Backers as Co-Owners of Kickstarter and Verkami Projects

Since my article “The TriBall Case: ‘Okupación Creativa ¡Ya!’ vs.
Okupa Hacktivismo,” I keep returning to the notion of co-authorship of the city with city developers, co-authorship of software with software developers, and co-authorship of culture through the abolition of copyrights. Urban space and the body are connected by the practice of the city as open code, as co-author who can alter the city. Crowdfunding programs like Kickstarter and Verkami are also platforms through which to become co-owners of culture.

Jon Reiss, producer and director of Bomb It, a documentary about graffiti and public space, has just completed his highly-anticipated follow-up, Bomb It 2. In order to be able to widely distribute his second feature film on graffiti, he is currently conducting a Kickstarter campaign. The Bomb It team is fighting for the right to succeed at filmmaking outside of the studio system, and need help. In Reiss’ “Appeal Video Flubs,” he talks about backers as co-owners of his film. I like that. He also discusses how difficult it is to make appeal videos.

The following call to finance la Galeria de la Magdalena, an art project to give new life to an abandoned lot in Barcelona, is an example of an interesting and effective appeal video.

 Crowdfunding is another tool that activists can use along with art to reactivate spontaneous social cooperation and unexpected engagements with the cityscape.