GOTO10 describes itself as an invite-only network, so although what it produces is 100% open (Free/Libre Open Source Software), its organisational structure is very closed. You could also describe it as a friendship collective; member’s skills are secondary to friendship. GOTO10 knows a high level of trust, any of the currently 11 members can initiate ‘anything’ by lazy consensus. All communication and distributed working happens online via IRC, but face to face meetings are perceived as very important and take place at least twice a year during the MAKE ART FESTIVAL in France and for general housekeeping purposes.

GOTO10 is self-organized, and finances itself by project grants. Depending on the project, members take on different roles and levels of engagement. Although GOTO10 does not want to grow in (network) size it is highly collaborative; and it is trying to collaborate with other networks, organizations.

One of its largest and very collaborative projects is pure:dyne. To give some examples of collaborations between GOTO10 and other Winter Camp participants, Alejandro Doque is planning to make a Columbian version of pure:dyne in collaboration with an art magazin, Matt Ratto (Critical Making Lab of the University of Toronto) and James Wallbank (workshops at Access Space in Sheffield) use pure:dyne, and  Ramiro Consentino is going to work in collaboration with GOTO10 on streaming software of pure:dyne.

Another GOT010 working method is described as sprint – the initiation and intense non-stop working on ideas.

During Wintercamp, GOTO10 did a sprint on gosub10, a project that had been in the pipeline for 4 years but which they never managed to pull off. Gosub10 is a net label that celebrated its first release on 6 March 2009. It includes a streaming radio station and releases all source code of the individual tracks where possible, so that there is a possibility for users to remix source code.

Another project that GOTO10 had planned to work on but still needs some more time to develop is a FLOSS repository for software art. The project is currently still in its preparatory stage.

To conclude, GOTO10’s outro highlighted some issues: Their artistic research/flow is quite opposite to product design, and its processes are very often very unfinished. GOTO10 describes itself as a ground to sow seeds; as a collective at the cross-roads of networks than a network itself, but whatever its typology it stresses that a network is not an end in itself but a playground.

Another release by GOTO10: pure:dyne, an operating system on a USB key.

Available for only 8 euros during Winter Camp, or bring your USB stick and they will help you DIY.

From the GOTO10 website:
pure:dyne is happy to announce the release of this super-cute, super small 2gb liveUSB! Pre-loaded with the latest pure:dyne system (with 1.2gb space left over for storing your settings and files). A slick, slim, mini USB measuring just a few mm thick.

pure:dyne is an operating system developed to provide media artists with a complete set of tools for realtime audio and video processing. pure:dyne is a live distribution, you don’t need to install anything. Simply boot your computer using the live CD and you’re ready to start using software such as Pure Data, Supercollider, Icecast, Csound, Fluxus, Processing, Arduino and much much more.

pure:dyne will work on any PC laptop, desktop, and single-board computers, including the intel-based Mac, Asus’ Eee PC, and any x86 netbooks.

Various Artists – /Substrate/
GOSUB10-001

Today (6/3) GOTO10 launches Substrate (an inaugural release) on their new netlabel GOSUB10. A 12-track compilation of music from across the electronic music genre, it features friends and family of the GOTO10 collective, illustrating the strong networks by which the label will grow and provide insight into future directions.

/Substrate/ features tracks by: Earweego, krgn, vacca, 0xA, Bazterrak, Frank Barknecht, Yee-King, Soudo, Julian Brook, Martin Howse, Rob Canning and Ultrageranium.

Dedicated to new electronic music and audio/visuals, the GOSUB10 label will feature an eclectic group of musicians drawn together by their shared use of Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS). Freely distributed by stream, download and special DVD releases, and made available through an open license, GOSUB10 is run by the GOTO10 collective – an international group of artists, musicians and programmers, dedicated to FLOSS and digital arts. Brought to life in a intensive three day work sprint, the GOSUB10 netlabel is a natural extension of GOTO10′s activities supporting and promoting digital art alongside FLOSS tools through workshops, festivals, exhibitions, writing, and more.

text by Heather Corcoran.

This post is partially based on an interview between Gabriella Coleman and Aymeric Mansoux (GOTO10) that took place on the first day of Winter Camp.

Aymeric Mansoux is both artist and musician. His main interests revolve around online communities, software as a medium and the influence of FLOSS in the development and understanding of digital art. His favorite projects is Metabiosis (in collaboration with Marloes de Valk, who is also part of GOTO10). Metabiosis is an artistic experiment for those who are curious about so-called generative and self-organizing systems in the ever growing ecosystem of connected machines.

In 2003 the two friends Thomas Vriet and Aymeric Mansoux (both from Poitiers) decided to combine the best of Anatomic (by Sher Doruff and Guy van Belle) and the Futuroscope. The outcome was the GOTO10 collective, a group of international artists and programmers, dedicated to Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS) and the exploration of the blurry line between art and software programming; a platform for ideas.
GOTO10 was also created as a reaction to the art scene of that time, in which writing software was almost never considered to be an artistic practice. The collective has no physical location, except for the servers (which they call ‘the playground’); the collective exists only within the decentralized network of machines, in mailinglists and IRC, Wikis, the Ticket System and biannual organized meetings.

Entrance to the collective is only granted to friends of the group that have proven their abilities and insights in collaborative projects throughout the years. This creates a highly comrade-based dynamic within this group of predominantly black haired man. GOTO10s current amount of members is 11 (+one), but the number has fluctuated and is subject of debate. In the collective, there is no need for anybody to do anything, except for basic housekeeping, which means the maintenance of bits of software on the server, the documentation and archiving of projects and the drafting of CVs for applications. The handling of a project depends on the members that want to participate at any time. Stress is dealt with very effectively; when a key-participant is too busy, the project is put into hibernation. This is mainly done because the entertaining and friendship aspects of the GOTO10 have proven themselves the most fruitful components for labor.

The survival of GOTO10 has not always been as natural, unforced and easygoing as it sounds. The collective has struggled through growing pains that were accompanied with their usual identity crisis: was the collective running to become a professional organization or should it stay GOTO10 (‘the family’)? The crisis lasted for 2 years and led to the unloading of some of its members before finally resulting in the decision to prioritize a friendship. Even so, the collective is still figuring out their actual identity and formation. Because GOTO10 has decided never to turn into an institution, the collective is always looking for collaborations on bigger projects. For example they once ‘out-sourced’ part of the “make art” festival to Piksel, and often work together with curators and producers who help them with funding. They are, as they say themselves, a migrating laboratory’ that ‘puts Trojan projects inside other projects’.

At this point, GOTO10 survives on big and small funding; their servers are for instance donated by de Waag, Bek and DEK Space, whereas the “make art” festival was once funded by the French DICREAM fund and the latest pure:dyne by Arts Council England. GOTO10 also tries to redistribute resources to other collectives, like for instance free streaming services.

During Winter Camp, GOTO10 plans ‘to have several group hugs, to eat tons of stroopwaffels, to gossip about every networks and drink beers.’
They will also try to resurrect their initial (and since then ever-hibernating) project GOSUB10, a FLOSS-based netlabel, and work on Art.deb, a file package repository of FLOSS art.

GOTO10 is a very well networked collective, which has become apparent by the many connections the collective has with other participants in Winter Camp:
- GOTO10 collaborated with Ushi Reiter from Genderchanger for liwoli09 in Linz.
- GOTO10 collaborated with James Wall Bank from bricolabs for workshops and code sprints at access-space.
- GOTO10 collaborated with Rama from the dyne.org network for integrating streaming software in pure:dyne.