Still Water
Encyclopedia
Still Water is a research and development laboratory
at the New Media
Department of the University of Maine
that studies and builds networks for artists, academics, and other creative professions. Still Water examines networking from technical, social, and political angles; specific areas of interest include online collaboration, indigenous sharing protocols, and limits placed on artistic remixes
and filesharing by intellectual property
law.
Still Water is also the current development team for the Variable Media Questionnaire, a tool that tracks strategies for preserving ephemeral artworks
and has been proposed as a means of resurrecting obsolescent artistic and scientific media. Still Water also helped create the Cross-Cultural Partnership, a legal instrument meant to encourage ethical behavior across cultural divides, as when electronic music
ians want to sample Native American
chants or when Wabanaki
elders and permaculture
activists live and work together in Still Water's LongGreenHouse project.
with Eyebeam Atelier
, which merged conversations during a six-week period from the email discussion lists Creative Commons
(USA), Rhizome.org
(USA), DATA (Ireland), Sarai
(India), and Fibreculture (Australia).
gardener and engineer Julia and Charles Yelton. The staff includes co-founders Joline Blais and Jon Ippolito
and senior researchers John P. Bell
and Craig Dietrich
.
Laboratory
A laboratory is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. The title of laboratory is also used for certain other facilities where the processes or equipment used are similar to those in scientific laboratories...
at the New Media
New media
New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, new media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community...
Department of the University of Maine
University of Maine
The University of Maine is a public research university located in Orono, Maine, United States. The university was established in 1865 as a land grant college and is referred to as the flagship university of the University of Maine System...
that studies and builds networks for artists, academics, and other creative professions. Still Water examines networking from technical, social, and political angles; specific areas of interest include online collaboration, indigenous sharing protocols, and limits placed on artistic remixes
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
and filesharing by intellectual property
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
law.
Digital tools
Still Water has released social software intended to foster collaborative creation, distribution, and preservation of common culture. ThoughtMesh and The Pool are meant to connect digital scholars and creators, and have been described as incubators for artists and students that may serve as a means of evaluating academics working in new media.Still Water is also the current development team for the Variable Media Questionnaire, a tool that tracks strategies for preserving ephemeral artworks
New media art preservation
New media art preservation, a form of Art conservation, is the study and practice of techniques for sustaining artworks created using digital, biological, performative, and other variable media....
and has been proposed as a means of resurrecting obsolescent artistic and scientific media. Still Water also helped create the Cross-Cultural Partnership, a legal instrument meant to encourage ethical behavior across cultural divides, as when electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
ians want to sample Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
chants or when Wabanaki
Wabanaki
Wabanaki, Wabenaki, Wobanaki, etc. may refer to:In geography* area referred as the "Dawn land" by many Algonquian-speaking peoples to describe the Eastern region of the North American continent, generally described as being New England in the United States, plus Quebec and the Maritimes in CanadaIn...
elders and permaculture
Permaculture
Permaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems that is modeled on the relationships found in nature. It is based on the ecology of how things interrelate rather than on the strictly biological concerns that form the foundation of modern agriculture...
activists live and work together in Still Water's LongGreenHouse project.
Public events
Public events that Still Water has produced with these themes include the Code and Creativity conferences (2003-present) and Connected Knowledge conferences (2006-present). In 2004, Still Water co-organized the event Distributed CreativityDistributed Creativity
The term distributed creativity is used to describe networked cultural production that allows for the creative interplay of geographically dispersed participants. It is not one artist working on one object but rather a group of authors contributing to an artwork. In media art, one can trace a...
with Eyebeam Atelier
Eyebeam Atelier
Eyebeam, is a not-for-profit arts and technology center in New York City. Their stated purpose is to promote the creative use of new technologies by funding artwork, education and exhibitions. The founders were John S. Johnson III, David S. Johnson and Roderic R...
, which merged conversations during a six-week period from the email discussion lists Creative Commons
Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...
(USA), Rhizome.org
Rhizome (art)
Rhizome is a not-for-profit arts organization, that supports and provides a platform for new media art.-History:Artist and curator Mark Tribe founded Rhizome as a small email list in 1996 while living in Berlin. By August, Rhizome had launched its website, which by 1998 had developed a significant...
(USA), DATA (Ireland), Sarai
The Sarai Programme at CSDS
Sarai is a programme of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies , Delhi. CSDS is an independent social science and humanities research centre, with traditions of dissent and a commitment to public intellectual commitment going back four decades....
(India), and Fibreculture (Australia).
Fellows and staff
Still Water research fellows include Mi'kmaq clan mother Miigam'agan and Wampanoag elder gkisedtanamoogk, and permaculturePermaculture
Permaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems that is modeled on the relationships found in nature. It is based on the ecology of how things interrelate rather than on the strictly biological concerns that form the foundation of modern agriculture...
gardener and engineer Julia and Charles Yelton. The staff includes co-founders Joline Blais and Jon Ippolito
Jon Ippolito
Jon Ippolito is an artist, educator, new media scholar, and former curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Ippolito studied astrophysics and painting in the early 1980s, then pursued Internet art in the 1990s...
and senior researchers John P. Bell
John P. Bell
John P. Bell is a digital artist, educator, and software developer who is presently on the faculty of the New Media department and Innovative Communication Design program at the University of Maine.-History:...
and Craig Dietrich
Craig Dietrich
Craig Dietrich is a digital artist, scholar, and educator who is presently on the faculty of the Institute for Multimedia Literacy, part of the School of Cinematic Arts, at the University of Southern California.-History:...
.