Week Three – open sources + code freedom

the artists I chose to look into for this week was nora al-badri and jan nikolai nelles. these artists initially made a scan copy of the bust of Nefertiti which is held in a museum in Berlin in its own separate room where visitors can not take photos of this sculpture. it is said that the sculpture was stolen from Egypt and that the germans are now gatekeeping this amazing piece of art, sounds very petty to me.

the museum its self has a scan copy of the sculpture that they keep private for economic gain. the artists felt the need to free this data by scanning a copy of the sculpture which they would then publish to the public redeeming all the rights back also giving relevance to the data and the piece. many called it the “most ethical art heist”. jan Nikolai says by doing this “the copy is no longer a slave to the original”.

I believe that by doing this “art heist ” it has allowed Egypt to re gain a part of what is theirs and taking back some of the power that was stolen while also permitting artists from around the world to experiment with different styles surrounding this piece. some examples are :