Alana Kushnir Shares Insights at Serpentine Arts Technologies’ (Un)Conference in London
Image: Group discussion at Beyond Cultures of Ownership: Emerging Strategies for Interdependence (Un)Conference at Somerset House, London. Courtesy of Serpentine Arts Technologies, 2023.
Guest Work Agency’s Founder and Director, and Serpentine Legal Lab’s Principal Investigator, Alana Kushnir, recently participated in Serpentine Arts Technologies (un)conference style gathering of artists, activists, researchers, technologists and policymakers at Somerset House in London, exploring how can art and culture helps to reshape our understanding of ownership.
BEYOND CULTURES OF OWNERSHIP: EMERGING STRATEGIES OF INTERDEPENDENCE
The day-long (un)conference or ‘gathering’ in the Lancaster Rooms at Somerset House was hosted by Serpentine Arts Technologies, Dark Matter Labs and Somerset House Studios in partnership with RadicalxChange. It featured speakers such as Divya Siddarth, co-founder of the Collective Intelligence Project, and Dr. Hillary Cottam OBE, social entrepreneur and consultant to communities and governments around the world, helping design collaborative, affordable solutions to big social challenges.
The gathering considered: “If ‘ownership’ is one of the underlying power dynamics of our times that can either create or block possibilities for rebalancing our relationship with technology, the planet, and one another, what new alliances and experiments are necessary to shift beyond it?” By creating a space for sharing across different contexts, the day was dedicated to collectively sketching out new imaginaries and practices for more plural and relational protocols for interdependence.1
KUSHNIR SHARES LEGAL INSIGHTS
As the Principal Investigator of the Serpentine Legal Lab, with extensive experience in intellectual property and contract law in an art and technology context, Alana Kushnir shared her insights into the questions posed from a legal perspective. She comments:
“I was fortunate enough to be able to bring the learnings of the Serpentine Legal Lab and my own experiences as an art lawyer to the conversation. What we have observed is that there is a lack of shared documentation created during the research and development phase of an art and tech project. There is so much knowledge gathered and so many insights captured during this initial phase – articulating how this material can be used by interested parties in the contractual arrangements for the project is essential.”
Check out some photographs from the event below:
SERPENTINE ARTS TECHNOLOGIES
Serpentine’s Arts Technologies programme “proposes critical and interdisciplinary perspectives on technologies through artistic interventions and creative research and development.” The programme supports artists in developing ambitious artworks that deploy advanced technologies as a medium, tool or topic.
THE SERPENTINE LEGAL LAB
The Legal Lab was formed as a part of Serpentine Galleries R&D Platform. It investigates legal issues in the art tech field, prototypes accessible legal solutions for artists and cultural institutions, and provides legal mentoring for commissioned projects. In addition, the Legal Lab brings together leaders from all corners of the arts and tech space for productive idea exchange through the talk series, Legal Lab Live.
Guest Work Agency is a boutique art law and advisory firm based in Melbourne, but is international in reach. It is the first dedicated art law practice in Australia, working with artists, collectors, galleries, arts organisations, art fairs and art tech start-ups.
For more information contact us at info@guestworkagency.art.