Dialogi
Eurozine
Dialogi
2010-07-30
Summary of Dialogi 5-6/2010
In the introductory editorial, Ciril Oberstar comments on the stampede of socio-political events in the last few weeks: the co-financing of bankrupt Greece, changes in the pension system, student demonstrations over so-called "mini-jobs", the referendum on arbitration of the dispute regarding the Slovenian-Croatian border, and exposures of the exploitation of foreign workers.
Our interviewee is the young dramatist Simona Semenich, a representative of the new generation of theatre artists who combine a number of creative roles in one person. Semenich is a playwright and performer, a dramaturge, a producer, and the leader of a group for the writing and reading of new dramatic texts. She talks with journalist Katja Chichigoj about her creative method and about the premiere of her play 5fantkov.si (5littleboys.si), which was awarded the Grum Prize for best Slovenian dramatic text.
The extraordinary progress of technology has made digitized content accessible and virtually cost-free just about everywhere, and this represents a mechanism which bears main responsibility for the current confusion in the area of copyright law. Digitization has not only radically changed methods of creating, it has also erased the boundaries between those who create, transmit and use authors' texts. Digital technology with its capacity is like the perfect copying machine, and the internet is a network which interactive and fragmented architecture drastically changes the way content is communicated and exchanged. This is a paradigm shift making the already problematic and fragile balance between private ownership interests in authors' works on the one hand, and public access to these works on the other even more difficult. As a response to the current situation we are witnessing an increase both in the scope of copyright and in the "privatization of copyright law". Measures are drastic and frequently counter to the principles and purpose of copyright law itself. Most vocal of all in the introduction of a new legal order are financially very powerful lobbies of copyright holders who in defense of their business models and financial resources uncompromisingly proclaim the new technologies as a danger threatening authors and anyone who has traditionally been dependent on exclusive copyrights. This is how editor Robert Petrovich describes the problem of copyright in the digital age; he then asks his colleagues the following question: Is copyright law in the digital age at all capable of carrying out its role? All agree that a change in the attitude towards intellectual property is urgently needed but solutions are still being sought. Our thematic set consists of an interview with legal expert Maja Bogataj Janchich, who among her other activities has brought the Creative Commons license to Slovenia, an interview with sociologogist and cultural historian Maja Breznik who does reserach on the position of cognitive workers today, and articles by philsophers Franci Pivec and Jan Babnik and columnist Katja Chichigoj.
In the literary section we publish short stories by Matjaz Drev and Cvetka Bevc, and poetry by classics in Slovenian modernism Tomaz Salamun and the Montenegrin poet Andrija Radulovic.
In Cultural diagnosis, Denis Poniz's book Introduction to the theory of drama genres is reviewed, as is the staging of new Slovenian plays this season, now coming to a close, by the Drama of the Slovenian National Theatre in Ljubljana.
This issue's Diary is contributed by philosopher and dramaturge Bojana Kunst who lectures on aesthetics at performing arts schools (currently at Performance Studies, Hamburg) and multimedia artist Igor Stromajer, during their residence in Hamburg.