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Joost Smiers, teacher in political science at the art academy in Utrecht, talks about the image copyright from a legal background. Barend Toet is director of The Cover Story Netherlands (www.thecoverstory.com), the agency for photo journalism that has acquired the Dutch representation of Corbis. Joost Smiers will open the evening with his view on copyright. According to him this is a backward system, that started off as financial compensation for artists but has grown into one the main sources of commerical value in the 21st century. A system also, that closely links capitalism to the visual arts, making culture more and more a western privilege. From his legal background, Smiers wonders how creativity and kwowledge can be transferred in a more democratic way to future generations. After this, Barend Toet will explain the philosophy behind the Corbis image bank. The company, founded by Bill Gates, creates the ideal circumstances for the storage of photography, sometimes making the images last up to a hundred years longer. Many important archives have been bought by Corbis. But if all photography disappears into cooled cellars, does it not loose its communicative value? Toet will talk about the balance that is being sought between accessibility and preservation of them. Tuesday 16 September |
