I am writing to you as I am researching content for the constitution of a film and reading library which will be permanently installed in the reading area (which is presently being set up) at Gasworks, London, and will be available as far as possible, as an online linked bibliography or resource.

This initiative stems from Disclosures, “http://gasworks.org.uk/exhibitions/detail.php?id=344“, a project exploring the extent to which Open Source methodologies find applications in fields of cultural production outside of the Internet. We have started constituting a library during Disclosures and are currently working on its expansion. We are looking for films, videos, digital works, documentaries, files and printed material of any kind which contribute (or have contributed) to themes of openness – as organizational strategy and/or ethos; diffuse authorship and open content licences; the limits of openness, the conditions of its existence and its economic reality; the building and maintaining of networks, etc. The library is there to gather material from different interconnected fields encompassing urban sociology, critical media and visual art practice, and social history studies.

We would like to ask you if you and/or your organisation had material which you thought was relevant to the subjects outlined above and which you could send us for addition.

We’re hoping to create an interesting archive of initiatives that are not necessarily seen together and to open them up to various publics, i.e. students, researchers, practitioners, curators, to help them in their research or simply introduce them to a range of projects and activities. We will place a catalogue online which will link to all online material.

We look forward to hearing from you or receiving your material. You can send it to: moira@gasworks.org.uk