Myriad People Open Source Software for New Media Arts

TL;DR

This paper introduces Myriad People, a dataset of open source software and contributors used in new media art, highlighting the software's role and fostering research in art and software integration.

Contribution

The paper presents a curated dataset of open source projects and contributors involved in new media artworks, linking software development with artistic practice.

Findings

Curated 9 artworks using diverse software layers

Compiled a dataset of 124 open source projects and contributors

Organized a collective exhibition showcasing the artworks

Abstract

New media art builds on top of rich software stacks. Blending multiple media such as code, light or sound , new media artists integrate various types of software to draw, animate, control or synchronize different parts of an artwork. Yet, the artworks rarely credit software and all the developers involved. In this work, we present Myriad People, an original dataset of open source projects and their contributors, which span various software layers used in new media art installations. To collect this dataset, we released an open call for artists and eventually curated 9 artworks, which use a variety of software and media. In October 2024, we organized a collective exhibition in Stockholm, entitled Myriad, which showcased the 9 artworks. The Myriad People dataset includes the 124 open source projects used in one or more of the Myriad's artworks, as well as all the contributors to these projects. In this paper, we present the dataset, as well as the possible usages of this dataset for software and art research.