About this episode
The episode explores the intersection of open-source infrastructure and grassroots arts spaces with Lauren Gardner.
MEDLab research fellow Kadallah Burrowes speaks with Lauren Gardner, Executive Director of Open Source Collective, about what it means to build infrastructure for the commons and why the lessons of grassroots arts spaces might hold the key to the future of collective digital life. Gardner stewards a network of over 2,500 open-source and community-driven projects, providing fiscal sponsorship and shared infrastructure to thousands of maintainers and contributors worldwide. Her path to the global open-source movement runs through some of the most generative DIY spaces in recent memory: Babycastles, the New York arcade-turned-social-gallery that reimagined game culture, and the School for Poetic Computation, where code, critical theory, art, and collaborative practice converge. Their conversation asks what artists, technologists, and anyone interested in working collectively might learn from decades of building environments where creativity and the commons come first.
People in this episode
Host: Kadallah Burrowes
Guest: Lauren Gardner
Topics covered
- commons
- open source
- digital life
- grassroots arts
- collective creativity
Keywords
- commons
- open source
- digital infrastructure
- grassroots
- collective creativity
- DIY spaces
- community-driven projects
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Open Source Collective, Babycastles, School for Poetic Computation
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