Copyright against Art - Art against Copyright

Copyright is a topic that is very much on our minds if we deal with art and culture these days. Looking at mainstream media, we are experiencing how the legal notion of copyright is used to establish a new aesthetic order: the return of the notion of the author, of authenticity, and a discourse that tries to sanctify the myth of the creator. At the same time, there is a growing number of artists who use digital techniques like sampling, remixing, collaging, and appropriating for their artwork. They blur the lines between high culture and pop, folklore and commercialism, and use the signs and images that constitute our reality to make art. Using examples from media art of the last few years, this talk shows some examples of artistic strategies from the field of art, literature, and (pop) music in a contested field between law and aesthetics.