What is shared / Meaning of sharing (excerpt from the curatorial statement)

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What is shared
When setting up their first share, DCnauts usually throw in whatever they got on their computers. This is usually music, films, kits and games - an unstable collection, largely governed by fashion trends as the average age of DC users is 25. But to raise to the bar of for self-representation sakes people often share their private folders. Searching for "My Documents" in the top 30 hubs constantly produces more than 1000 hits. Photos, letters, home videos complete the palette of shared items. As users generally do not realize the extent their data can be used or abused, DC++ shares reside at the vulnerable edge between private and public space. Downloaded data is spreading uncontrollably, creating inter-referential representations and copies of each other. Backtrace to the original instance or meaning is technically impossible. The cultural artefacts become simulacra with no real original, stable or objective source for communication and meaning. With inter-subjective and not objective knowledge dominating the discourse DC++ networks comply to the postmodern condition.

Meaning of sharing
"In folk tales," as Hyde observes, "the person who tries to hold onto a gift usually dies". Neighborhood networks are providers of endemic culture and the act of sharing is the prototypical contract of participating to this culture. Sharing while not expecting immediate gratification make neighborhood networks complex gift economies - where the community becomes an entity, the real gifting parther - playing the role of the donor and recipient in the same time. This ideology of exchange - regardless of legal issues or moral concerns - builds a subculture of consumption that is maintained through giving. Gifting becomes a tool for the collapse of the permission culture based capitalist market hegemony while serving as an alternative consumption activity at the electronic frontier. The collection set up for Culturscapes gives an insight on the romanian way of giving.