"The very definition of the real has become: that of which it is possible to give an equivalent reproduction. . . The real is not only what can be reproduced, but that which is always already reproduced: that is the hyperreal… which is entirely in simulation."

Yesterday I came across Watercouleur Park, a new work by French artists group Qubo Gas, - the 11th commission by Tate for its Net Art Programme.

Remember those Star Trek episodes "Scotty, beam me up!" ?

We humans have always dreamed of "beaming" ourselves, objects or even travel in time. In fact, every morning I travel on the London Underground to work, I ask myself how the world would look like, if we could all be "beamed". But that's all science fiction - everybody would agree!

Christoph Büchel Simply Botiful - London

For many years it has been reported that open source philosophies inspire increased transparency and liberty. There are certainly indications that commercial organisations have moved towards an open source culture particularly in software industries. And now there is increasing business potential for open source software ventures. People often think of open source as something you do for altruistic purposes (=for free) but Drupal may just be an indication that open source is evolving.

The Drupal CMS, has been a distinguished figure in open source software developments, allowing geographically-separated individuals or communities to easily publish website content. Since its beginnings in 2000, Drupal’s ideology has been heavily focused on community and collaboration, adopting an open policy on its source code, free for anyone to modify. No-one at Drupal could have ever anticipated the scale to which code has been reused/remixed/recycled in the creation of new modules and new functionality. And here lies Drupal’s uniqueness: it is maintained and developed by a community of thousands of users and developers communicating via forums and IRC channels. Community and collaboration are Drupal’s lifeblood.

Peter Brownell is just one of the developers who have been instrumental within the Drupal community, contributing to numerous modules and running the London Drupal Users Group. He also runs his own Drupal consultancy (Code Positive) and for this reason he came to Ravensbourne College to share with students and staff some Drupal wizardry.

Private View: Thur 1st March, 7 & 9 PM
Exhibition: 2nd March - 1st April
Friday - Sunday: 12noon - 5pm
email: info@http.uk.net
tel: +44 (0) 20 8802 2827