Upon entering the Terra Art Gallery, the light wood floors, white walls dotted with unique canvasses, and side lighting created a classy yet welcoming atmosphere. Tony and I fell into a guessing game of remixed songs by DJ Spooky (Glass Onion, anyone?) and watched as old footage of a Brazilian (?) dancer ebbed and flowed with the music.
Lessig spoke about where Creative Commons has been over the last year. It is becoming less of a marginal entity for digital copyright, and moving into the realm of the mainstream. Lessig announced that 5 groups (one including the CC Board committing as the 5th organization dropped out at the last minute) have committed to fund Creative Commons $500K per year for the next five years. As Lessig's rhythmic speech and slide show ended, leaving me in a semi-euphoric state, he announced the star performer for the night.
Gilberto Gil and his son, Ben Gil, came on stage. Now, I guess I really wasn't paying attention to the CC announcement, because I had missed that this would be happening. We crowded towards the stage, eventually to sit on the floor as if we were all circling a camp fire listening to an incredible folk storyteller. And really, that's what it was like. Dressed up in a large urbanish art gallery, we sat on the floor, staring wide-eyed and agape, at one of the century's most influential culturists.
In short, it was a beautiful night - celebrating free culture over the last five years.
If you want to read more about the night, Lessig has posted key points of his speech on blog.
Finally, this post is under a Creative Commons Attiribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License due to the Share-Alike license of the wonderful photo above.
Comments