Material Re Material (remix & copyright)

Artistic strategies such as collage, montage, cut-up, and recontextualisation repeatedly revolutionised the parameters of art in the pre-digital part of the 20th century. Rather than simply “adding something new to the world”, many artists were concerned with making invisible connections visible – including those underlying the increasingly mediatised cultural industry itself. In doing so, some of these artists came into direct confrontation with the ‘gatekeepers’ of copyright in the entertainment and music industries and became pioneers of a debate that today, in the age of networked ‘infinite archives,’ is no longer only relevant within the arts, but is having an increasingly significant impact on our everyday culture. Radical restrictions on the participatory potential of a fundamentally changed media landscape are often justified by the interests of artists/authors and their ‘intellectual property.’

At the two-day symposium ‘Material Re: Material (remix & copyright)’, scientists, artists and curators from the fields of broadcasting, media art and music will come together to discuss various aspects of the material/copyright issue against this backdrop.