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The phrase ‘democratizing the creative process’ has been raised more than once over the last decade. The idea of enabling information, knowledge and resources as free accessible commodities is gradually becoming one of the 21st century’s biggest movements. The first decade was characterized by global initiatives of amplifying information distribution and storage capabilities. Gradually digital tools are becoming more common, user friendly and free. All in all bottlenecks of distribution and production are beginning to dissolve. As production and distribution costs become marginal, innovation and ideas (of how to use them) are becoming the most important asset. This transition will gradually transform our economy from an economy of commodities to an economy of ideas. The question is ‘Does the removal of all restrictions of a creative process necessarily lead to a creative Renaissance?’ The transformation to digital format has made entire industries more accessible and collaborative (News, Photography, Publishing, Film, Music…). Scanners, printers, samplers and editing softwares are just some of the tools that enable us to read, write and edit information. Whether it is music, text, images or CAD files (Computer-Aided-Design) they can all be characterize now as types of information. Digital fabrication machines and softwares have been around for a couple of decades now. For many years these technologies were considered highly expensive making costs the main argument for holding back their popularity. However the rise of free open source tools and low cost production services contradicts this assumption. Much like the domestic paper printer usage, we mostly use domestic printers to print (create) our own original content or when we need a hardcopy and can’t get it elsewhere. Passive consumption doesn’t provide the incentives to use these new machines. Collaborative and gratifying process is the key for accelerating these technologies. Without common language, duplicating hardware innovation remains a fragmented process. Common language is the key for collaboration and the system for distributing knowledge. As a part of a global network of hardware hackers communities, industrial designers, engineers, musicians and fabrications sites our mission is to create incentives and inspiration for adopting these trends and technologies in a global scale. Zoybar is a new form of expression, a language that provides knowledge and information for the creation of music instruments. Zoybar is an open sourced language. Users can improve, create and add more components on a collaborative platform. Open hardware architecture translates as open modular systems. Zoybar is not a specific instrument. We provide physical and virtual platforms as creation tools for developing new music instruments. This is a call for action, anyone can join. Music is the universal language that will spread our vision. At the moment we are still in the transition time. For this reason we also provide fully produced hardware kits for those who are more able to spread our word by playing and recording. So grab your hot, earl grey cup of tea and join us at our pony ranch. |