Making Creative Content Distribution Fair

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Standfirst

In the year that the University marks its 200th anniversary, SODA has joined an international consortium awarded €4 million to create DAFNE+. This is a decentralised media content platform for Non-Fungible Token (NFT) artists. NFTs are unique digital assets used to mark ownership of creative content, such as a piece of artwork or music.    

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Dr Toby Heys, Professor of Digital Arts is the Project Lead for DAFNE+ at SODA, he said: “The platform aims to make creative content distribution fair, empowering creators and communities through new digital distribution models based on digital tokens. The DAFNE+ project is funded by the European Commission’s HORIZON program.   

“It serves to help digital content creators find new forms of creation, distribution, and monetisation of their works of art through blockchain technology – a digital ledger that records transactions and tracks ownership of assets.   

“This new technology is also driving change in how organisations are run and governed, empowering artists to play a more central role.”    

Over the next 3 years, the project intends to create new, distributed communities in the form of Distributed Autonomous Organisations (DAOs). A DAO is an organisation run by rules encoded as computer programs called smart contracts using blockchain technology. Instead of a central authority.   

This new technology is also driving change in how organisations are run and governed, empowering artists to play a more central role.
Dr Toby Heys

Using digital tokens and NFTs, artists play a vital role in community governance. DAFNE+ will lower technical barriers for artists with tools enabling them to create and offer content over existing blockchains.  

A significant part of the research for DAFNE+ will define new revenue and business models for the distribution of media content. This aims to empower the role of creators and users, foster the involvement of new actors, and provide avenues for content distribution and innovative services that meet the needs of user communities.   

As one of the critical points for digital token exchanges in blockchain networks is energy consumption, DAFNE+ will only run over low-energy transaction blockchains.  

SODA will develop use cases, contribute to content production tools, and evaluate and test DAFNE+, making use of its extensive digital arts network within the UK and across Europe. As part of the testing period for DAFNE+, students took part in a Creative Jam with FabLab Barcelona (Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia.)   

Fair Future(s): An International Creative Jam for Digital Expression, took place over four days. It featured talks and workshops exploring emerging themes providing hands-on experience in the evolving landscape of creative industries and decentralised governance.   

Students, technical and teaching staff at Manchester Met and in Barcelona worked together, creating content, and testing the workflows of the system and its tools.   

For more information about DAFNE, visit the website. 

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