A utopian world is seen as impossible by the majority of people to say the least. We can argue all day long (and weeks, or months, or years) until we all have blue or purple faces the pros and cons. The reasons it would be impossible and the reasons it would not be impossible, as are wide and spread as the Oceans due to cultural, religious and political views.

Thesis Introduction of a utopian world

The thesis and it’s 3D animated film cover 4 basic themes. Trying to talk about a film before finishing it, without giving away all its core themes and subjects is difficult and quite dangerous for a “Hollywood” film. But we are not Hollywood in any sense.

This is what I said in the introduction to my MFA thesis:

“Would humanity benefit if resources were combined to solve our common problems in an environment of mutual cooperation and support? This paper and the digital 3D animated short film Traces, respond yes. The availability of open source software and hardware demonstrates that current efforts in digital technology industries, like information technology, are providing individuals and marginalized groups access to tools of content creation by removing the price barrier.

The availability of open source software is breaking the barriers of discrimination in the arts as well as in other industries. The power of open source academic software, in particular, became apparent when producing this paper. Both proprietary software like EndNote and open source software like Zotero are available for reference management and citations. The developers of EndNote claim that it works very well with Apple Pages, Word and even open source software like LibreOffice and OpenOffice, but EndNote costs $249.95 downloaded or $299.95 shipped. Zotero, on the other hand, works with all previously mentioned word processors, and is free.”

Putting the utopian world to test

When I graduated from my MFA I was hired by a college to teach 3D modeling using Maya. I was given “permission” to actually add Blender to the mix and teach the students another tool. The college in general was looking to migrate and populate their departments with as much Open Source software, hardware and even open source education services and tools like textbooks. Most faculty emails and communications were about this subject with faculty trying to come up with solutions to their departments.

Sadly, a visual design and art department, not to mentioned any audio related department already has plenty of those open source software tools available. The science and math, literature and such, maybe a bit more complicated (I have seen a lot of software for them, but am not a scientist or mathematician to say that they are any good!). But the arts? The audio and visual arts? Plenty.

Still, that was the thing that move me out of there. They were completely unwilling to look into it and me teaching Blender and other open source software in the lab became a threat to someone up enough that I became persona-non-Grata! (exaggerating with the persona-non-Grata for the drama)

After that experience, I did it again. I was hired by a school district right before the current, now … winding down?… pandemic. Again, we found ourselves teaching at a distance and running like chickens without heads trying to figure out the tech needed and where the funds were coming from, etc. Solution? Open source software and hardware. But … nope. Families had to run to buy PC’s, and other technology that they could not understand because that is what the district “allowed” for school. Oh, and that only applied to the ones that could afford it. The district gave those Chromebook computers that literally needed the internet to function.

And like I said above, I did it again. In my interest to help those families I became the … whatever you want to call it. Ended up letting go of that position too. I could not sit idle watching families struggle with something there were no real reason to do so.

So, is a utopian world really impossible?

I still believe that the answer is no. But elitism is very strong and a capitalist society strives in elitism.

Education is one, if not the one industry that would benefit the most of open source. I am always impressed by the students that do not sit idle waiting to be given answers. They learn to learn. And I miss them dearly. But I think education industry and I do not agree and have to go our separate ways. So here I am, rebuilding my old blog post system with writings from my MFA thesis.

On the other hand, my teaching passion is going to get an outlet on the new art academy the company is building. You can find it here and bookmark it. We are not open for business there, but soon. For the current and foreseeable future it will be directed towards Spanish speaking adult audiences but English will be available on all courses once translated, and videos will have subtitles. It will be my personal contribution (owned by the company though) to create a possible utopian world where education can be accessed by all using tools that are readily available.

On that same principle, most of the courses will be traditional media like pencil, pen, inks, pains, brushes, etc. that can also be performed with open source software if desired by the students. We are, of course considering software training. We will undoubtedly start with production software like Blender, Krita, Kdenlive, Natron, Audacity and others.

We are considering also providing the courses for homeschooling groups and parents that want to learn first, and then teach their young ones. But the lessons we are creating are not for young audiences.