BURN STATION is a mobile copying station which - as it travels through suburban spaces - supports the free distribution music and audio. It is software as well as a local network. But above all BURN STATION is a social event which congregates people together to listen, select and copy net label and net radio audio files with a Copyleft Licence. BURN STATION is an open source and a non-commercial project involving the new means of free networked distribution. It is based on the BURN STATION software which was developed by Platoniq and Rama as a 100% Free software. BURN STATION aims to establish links between the media space and the physical space of the city.

BURN STATION is an open source, copyleft model project, an experiment in practical gift economics aiming to reflect on the understandings, sensibilities and entry of `Open Source' ideas into other social, cultural, and artistic practices. The starting point is the development of a system of distribution as a mobile self-service. This system has been running and evolving throughout the first 2 on-going years of Burn station actions by Platoniq. It is designed as a local data base for audio that automatizes the process of selection, listening and recording of files. The mobile distribution unit consists of 4 computers connected to a local server. The system is managed by free software which has been programmed for the project and is published and distributed under the GNU GPL Licence.

THE TOUR : THE CITY AS A CO-OPERATIVE SYSTEM
From ‘Peer to Peer' to ‘Face to Face'
The setup is transported in a van and is maintained by the Platoniq team. Other groups (music net-labels, producers, artists, activists…) working on similar topics as the Platoniq team intervene as we met them during the tour.

With “bringing netculture to the street” as its main slogan, BURN STATION is both a practical and an investigative project on involving new voices, media and practices in a discourse about the use of public space and processes for public engagement. BURN STATION aims to establish links between the media space and the physical space of the city. The exchange in public space is often accompanied by free concerts, actions, workshops, debates, chats and radio broadcasts streamed and aired on local Fm and Internet.

KEY WORDS :
- Distribution, diffusion and exchange of free content.
- Social application of technology.
- Tactical Mobility.
- Techno culture as a new pop paradigm.
- From ‘Peer to Peer' to ‘Face to Face'.
- Mapping the digital culture from a local perspective.
- Free culture and self-organization.
- D.I.Y (Do It Yourself)

MAIN OBJECTIVES
- Producing a piece of software released under an open license (including a data base and a copy station) to share audiovisual contents.
- Exchanging and releasing free licenses and content between different communities.
- Documenting the independent media culture scene.
- Studying the new underground cultural context of Eastern and Southern Europe and latin america.
- Bringing the Internet in the streets.
- Making a network of different community groups that may share resources, knowledge and even create common projects and activities.

The project has been supported by F30kms and AVAM