An experimental online platform where artists created, curated, and traded work using virtual currency.
OPENSTUDIO was a community-based platform that empowered participants to create, exchange, and sell artwork using a virtual currency and innovative tools. It was developed by the Physical Language Workshop led by John Maeda at the MIT Media Lab and operated from 2005 to 2008.
The platform featured asynchronous collective creation through SVGs with embedded drawing history, on-demand rendering of art tailored to viewing devices, promiserver contracts for commissioned work, and a distributed sensor-actuator system for building interconnected electronic artworks.
Participants created in diverse styles, curated exhibitions, became collectors, built virtual museums, formed collaboration rings, and developed taxonomies. In retrospect, OPENSTUDIO was ahead of its time—prefiguring many dynamics of today’s NFT marketplaces.
OPENSTUDIO was a collaboration among Burak Arikan, Luis Blackaller, Annie Ding, Brent Fitzgerald, Amber Frid-Jimenez, Kate Hollenbach, and Kelly Norton.
Collaborators
