Research, public programmes and publications · Vancouver and Mexico City
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the studio of Andrew Ahachinsky, artist and researcher
Open format / Version 0.1

The Bobbinet Credit Line

Version 0.1, published 31 October 2026. Licence: CC BY 4.0. You may copy, adapt and use it, including commercially, if you credit “Bobbinet Credit Line v0.1, bobbinet.com”.

What it is

The Credit Line is a plain-text format for recording who and what contributed to a work, and how each contributor chose to be named. A work can be an exhibition, a book, a public conversation, an image or a dataset. The record can sit on a web page, in a catalogue, in a file’s metadata or on a wall label.

The format

A record has a header and one line for each contributor, tool or source.

Header: the title of the work, the date, the host (the organisation presenting it), the record keeper (the person who maintains the record) and the record version.

Person line: ROLE, NAME AS CHOSEN, FORM. The form is one of four: name; role only; pseudonym; withheld. The person picks the form before the record is published.

Tool line: TOOL AND VERSION, WHAT IT DID, DIRECTED BY (a named person). AI tools are listed here like any other tool.

Source line: DATA OR MATERIAL, OWNER OR LICENCE, CONSENT (given, not needed, or not asked).

Four working rules

  1. Each person sees their line and chooses its form before anything is published.
  2. A person may ask to change or withdraw their line later. The record keeps a dated note of the change.
  3. When AI produced or altered part of the work, the tool line says which part and who directed it.
  4. The record is versioned. Each version carries its date.

A fictional example

Work: Harbour Notes (an invented example)
Host: Example Museum. Record keeper: A. Keeper. Record version 1, 12 March 2027.

  • Curator, Maria Example, name
  • Sound recording, role only (the contributor chose not to be named)
  • Translation, J. Sample, pseudonym
  • Image generator (model name and version), produced the poster background, directed by Maria Example
  • Archive recordings, Example Harbour Archive, licence CC BY, consent not needed

Related work

Several existing systems record parts of this. The Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) names author roles in research. C2PA Content Credentials record the technical provenance of media files. IPTC metadata carries credit fields for photographs. The Credit Line is a short, human-readable record that can sit beside these. It does not replace them.

Limits of v0.1

This is a first draft for testing in public conversations and by any host who wants to try it. v0.1 does not yet say what to record when a contributor cannot be identified, cannot be reached, or declines to take part. A proposal for v0.2 will address these three cases; comments on them are especially welcome. It is not legal advice, and no law is claimed to require it. Comments and corrections are welcome at [email protected].