Courses and Workshops at La Scuola Open Source 2019–20

By Arianna Smaron and Giacomo Boffo
Designers-in-residence, researchers, curators of courses 2019-20

A few months ago, when the team of La Scuola Open Source asked us to draft a plan for the courses and workshops of the coming year, we started thinking rather freely about the people we would have liked to bring to Bari and share with La Scuola’s community and public. It was mostly people we had met at Uni or through our professional path, in Italy or abroad, and that struck us for the relevance of their contribution to the profession (and, often, on a personal level too). In particular, we were interested in involving people that could help dig deeper in a few specific themes we felt were particularly relevant to La Scuola’s activity: the redefinition of the concept of Open Source; the exploration and activation of Bari (with a focus on the territory and its culture); and the use of visual communication as a tool of social change (or, on the contrary, of social manipulation).

The resulting program has a particularly strong graphic, typographic and experimental side to it; and stands out for it international and interdisciplinary nature. This year’s teaching staff includes (for the first time since SOS is performing) professionals from Switzerland, France, England, the Netherlands and Germany; and their practices include coding, installation design, type design, illustration, book and web design, urban exploration and activation, corporate and social design.

The teacher’s response was overall eager and enthusiastic, especially when it came to the opportunity of creating moments of collaboration that would spread knowledge and enrich everybody involved.

We see this new season of courses as the first real international opening for La Scuola, with the ambition to start a long-term effort that will hopefully make the institute a reference for visual and open source culture in Europe. We also see it as a natural continuation of a project that was focused from the very beginning on the importance of knowledge as a resource accessible to all.

As we came to discover, the ability of La Scuola of maintaining its principles and its value for its community proved to be crucial in attracting interesting and heterogeneous professionals, and in creating new networks. As the saying from Bari goes: ‘Stipe, ca trueve’ (‘Keep, and you shall find’).

All activities will be published soon on La Scuola Open Source’s webpage.

Fall 2019

Debut Debut (CH), The Generative Press
↳ A workshop to set up a temporary publishing house and to develope an original Open Source manual in both printed and digital.

Guido Chiefalo (Art Director FAO) (IT), P2 - Propaganda Progettuale
↳ Exploring the dark, propaganda-oriented side of visual communication with a specialist of corporate and institutional design.

EEE Studio (IT) , SUBSTITUTES
↳ Emilio Macchia and Erica Preli are among the editors and designers of Progetto Grafico (the most widely recognised magazine for graphic design in Italy) and creators of the festival Farenheit 39 in Ravenna. Through their workshop, participants will get a chance to explore the historical library of Santa Teresa dei Maschi in search of bodies hidden in books.

Parasite 2.0 (IT), Make Open Source Primitive Again
↳ Pushing to the limit the typical FabLab tools to create neo-primitive objects and installations.
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Flaneur Magazine (D), Flaneur Magazine WS
↳ Exploring on a urban, cultural and human level the neighborhood of Libertà to create a publication-manifetso able to represent it in all its contradictions.

Huasipichanga (EC, NL), Co-create Tools for Inclusive Cities
↳ Huasipichanga is a Cuenca and Rotterdam based collective that believes in highlighting and solving urban problems through the participation of local communities.

Catalogtree (NL) Pirate Bay Bari
↳ Graphic design, urban exploration, data visualisation

Muttnik (IT)
↳ Graphic design

Spring 2020

Dinamo (CH)
↳ Type design, Open source

common-interest (CH)
↳ Social design, Exhibition design, research & Critique

Velvetyne (D, FR)
↳ Type design, Open source

Ted Davis (CH - USA)
↳ Graphic design, Coding

Yann Patrick Martins (CH)
↳ Coding, digital Artist & Researcher at the Critical Media Lab Basel

Abake (UK)
↳ Graphic design, Performative design

Ruber Pater (NL)
↳ Graphic design, Political design

Ufficio Misteri (IT)
↳ Illustration