Mission

Iterations is committed to the future of artistic collaboration in digitally networked contexts. Multidisciplinary artists and practitioners are brought together to create speculative works that feed the imagination of possible modes of artistic collaboration.The internet has become an amazingly complex place and can be interpreted as a metaphor for the whole world - no individual is capable of grasping its totality. For many art practitioners interested in technology, this gives reason to get together, to collectively understand, use, develop the main infrastructure of our times, and by doing so, keeping it accessible for art and culture.

Many artists are in need of teaming up their efforts. In our experience, the pleasure of doing things together strengthens collaborations and exchanges, which is in its core what we aim for: working on a common ground. We feel that it is urgent to create situations in which this collective work is further developed. By validating the individual input of the participating artists and art practitioners, the Iterations project emphasises the shared wish and need for collaboration and collectivity.

New realities ask for new practices, and these practices need to be developed. Through a series of hands-on residencies and discursive exhibitions, Iterations provides situations in which artists collectively experiment with new ways of 'art working' which make space for collectivity and collaboration. The project is structured around the conceptual model of ‘iteration’. Inspired by recursive forms of collaboration as they exists in open source software development, the project Iterations applies repetition and circularity to artistic methodologies, in which the output from one activity is used as the input to the next.

In digital arts there is an increasing momentum for open code, sharing and networked creation. Iterations further develops this exciting prospect by involving open source methodologies originating from the digital realm into analogue art-practices, artistic knowledge exchange and exhibition-making. Iterations investigates processes and motivations that invite artists to explore models of cooperation and free digital tools. Iterations extends into art-related fields by addressing aesthetic, ethic and legal aspects of multi-authorship, commons based economics, political and social potentials that open up around the artistic. Following the open source philosophy, the project establishes common grounds to all activities.

More info about Iterations programme here.