[NetBehaviour] DELETED BY MEMERIGHT TRUSTED SYSTEM.

[marc garrett]

DELETED BY MEMERIGHT TRUSTED SYSTEM

Art in the Age of Intellectual Property
ANNA KOURNIKOVA

Art in the Age of Intellectual Property. The exhibition puts forward the 
thesis that the increasingly strict application of intellectual property 
law hampers the development of culture as a whole. It proves 
increasingly difficult to impart this culture by employing images, 
logos, or soundbites of this very culture (for instance, sampling in hip 
hop, which has already been made impossible by aggressive copyright 
lawyers threatening any use of sampling with legal action).

http://undo.net/cgi-bin/press.pl?id=1216139289

-You can't use it without my permission ... I'm gonna sue your ass!' 
shouts Disney's Little Mermaid with the angry voice of a copyright 
lawyer in the video Gimme the Mermaid (4:49 min., 2000).

The video by Negativland and Tim Maloney, situated at the exhibition 
entrance, is one of twenty eight works included in -Anna Kournikova 
Deleted By Memeright Trusted System - Art in the Age of Intellectual 
Property', an exhibition presented by Hartware MedienKunstVerein (HMKV). 
It is part of the project "Work 2.0 - Copyright and Creative Work in the 
Digital Age". In the framework of "Work 2.0", HMKV - together with the 
Berlin-based collaborative partner iRights.info/mikro e.V. - explores 
the relationships between creative work, intellectual property law, and 
technology (http://www.iRights.info).

How does the changing notion of (creative) work relate to intellectual 
property? Today we live in a post-industrial society where the goods 
being produced are no longer material (like steel, coal, etc.), but 
immaterial. The Ruhr Area, with its vast deindustrialised landscape, 
paradigmatically stands for this transition from the Industrial Age to 
the information or knowledge society. However, there is a significant 
difference: Immaterial goods such as knowledge and information can be 
reproduced without loss. Therefore, in order to function in a 
value-added chain, the distribution of these immaterial goods has to be 
restricted. This is effectuated with the aid of intellectual property 
(IP) law, namely copyrighting, patenting, and trademarking.

David Rice's perfidious short story -Anna Kournikova Deleted By 
Memeright Trusted System' - from which curators Inke Arns and Francis 
Hunger have borrowed the exhibition title - deals with the concept of 
intellectual property: In 2065 stars - such as ex-tennis player Anna 
Kournikova - have their -brand' protected by a satellite-based system 
that identifies unlicensed look-alikes and eliminates them via a strong 
laser beam. During a trip to the Pacific Rim, not officially cleared, 
the -real' Anna Kournikova is identified as an imitation of herself and 
is consequently eliminated by the system.

The exhibition in the PHOENIX Halle, measuring 2,200 square metres and 
located on the grounds of the former steelworks Phoenix-West, puts 
forward the thesis that the increasingly strict application of 
intellectual property law hampers the development of culture as a whole. 
It proves increasingly difficult to impart this culture by employing 
images, logos, or soundbites of this very culture (for instance, 
sampling in hip hop, which has already been made impossible by 
aggressive copyright lawyers threatening any use of sampling with legal 
action).

The artists represented in this exhibition explore the question of art 
in the age of mechanical reproduction positioning itself differently in 
a post-Fordist era permeated with digital networks than in Fordist, 
analogue times to which Walter Benjamin has referred. Artistic 
techniques like cut-up, sampling, de'tournement, appropriation, copying, 
remixing, plagiarism, and repetition are employed.

Participating artists: AGENTUR/AGENCY (BE). Daniel Garcia Andújar (ES), 
Walter Benjamin (US), Christian von Borries (DE), Christophe Bruno (FR), 
Claire Chanel & Scary Sherman (US), Lloyd Dunn (US/CZ), Ramon & Pedro 
(CH), Fred Fröhlich (DE), Nate Harrison (US), John Heartfield (DE), 
Laibach/Novi kolektivizem (SI), Kembrew McLeod (US), Sebastian Lütgert 
(DE), Monochrom (AT), Negativland and Tim Maloney (US), Der Plan (DE), 
David Rice (US), Ines Schaber (DE), Alexei Shulgin & Aristarkh 
Chernyshev (RU), Cornelia Sollfrank (DE), Stay Free (US), Jason 
Torchinsky (US), UBERMORGEN.COM & Alessandro Ludovico & Paolo Cirio 
(CH/AT/IT), a.o.

A comprehensive, bilingual catalogue documenting the exhibition in the 
PHOENIX Halle Dortmund will be published in early September 2008 
(German/English, with contributions by Inke Arns, Martin Conrads, 
Florian Cramer, Francis Hunger and a preface by Susanne Ackers and 
Volker Grassmuck).

Events

Friday / July 18, 2008 / 19:00
Opening of the exhibition Anna Kournikova Deleted by Memeright Trusted 
System - Art in the Age of Intellectual Property. From 21:00 Christian 
von Borries plays music made from other music

Friday / September 26, 2008 / 20:00
Christian von Borries - we play what we want
A live music event involving students from Dortmund's Music School, 2008 
(premiere)

September 26 - 28, 2008
Creative Work and Copyright
Conference in the framework of the project
Work 2.0 - Copyright and Creative Work in the Digital Age

PHOENIX Halle Dortmund
Hochofenstraße / Ecke Rombergstraße - Dortmund-Hörde
Thu + Fri 11:00- 22:00 Sat + Sun 11:00- 20:00
4 euro / 2 euro reduced