From Black’s Law Dictionary (Abridged Eighth Edition) (I think strictly defined legal langauge is described ‘terms of art’ - please correct me if I’m wrong):

ACT 1. Something done or performed, esp. voluntarily … 2. The process of doing or performing; an occurrence that results from a person’s will being exerted on the external world.

INTENT The state of mind accompanying an act.

MALICE The intent, without justification or excuse, to commit a wrongful act.

NEGLIGENT Characterized by a person’s failure to exercise the degree of care that someone of ordinary prudence would have exercised in the same circumstance.

RECKLESS Characterized by the creation of a substantial and unjustifiable risk of harm to others and by a conscious (and sometimes deliberate) disregard for or indifference to that risk; heedless, rash. Reckless conduct is much more than mere negligence: it is gross deviation from what a reasonable person would do.

The above has a strange emotional resonance - partly the distancing effect of familiar terms technically defined, partly the spin-cycle from too much thinking about the (potentially fictional - thanks CA) ‘reasonable person.’ Mostly, though, it’s the practicality. Or rather, it’s the practicality next to the awfulness. Thinking about malice as “the intent, without justification or excuse, to commit a wrongful act” both heightens and dulls the term. That tension’s compelling.

Less abstractly, here’s some more on the Sean Bell case indictments. There was a lot of coverage today, which indirectly prompted this post.

Currently, the two most recent local instances of a particularly intense and troubling confluence of individual, collective and body:

From the NY Times, March 15th and March 17th.

Board members of UnionDocs were contacted recently by Leslie Kelen, executive director of The Center for Documentary Arts in Salt Lake City, who had a curious and somewhat disturbing matter to bring to our attention regarding the way we describe ourselves.

A non-profit organization in Texas is apparently near the end stages in the process of trademarking the name “documentary arts.” If this pending trademark is granted, Kelen’s organization and many others (such as UnionDocs) may no longer be able to use the same words to characterize their focus.

We were all pretty shocked and also a little intrigued – intellectual property has been one of the subjects we’ve been researching for an upcoming project. When we decided on our description, it was clear to us that “documentary arts” was an established term to described a specific class of work… a genre, more or less. The Tate Britain Musuem for instance has a collection titled 1930s Documentary Art.

Leslie Kelen

Kelen agreed, explaining that in 2000 his organization had changed their name from The Oral History Institute to The Center for Documentary Arts to reflect an expanded range of activities and interests. They also felt the need to differentiate their approach from both academic and popular ideas of the word documentary. “We understood that some documentary work straddled a very interesting and unusual border between formal documentation and the arts.”

Alan Govenar, founder of the Texas-based Documentary Arts, Inc., however, saw things differently. Kelen says that it was directly after the newly re-named Center for Documentary Arts reached out seeking support from an organization with similar interests that Govenar’s organization began pursuing a trademark for its name.

Alan Govenar

Though both companies were registered non-profit, Govenar apparently perceived a major threat to the identity of his organization in sharing this somewhat loosely defined space.In the application for the trademark, Govenar claims to have coined the phrase “documentary arts” and suggests that the pairing of the two words creates an oxymoron. In this view, documentary is a discipline striving for pure objective communication; whereas art is a discipline that thrives exclusively on subjective expression. Pairing the two is simply a contradiction.

Theoretical discussion and etymology aside, it seems that that protection may be granted to Govenar. The trademark commission has dismissed an objection filed by members of The Center for Documentary Arts and they have just a few weeks to make an appeal. The prohibitive cost and time required for lawyer fees may make putting up a fight difficult, but Kelen has been reaching out to others who use the term in an effort to find allies.

One thought has been to attempt to take this out of the legal arena and see if a community of concerned individuals would be able to dissuade Govenar’s organization from following through with the application. And of course, there are limits to the power of trademark. A common word, phrase, or other sign can only be removed from the public domain to the extent that a trademark owner is able to maintain exclusive rights over that sign in relation to certain products or services.

If you have any thoughts or ideas about this conflict please comment on this posting. We would like to create a sort of informal petition recording people’s opinion.

The Fourth Annual NYC Grassroots Media Conference is taking place THIS Saturday at New School University. A group of New York City media educators have put together an empowering afternoon of workshops organized specifically for youth.

In addition to these workshops, there are more than 30 others happening throughout the day that cover topics like hip hop and activism, community organizing and using art to create social change that may be of interest.
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NYC Grassroots Media Conference
“Media and Movements Beyond Borders”
Saturday February 24th, 2007
New School University
65 Fifth Avenue (at 13th Street)

Read descriptions of all of the workshops at the conference,

Also, DON’T MISS OUT on the Friday night opening night networking
event/reception:

Friday, February 23, 2007
6pm–8pm
New School University
Wollman Hall
66 W. 12th, 5th Floor
*refreshments will be served
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Associates and advocates of UD:

We’ve been weathering a Brain Storm. We used a whiteboard and we have something to show for it.

But first we should mention: January is the new beginning. For instance, non-profit is the thrilling little hyphenated word with which you may describe this documentary arts collaborative. Yes, true, we are now “friends w/ benefits” with the IRS. In an equally strategic move, we’ve separated our living and our working, making studio spaces available on the first floor. There’s two new lovely people doing interesting work here, and it’s all about getting down to business these days.

But that’s just administrative. The really exciting thing is that we are on the verge of announcing a new undertaking. The only thing is we can’t legally tell you what it is just yet. So in the meantime, please explore our PROCESS. It’s a video. It’s cool. We’ll be coming at you with a lot more through this video podcast. Make sure you are subscribed to it.For instructions on how to get said video podcast click here.