and of developing a truly cross platform application.

In the evening it was the Open Mic session. Our good friends from Strukt presented their use of the Tagtool in corporate environments, Momo1030 put the focus on club visuals and street art, and we saw some truly exciting examples of the artistic use of the Tagtool by Francis and Dima from Prague, and Dieter Puntigam. At some point the Open Mic Session turned into a discussion, with people spontaneously grabbing the microphone to share a story or an idea.

Saturday started with Joreg, one of the authors of VVVV, a very impressive software for interactive computer graphics. He showed some giant-scale projects he and his colleagues realized using it, and presented VVVV both from a user’s and a developer’s perspective. He closed his talk with a few ideas that are relevant to the Tagtool project. Echoing the widespread feeling that oldschool VJing has reached a dead end in many ways, he proposed the term “Live Cinema” for next-generation interactive audiovisual performances.

Jaromil of Dyne.org (happy to find out that the name comes from a Thomas Pynchon book), presented a very different approach to software development, in stark contrast to Rob’s earlier insight into how things work in the games industry: The “bazaar” model of open source software. He illustrated this with his own project, FreeJ, where several developers contribute voluntarily in a loose yet coordinated manner.
He placed emphasis on the political and societal implications of software development, as a basis for free and independent media. He also pointed out some common points of interest with the Tagtool project and proposed FreeJ as a very suitable framework for the Zeichenstern project.

For the following discussion we all moved outside to the grass by the Danube to catch some of the sinking sun. Some of the topics were: finding a sustainable mode for development for the Tagtool software, the most appropriate licensing model, and the future of the Nodekit software. Not a show discussion – the things said truly helped clarify our vision of what needs to be done.

Until the mosquitos drove us back inside, for the performance of “Hilti’s Odyssey of Oddities”. We played two improvised sets, introducing some of the characters out of the ongoing work on the Hilti webisodes.

Sunday was farewell to most participants. While 16-year old Merkus was explaining the tool to some of his friends, there was time to exchange some knowledge, reflect on the ideas of the previous days, and spend hours drawing and checking out other people’s styles.

Tagtool painting by Frances during the session on Sunday

This was the first time that the Tagtool community became a physical reality to us. People from very different backgrounds came – some driving for hours (I think Łukasz and Monika set the record, coming from Warsaw). It was incredible to feel the buzz in the room. Of course this was not just because of our project, but because there’s generally something in the air. Digital art is about to take really exciting new directions, and the Tagtool project is just one of many approaches.

The Tagtool Think Tank 09 left us in awe. It has been inspiring technically, artistically and also in a philosophical sort of way – elevating our perspective over the horizon of day-to-day projects to take in the bigger picture of where we stand as humans, part of our time and global society. Our efforts are not isolated, they are not “ours”. As architects of our own digital artistic tools probably the best measure of success is the degree of freedom of expression that people experience using them.

The Wassergasse served as the official chill, eat and sleep area

We will carefully go through all the ideas and feedback we have received in these days. It became very clear that while we will continue to sharpen the vision of Project Zeichenstern, our immediate priority is consolidating and re-energizing development on the Nodekit. You will hear more about all this here and in the Google group.

What’s left to say is a big thank you to everyone helping out – the documentation team Jörg Steffke and Andi Sabitzer, our intern Steffi Jörgler, Rebekka Riedl, Jan Linke, Philip Leitner, the drivers Felix Pfarrhofer, Holger Blaha, and Georg Dorninger, ninja cook Lukas Eichinger, Jan Autrieth, the crew of the Kunstwerkstatt Tulln, the Ginyu Force crew, the people participating from far away over the mailing list, the speakers and the participants.

Tagtool Think Tank 09 was supported by
OMA International, Strukt and Come On – Land Niederösterreich.