A lot of people asked me why I am giving away the fabric. It takes a long time to make them, and if I say “take it”, people may just take them all. Some said “you could sell it”, others said “keep it for yourself”.
“free as in speech” or “free as in beer”? This is often people use as an example when discussing the idea of Open Source. Is it about taking knowledge without exchange of money? Or is it about freeing ourselves to exchange knowledge outside of money structure?
For a long time, I have been working on an open source e-Textile database project “How To Get What You Want” together with Hannah as a collective KOBAKANT. It is also a lot of work to develop ideas, experiment, document and to open-source the knowledge. But there is something nice about “giving it further” to public. It opens up the possibility of something more to happen from what you have started. It also let us connect with the people we have not known before, and learn from their further implementations. It is scary to give away. I can not keep it just for me, it maybe used in the way I did not intend… but it is a chance for something more than I thought to happen.
Of course this time, it is even more challenging as it is a physical object. There is only finite number of them and when it is taken, it is physically gone. It is not like data that can be infinitely copy-pasted. I tried to make as many as I can in given time… still there are probably 200+ pieces, so 200+ open chances.
For me, the project does not end with the installation. It is just the half of it. The other half starts as you take the fabric. This is the start of the open end.