Project Other than Me no. 2
Via twitter I came across seamstress @Kokeshi_me and her wonderful blog on Japanese Culture ‘Dancing on Temple Tops’ http://www.wabei-mono.com/blog/ featuring her vintage Kimono’s http://wabei-mono.com/kimono/
And a quick re-visit: back in 2008 I came across ‘Own It’ http://www.own-it.org/ a website run by the London College of Communication and University of the Arts London Own-it offers free intellectual property advice for creative businesses. As their site says “Within your business or your practice, you’ve probably created a wealth of in-house ideas, designs, music, writing, images – in short, ‘intellectual property’ - which can make you extra money, as long as you give it the proper legal protection. Own-it will show you how.” They run great free seminars for creatives, producers, artists, directors, musicians, et al.There is a growth industry in ‘stealing’ people’s work, or as I heard it described recently ‘harvesting’ the wealth of creative work available and in the public domain on the internet. Sites such as Flickr and Facebook, are scoured by design, marketing and ad companies for images or as a free resource for ideas that they used to pay artists and designers a fee for. So before you post that photo make sure you really understand IP and what a creative commons agreement is, or keep it private. Blog articles can be re-used as someone else’s work elsewhere on the net etc. Cynical I know, but worth considering how and what you post on the net. Here’s another site that offers advice if you find your work has been ‘borrowed’ by someone check out Calvin Lee’s advice on his blog site http://www.mayhemstudios.com/blog/2008/02/on-line-copyright-infringement.html
Finally I keep mentioning Twitter, but you may not know what twitter is – it’s a social networking site where you post updates of your activity or links to other sites, interesting articles etc. in no more than 140 letters. You can comment on other’s posts and advertise your latest blog or upload of pictures to Flickr or ‘tweet’ about events. It’s a little thin on UK creatives so if you’re an Artist and want to give it a try read this info guide first by Jewellery designer Nicola Tallmadge ttp://www.squidoo.com/ArtistTwitterGuide