Remixable art exhibition receives Catalyst Grant

Photo: Experiments with Long exposure and lights-015 by Tea, two sugarsThe Australian Research Council Center of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, ccAustralia and the project coordinators are very excited to announce that etcc, has received funding in the inaugural round of the Creative Commons Catalyst Grants! We pitched for a touring remixable art exhibition that would not only see the production and exhibition of 10 – 20 new works that (legally) appropriate from CC-licensed content, but that would also encourage exploration of the ideas of creation and appropriation in the visual arts sector.

Like the Remix My Lit project, etcc emerged because the coordinators perceived a lack of prominence of remix and open content licensing in the visual arts. While implicit and explicit appropriation is common, the visual arts community as a whole has been a slow sector in their consideration of rights management practices.

Credits—Photo: Adaptation (crop and resize) of ‘Experiments with Long exposure and lights-015‘ by Tea, two sugars, CC BY 2.0 Generic.

First CC-licensed book in Australia wants you to cut it up

Photos: Scissors by Rhian vK
Remember back in October 2007 we wrote a post about the first CC-licensed book published in Australia (that we know about anyway)? Tristan Clarke published his first book, Stick this in your memory hole, with Aduki Independent Press under an Australian Attribution-Noncommercial licence. Both the physical book and the digital version were under the licence, meaning you were free to share and remix his book as long as you weren’t making money from your reuse.

In the spirit of (continuing) sharing, Aduki is encouraging people to remix the work. From the Aduki blog post:

As we reach the remnants of the book’s stock and want to make space for new titles we thought it was about time we let the book out into the wild and gave the public an opportunity to embrace CC and remix culture and attempt to remix a book.

This could take a variety of forms… You could remix the actual words within the book, or you could remix the physical book itself… That is up to you…

Credits—Photo: Adaptation (crop and resize) of ‘Scissors‘ by Rhian vK, CC BY 2.0 Generic.

“For free and not illegally!”—A great big happy birthday to Mayer and Bettle

Still: From Mayer and BettleThis week marks the fifth birthday of ccAustralia’s fabulous animated mascots, Mayer and Bettle. So we thought it was a good time to give them a bit of love.

I’m sure you’re all fans, but for those new to CC, Mayer and Bettle are the stars of a 5 minute animation, first commissioned for the QUT Smart Train back in 2005 to provide a simple and friendly introduction to CC. Created jointly by local animation team Blackbrow (aka Pete Foley and Chris Perren) and our own Elliott Bledsoe, the film has the little blue guys travel through land, sea and space while discussing what Creative Commons is and how it works. In 2008 Mayer and Bettle returned in glorious 3D in a sequel, joining Bettle’s biggest fan, Flik, in a through the looking glass CC world to talk about how to apply the CC licences to your material.

Credits—Still: From ‘Mayer and Bettle‘ by Creative Commons Australia and Blackbrow, CC BY-SA 2.0 Australia.

“Yes, We’re Open!”: A Special Issue of Platform Journal – Call for Papers Reminder

Photo: Untitled by pheezyA quick reminder for all the commons-based postgraduate researchers out there – abstracts are due this Monday for the special “Yes, We’re Open!” issue of Platform.

The issue, guest edited by the ccAustralia and ccClinic teams, will focus on the mainstreaming of “open”. With Mozilla Firefox pushing towards a 25% share of the web browser market and the number of Creative Commons licensed works reaching more than 250 million in 2009, perhaps it is time to ask, ‘Is “open” the new black?’

Credits—Photo: Adaptation (crop and resize) of ‘Untitled‘ by pheezy, CC BY 2.0 Generic.

Platform Special Issue Call for Papers Extended

Photo: Untitled by pheezyThe deadlines for the “Yes, We’re Open!” Special Issue of PLATFORM: Journal of Media and Communication have been extended. The new dates are:

17 May 2010: Abstracts/Proposals (500-800 words)
5 July 2010: Full Papers (6,000-8,000 words, including 200 word abstracts and six keywords)

Credits—Photo: Adaptation (crop and resize) of ‘Untitled‘ by pheezy, CC BY 2.0 Generic.

“Yes, We’re Open!”: A Special Issue of Platform Journal

Photo: Untitled by pheezyJessica Coates and Elliott Bledsoe from the Creative Commons Clinic at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation are guest editing a special issue of PLATFORM: Journal of Media and Communication, a biannual open-access online graduate journal published by the Media and Communications Program at the School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne.

Credits—Photo: Adaptation (crop and resize) of ‘Untitled‘ by pheezy, CC BY 2.0 Generic.

CC-licensed reportage wins prestigious investigative journalism prize

ccAustralia extends our congratulations to T Christian Miller, a senior reporter with Creative Commons-licensed news service ProPublica. Miller was awarded the 2010 Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting. The prize, which is administered by the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, has been running for 21 years and is worth $35 000 (USD) in prize money!

Media 2010 Al Jazeera seminar

UPDATE 15/02/2010: Due to high interest the Media 2010 Satellite Seminar will now be held a the University of Technology, Sydney. Please see below for full venue details.

As part of Media 2010, X|Media|Lab and Creative Commons Australia invite you to join Moeed Ahmad, Head of New Media at Al Jazeera in conversation with Professor Brian Fitzgerald, Project Lead of Creative Commons Australia and Rami Olwan, Project Lead of Creative Commons Jordan to discuss free and open models of content management in the digital media environment.

Thursday 18 February, 12.00 – 1.00 pm
UTS Law moot court, UTS: Law
Block B, B, University of Technology, Sydney
Crn Quay Street and Ultimo Road, Haymarket, Sydney (Google map).