english
 Specials / Picturing Free Knowledge

Picturing Free Knowledge

Friday, 15 and Saturday, 16 September, 20:30, at link TESLA Medien>Kunst<Labor

Two video programmes curated by Vera Tollmann.

Image economies take place between Big Business and Creative Commons licences: The Brasilian agency Radiobrás started publishing its news and multimedia broadcasts under CC licences just this summer. During Robbie Williams' recent tour in Germany photographers were not permitted to take pictures of the pop star. A Berlin newspaper reacted by publishing mobile phone pictures taken by their reporter -- the resolution was accordingly low. If one compares the search results in Google Images with the results from databases like Corbis and Getty Images, one has to find out that the pay services clearly offer higher quality.

Starting from the debate on copyrights, the videos in the programme ask for the power relations in image production and distribution. Which pictures dominate the discourse of the media? How can images be created and distributed outside copyright obligations? What does the enormous and enthusiastic image production in online video communities such as YouTube mean?

The programme presents artistic strategies by which power relations and media image policies represented in images are reflected: The correspondence with the footage-department of a company selling royalty-free film and video clips for commercial purposes reveals their guidelines allowing nothing but hegemonic and stereotypical images. For a moment the logic behind the circulation of capitalist value becomes visible. In other cases, works demand a freer way of dealing with images, for example when public domain footage from film archives is rearranged and published under a Creative Commons licence.


Picturing Free Knowledge I: Image Banks
Friday, 15 September, 20:30

The first programme entitled 'Image Banks' takes existing images as its starting point: Images and their sources are reflected in different contexts, for example, the homogenous aethetics of news images or the categories of commercial image databases are called into question.

Nina Fischer/Maroan el Sani: Alles Wissen dieser Welt, 2005, 7 Min

Neil Cummings / Marysia Lewandowska / Eileen Simpson / Ben White: Screen Tests 3/4 Broadcast Times: The Birth of Westward, 2006, 12.29 Min

Florian Zeyfang : Pathos of Distance, 1996, 1.45 Min

Sean Snyder: Seiko, Sheraton, Toyota, Mars, 2004-2005, 13 Min

Carey Young, “Terms and Conditions”, 2004, 3.25 Min

Nate Harrison: Stock Exchange, 2006, 12.30 Min

VitoriaMario: Itau Cultural?, 2003, 1 Min

Neil Cummings / Marysia Lewandowska / Eileen Simpson / Ben White: Screen Tests 1/4 Screen Tests, 2006, 12.36 Min

Johanna Billing: Project for a Revolution, 2000, 3.14 Min (loop)


Later in the evening, Ricardo Ruiz and Tatiana Wells, currently residents at TESLA, will play a music programme and live stream mix from Brasilian radio stations.

22:00 Klub: rádio cidadăo comum: net batucada brasileira on free and pirated music


Picturing Free Knowledge II: Image Agents
Saturday, 16 September, 20:30

'Image Agents' compiles video works that make productive use of found footage or pursue new concepts for media knowledge production. The programme is about the appropriation of visual technologies, formats and styles.

The league of noble peers, Steal this film, 31 Min, 2006

Tobias Werkner: Aegypten 6600 (nach Lumičre), 2004 , 17 min

Stina Wirfelt: Collage, 2006, 7 Min

Anna Margarita Albelo, La Chocha: Peaches Reputation, 2003, 3 Min

Dariusz Kowalski (Krzeczek): Elements, 2005 , 8 min

Anja Kirschner: Polly II, 2005, 28 Min


Following this logic, Serhat Köksal stirs up mass culture: orientalism, pop, politics and folklore collide in the works of DJ Hugo Chavez & VJ Ahmadinejad.

22:00 Klub: 'MyTube & YourSpace' by DJ Hugo Chavez & VJ Ahmadinejad






Creative Commons License
All original works on this website unless otherwise noted are
copyright protected and licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License Germany.