S-OS: Social Operating System for Plymouth.
8 February – 6 April
i-DAT, in collaboration with Plymouth Arts Centre, presents: ‘S-OS: a Social Operating System’ for the city of Plymouth. S-OS is a collection of creative interventions and strategic manifestations that provides a new and more meaningful ‘algorithm’ for modeling ‘Social Exchange’ and proposes a more effective ‘measure’ for ‘Quality of Life’.
The idea of a ‘Social Operating System’ (referencing computer Operating Systems such as Mac OSX and Windows) has emerged through the prominence of OnLine Social Networking Software such as Facebook and Myspace. These websites, the software that drives them and the online communities that thrive around them form a “platform for online living where all social activities are integrated.” Wired (2007).
The S-OS project provides an Operating System for the social life of the City of Plymouth. It superimposes the notion of an ‘OnLine’ Social Operating System onto ‘RealLife’ human interactions, modeling, analyzing and making visible the social exchange within the City.
Whilst town planners and architects model the ‘physical’ City and Highways Department’s model the ‘temporal’ ebb and flow of traffic in and around the City, S-OS will model the ‘invisible’ social exchanges of the City’s inhabitants. Plymouth Arts Centre will be converted into a ‘Central Processing Unit’ to run S-OS as a RealLife Social Operating System, generating creative interventions and strategic manifestations on, by and for the citizens of Plymouth.
i-DAT, a Centre of Expertise at the University of Plymouth, is a catalyst for creative innovation across the fields of Art, Science and Technology, facilitating regional, national and international collaborations and cultural projects. As a networked organisation and ‘cultural broker’ i-DAT’s transdisciplinary agenda fosters ‘open innovation’, Knowledge exchange and reciprocal relationships between companies, institutions, communities and individuals.
Plymouth Arts Centre and i-DAT present a series of new projects and residencies that have been developed through an ongoing collaboration that explores new systems and technologies for artistic production, dissemination and participation that challenge the traditional models of creation and consumption of art:
Residencies for Artists Stanza (UK), Eduardo Costa (Brazil) and Curator Basak Senova (Turkey) will be shared across both organizations to develop of new commissions, workshops and seminars. These activities also create a rich context for i-DAT’s ‘S-OS: Social Operating System for Plymouth’ exhibition at Plymouth Arts Centre. Framed by the emergence of online social networks and concepts of ‘Social Exchange’ this collaboration will generate a unique and potent series of creative interventions.
Plymouth Arts Centre: 38 Looe Street, Plymouth, PL4 0EB
Tel. + 44 (0) 1752 206114 / Fax. + 44 (0) 1752 206118
Email: info@plymouthac.org.uk / http://www.plymouthac.org.uk
