“Wer hat dem wird gegeben, wer nicht hat der nimmt’s sichs eben” (Brecht) As a member of the D-word community 1 I was involved in last years’ discussions about the ‘Democracy project’ 2, virtually on D-word, and physically at the IDFA Democracy pitching forum. I believe that Western Democracy is facing its biggest crisis around the issue of property and specifically intellectual property. The poorest of our planet survive through sharing, smuggling, squatting, stealing and hospitality. Their survival depends on gift-economies and cannot be sustained through the laws of the ownership society. New technologies offer a potential for new ways of production and distribution of knowledge and culture through archiving 3, file-sharing4 and time-shifting systems5. Nevertheless, existing corporate interests are using their political powers to protect an old business model that is under pressure from these new technologies, and that is propped up by electronic patents 6 and digital rights management. The Western economic model is unsustainable; there cannot be endless growth, endless profit, endless expansion. In order to sustain itself the ownership society needs to expand into new areas and is now colonising our common intellectual and cultural heritage. However this raises serious ethical issues: why would a poor HIV/AIDS patient have to pay for patents in order to receive medication? This colonisation of knowledge is threatening the very idea of Democracy. How can a democratic debate take place if knowledge is restricted to a small group of engineers and corporate interests? True democracy is based on free, informed debate, and supported by cultural exchange, diversity and education. In order for a democratic system to function knowledge has to be free. Therefore we have to move from the ownership society to a gift economy 7, from copyright to hospitality. Godard once said “Let’s not make a film about politics, let’s make a film politically”. Isn’t it time to look for new ways of production and distribution and, when it comes to the Democracy Project wouldn’t it be a brave act and at the same time a significant statement to allow for open online distribution of all material produced under its name? To copyleft 8 all films and media content and make it freely available for everybody to view, remix and redistribute? Adnan Hadzi
editopen manifesto
from editopen.co.uk
Editopen is a system. It is a system by which we can create. The freedom of film-making practice that editopen; as a system, provides, makes it wholly more creative.
The liberty that is the basis of the system is what will make films created here a success. The ability to freely edit sequences and re-submit them; surrounded by an atmosphere of discussion, both about the sequences themselves, and the concept of creating film/video in this way, will create a success. However, success of the system or the films themselves is debatable – but only the practice of working this way will prove either argument.
The infrastructure that is available is a great thing, as it allows all created work to be constantly that – ‘work’. By looking at film/video sequences in this way we can constantly review how the video & the system play of each other. Seeing the effects they have on each other is vital for both the success of editopen as a working concept of creative practice and the film/video it creates.
Again, infrastructure is a key term – by allowing editopen to create works, we allow the works to be created by editopen. It gives us total freedom in any end products that might arise from using this system of creation.
Editopen is termed as ‘Open Source’. We chose this because we believe it to be true of the project. Not only can the 3min sequences be seen as source code that is distributed freely for re-use and re-edit – but it is also, we believe, a genuine attempt to field the concept of open source software into another arena – that of contemporary creative practice.
Allowing for a total re-use and re-edit of these sequences perhaps leans more to the concept of ‘Open Sequence’ or ‘Open Video’ – but looking at the project as a whole, ‘Open Source’ is certainly more poignant. We do, however, leave this up to discussion.
Each sequence, that is both the initial un-edited sequence, and the final edited sequence are licensed under the [[Creative Commons License]]. All users are reminded of this before they participate in any projects with editopen.co.uk
brainstorming 4th march 2006, tv hacking workshop
– hong kong city
– all saints church
– seagar distillery
– boat community
– housing in deptford
– dlr joutney
– day times in deptford
– music docs
– headjam, lewisham way 117
– pain, lewisham way
– dirtypins
– known
– the kut
– punch judy
– lost club
– destillery – open arts plattform
– i love nx
– bubble gum
– lewisham way
– danny
– new cross inn
– rehersal studios, commercial
– rubbish fairys
– deptford highstreet
– hayles gallery
– degentrification?
– use your loaf – social center which has been squatted, free film nights
– pips estate
– redevelopment southwark, stratford, olympics
– infrastructure changing arround housing estates
– arts community
– how is housing changing?
– education
– public playgrounds
– what is the situation with the small shops?
– kranes / building sites
– control & space
– planing issues, planing documents
– abandonned vehicles
– historical review
– brainoff.com/worldkit/londonplanning
– back in the times of the docks
– stowage archive material
– archive material research for database
– borders of deptford, lewisham, greenwich?
– new cross, brockley, deptford?
– cruiseliner terminal
– charity studies
– laban dance center
– deptford creek
– betting shops
– conspiracy?
– visual representation, forms, methods?
– show a historical change in architecture and society
– languages?
– subcultures
deptford a synphony of a city?
the idea comes from "berlin, synphony of a city", see below. the idea would be to do a music docmentary arround deptford to an industrial sound track
any musician interested in contributing sound out of deptford to the deptford.tv database please email to info(at)deptford.tv
Walter Ruttmann
«Berlin, Symphony of a City»
«During the many years of my movement studies drawn from abstract means, I have never been able to escape the urge to create from living materials, from the millions of movement-related energies that actually exist in the organism of the big city, a film symphony,» writes Ruttmann. For this project, Ruttmann works together with scriptwriter Carl Mayer, whose shares his exasperation with the artificiality and limitations of studio work. Carl Mayer writes a film treatment aimed at achieving a symphonic film structure, excluding both actors and a story. It concentrates on what really exists, and on a form that uses the inherent means of film. . (…) (Ruttman) intends for the viewer to experience the energies, dynamics and movements of the big city, with original cinematographic means. For this end, the filmed shots function as the starting point for a montage whose rhythm hypnotizes the viewer by conveying an experience in velocities, and also produce a new awareness regarding the objectivity of filmed shots.
(Source: Deutsches Filminstitut – DIF, Frankfurt/M, visit: www.deutsches-filminstitut.de, based on: Jean-Paul Goergen, Walter Ruttmann, «Eine Dokumentation», Berlin, 1989.)
notes deptford.tv soap box presentation
notes from the media art soap box presentation (programme see bellow):
over the open season deptford.tv will launch. the bitnik.org media collective will code the rough structure of the database to experiment with.
deptford.tv is a database documentary around the deptford area and it’s regeneration process.
what do we understand with database documentary?
we’re assembling audio-visual content on the deptford.tv server, important to this assembly it the editing of metadata of each clip. under clip we understand the smallest “film” unit from start recording a sequence to end recording a sequence.
this metadata is accessible over a web-browser. the clips can be selected and downloaded to a local computer. on the local computer they can be edited and uploaded back to the deptford.tv server for publishing – together with the EDL (edit decision list) of each edit.
in the future this edl metadata of the edits will create a database sitting on top of the rough material and referring to versions of edits coming out of the deptford.tv database.
why regeneration?
in 2003 the laban dance center opened at deptford creek. herzog & de meuron are the architects – issues around the regeneration came up and students at goldsmiths college where discussing different perspectives of regeneration in different countries.
where i come from regeneration is called staedteplaning (city planing) and is not so immediate experienced as we saw it here in deptford.
if you’re interested in the development of the database and to see a work in progress show you can join us in the walk on the 24th of march or in the conference on the 25th of march, for details please see http://deptford.tv
Media Art Soap Box
02/03/2006, 18.30 – 20.30
What is ‘media art’? Who is doing it and why? An eclectic group of London artists and designers working with technology explain all with audiovisual presentations of their work in our Media Art Soapbox.
Projects range from the sublime to the seemingly ridiculous. Mull over the idea of growing spare organs for yourself in your pet, or consider the ‘architecture of ‘. There’s a huge variety of questions on and approaches to media art… What would it be like to experience colour in the same way as a TV screen operates? How does the basic geometry of the Earth change as we get closer to it in an aeroplane? Do scientists see things differently because of the way they are trained to look at the world? What if mobiles phones were instruments of torture inflicting pain every time we disturb others? And isn’t it time children’s stories were adapted to suit the computer age we’re living in?
Come and have your say in a series of mini workshops convened by art curators Andrew Chetty and Hannah Redler, art critic Piers Masterson and technologist Tom Quick.
Part of the NODE London season of media arts projects taking place in March 2006. www.nodel.org
speakers
Anthony Alexander – No Straight Lines in Nature
Artafterscience with Barbara Zanditon – Randomness and Certainty
Saul Williams – The Zeos Series
Tina Gonsalves – Feel
Adnan Hadzi – Deptford.TV
Crispin Jones – Social Mobiles
Marcus Kirsch – Urban Eyes
Georgia Chativasileiadi – Human Conducted Tele-vision Apparatus
Tom Corby/Gavin Baily – Cyclone.soc
Elio Caccavale – Utility Pets
James Larsson – Bedtime Stories for Very Young Geeks
Richard Woods – Introduction to Wattson
Respondents
Andrew Caleya Chetty – Curator, The Public
Piers Masterson – Development Manager, Free Form Arts
Tom Quick – co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Netemic