Project History

The interface for OPEN_Studio is a reworking of previous designs by Andy Deck using similar collaborative drawing processes. GraphicJam (Fig.1) was released in 1999 in cooperation with Mark Napier and The Thing. It in turn was based on an early program dubbed "The Blackboard" (Fig.2). In many respects it was similar to OPEN_Studio, though less stable. An earlier version of this collaborative drawing tool, made in 1997 with Till Kreuger, is shown in Fig.3. None remains fully networked, but they remain online for documentary purposes.

Fig.1	Fig.2	Fig.3	Fig.4
Previous research in online drawing software.

DraWarD (Fig.4) was developed in 1995 at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. This Java program is not collaborative in the same sense as OPEN_Studio, however, it laid some of the groundwork for the aesthetics and techniques used in the present project. Still older prototypes can be found in the Andyland archive.