This is part two of a three part series I’m writing on what it’s like teaching programming as a one-time art history major. If you missed it, you can read part one here.
Part 2: Open Source is our Salon des Indépendants
Public displays of art have been essential to developing artistic communities throughout history. But at various points in history, groups such as Academies or Guilds controlled when exhibitions happened, who could show work, and what kind of work could be shown. In 19th century Paris, a group of artists organized a series of alternative exhibitions called the Salon des Indépendants that gave artists a direct outlet to the public and other artists, with no mediating Academic jury. Open source code has played a similar role in freedom of expression for programmers over the past few decades, and forms an invaluable tool for those of use who teach code.
Creating space
The original salons were periodic exhibitions curated by the French Academy. The Academy’s juries of “experts” selected the works for inclusion and rejected much of the most innovative work going on in Paris in the 1890s. In response, the Salon des Indépendants was formed in 1893 and exhibited works by the day’s avant-garde artists like Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Georges Seurat. The major break this independent Salon had with the Academy was that there was no admission jury deciding which works were selected. Open source has done the same for programming: no company, publisher, or official approval is required to exhibit one’s code to the public. The Salon des Indépendants was the birthplace of some of the early 20th century’s most influential artistic movements, and a similar explosion in creativity is happening today in open source.
