BRIEF....Ownership, Networks, Sharing, Re-usability & Control.

DARKLIGHT has initiated a major Conference and Exhibition project which will investigate the current state of play in the debates over intellectual property, copyright and fair use with particular attention to the role of the "creatives": the designers, the programmers, the artists, the image-makers, the musicians, the film-makers, the content-makers. The Exhibition project "Straylight" will feature work under the general heading: Ownership, Networks, Sharing, Re-usability & Control.

Context. On the one hand, phenomena such as Napster and Open Source raise questions of Ownership, Networks, Sharing, Re-usability & Control. While on the other hand Digital production, with its potential for relatively cost-free endless reproduction and ever-expanding distribution, holds out the promise

of small scale independent cultural production. Increasingly, however, that promise has been undermined by the erosion of the "fair use" principle and the rise of the pay-per-view world.

Content.

Digital works are invited for exhibition which in some way engage, play-with, explore, creatively overcome, or provoke dialogue around the many questions of ownership in ideas and images. The purpose of the exhibition and conference is to open up and explore ideas and issues around: Ownership, Networks, Sharing, Re-usability & Control. Any digitally produced work will be considered for exhibition. As well as Gallery-based exhibition and webspace there are also a limited number of public video projection opportunities.