THE STORY OF #TECHNOVIKING
What if the world invents a hero from your image but you don't want that?
"The Story of Technoviking" is a case study on a successful #meme, one of the early viral videos on YouTube. The example shows the contemporary situation where user behavior gets in conflict with more than 100 years old laws that our legal system is based on.
The documentary follows the phenomenon of the Technoviking Meme over 15 years from an experimental art film to a viral video that inspired an internet community to the creation of an art figure, thousands of remixes, besides countless other forms of reactions, and finally put the producer of the original artifact into the court room. Originally filmed in public space at a political demonstration and shared many million users, the clip's images can't be removed anymore from the collective memory nor be deleted from the servers that are located all around the world.
More than 20 Interviews with artist, #lawyers, #academics and fans mix their opinions with a big variety of online reactions and show the #dilemma that is created when our fundamental right of the protection of our personality is in conflict with our fundamental right of free speech. And how can one make a film on a subject, that is not allowed to be publicly shown?
[Directors Statement] Today almost every citizen is represented in the social media, for example with a Facebook account. There to publish, share and forward audiovisual material is a default behavior. And by this condition so is the violation of rights by third parties. Because of the massive amount of shared content most of these violations are not even detected. Only a small percentage ends up in front of a judge. But is the court room really the place to discuss new cultural phenomena like internet memes for example? How can a better way be achieved to deal with this new culture and the new behavior of citizens? What is the direction that our culture and society needs to develop in the future?