Abstract

Peer Property's Tangible Beauty; Creating cultural qualities through the making of open interactive architecture systems

Adam Somlai-Fischer

This paper discusses the author's experience of coordinating and collaborating on interactive architecture systems where the model of making, the technologies, and the actual places where produced in peer production, shared as peer property (creative commons share alike license) and remixed and built upon. These examples have been presented at large architecture and electronic art exhibitions (Venice Biennale, ICC Tokyo) and have received good publicity, but not so much for their model of creation, which in the author's opinion is one of the key points within these projects.

By allowing a diverse community to participate in the making of interactive architecture systems, the cultural qualities of such a system go beyond the usual 'high tech' and 'smart home' qualities, and create something genuine which at the same time does not belong to any single author’s or artist’s identity but to an undefined group of ‘participants’.