Moving Pictures : Designing a digital public space with fans

Jacobs, Naomi (2016) Moving Pictures : Designing a digital public space with fans. In: Fan Studies Network Conference 2016, 2016-06-25 - 2016-06-26, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

On modern social media platforms, audio-visual media content such as fanvids and gifs make up an increasingly important part of discourse, particularly within fan communities. While this content is shared freely in this 'public' space, copyright and ownership remain contentious (Trombley, 2007). Unlike fully recreated work such as fanfiction and fanart, context may be the transformation rather than any change to the source image. Gifs are often created for the sole purpose of sharing and donating back to the commons rather than personal ownership. This appropriation is often ignored or even condoned by notional copyright holders, who spread both promotional images and teasers, and the transformed fan-created versions. This paper proposes that this ecology of cultural media exchange must inform ongoing discussions regarding building a 'digital public space'. Tony Ageh of the BBC describes this as a cultural archive, providing access to an ever growing library of permanently available media and data held on behalf of the public by our enduring institutions (Ageh, 2015). The Creative Exchange project describes it more widely it as a place where anyone, anywhere, anytime can access, explore and create with digital content1. I ask whether to build a true digital commons, this archive should also include provisions for use and revision in public digital spaces. If so, its design must incorporate these needs. This might involve permissive licencing, similar to Creative Commons, and mechanisms by which not only is copyright respected but also credit for transformative works - tracking and archiving the transformational history of digital objects. I propose that, similar to the creation of Archive of Our Own, any efforts to create such a public archive must involve fans as co-designers (Fiesler et al, 2016), since fan communities are at the forefront of transformative usage adding value to the wider economy. References: Ageh, T (2015) The BBC, the Licence Fee and the Digital Public Space. Open Lecture Presented at Humanities and Arts Research Centre, Royal Holloway University of London. Transcript available online: https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/harc/documents/pdf/tonyageh.pdf Fiesler, C., Morrison, S., and Bruckman, A.S. (2016) An Archive of Their Own: A Case Study of Feminist HCI and Values in Design. CHI 16: Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, (2016). Trombley, S. (2007). Visions and revisions: Fanvids and fair use. Cardozo Arts & Ent. LJ, 25, 647

Item Type:
Contribution to Conference (Paper)
Journal or Publication Title:
Fan Studies Network Conference 2016
ID Code:
140716
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
03 Mar 2020 09:55
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
22 Nov 2023 01:28