A Calendar of Tales. Your Part...
So. There’s Amazing Art out there on the web. I watch it being made on Tumblr all the time. That was part of my inspiration for this project, when BlackBerry asked if I would be interested in making something in collaboration with the world.
I wrote 12 stories, inspired by tweets that came back from questions I asked on Twitter. The Q& A process in itself turned into a sort of magical art-connection thing in its own right. It was beautiful.
The idea now is that people get to make art inspired by the stories. And then we put up the art and we make a real paper calendar with art and stories and an online version too, with LOTS of the art…
Sky Whales
Neil Gaiman’s February tale for Keep Moving had me at ‘Sky Whales’.
If you make art you should get involved. If you just like reading go and read the stories, they are very good.
More on the project here. http://keepmoving.blackberry.com/desktop/en/us/ambassador/neil-gaiman.html#Jan
There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost. The world will not have it.
It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how valuable it is nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate
you.
Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than others
Rebloggable by request...
“The legal terminology is entirely different from what Neil Gaiman said on his Tumblr. It legally strips you of all rights to the art. To even claim you did it. Blackberry can use it, alter, redistribute it for 20 years if they want, with absolutely no mention of you. Zero…When you click submit, you also agree that you can never come back at them about it. You give up all rights to sue them.” Please address this, Neil. About the Calendar, from the site. Are we not protected???
I’ve talked to BlackBerry about it: they are embarrassed, and told me they are drafting a new set of Terms and Conditions which actually reflect that the art is solely for use in relation to the Keep Moving Project, A Calendar of Tales, and is not to be used by them for any commercial purposes beyond the project.
And as they explained to me, “Regarding us taking ownership of people’s work (i.e. – them losing the copyrights), in fact this is not what the T&Cs say! I think we’ve suffered from an unfortunate case of misconstrued legalspeak. We’re licensing people’s artwork for use, but they retain all rights to their own work. To do with it what they will!”
I’m hopeful that the new set of T&Cs will be clearer, and have asked them to put something up to clarify all this for the worried, the troubled, the confused, or the nervous.
