The InVisible Difference project (interdisciplinary research in IP)
- newiplawyers
- Oct 30, 2014
- 2 min read
The project
I started my doctoral research as part of the InVisible Difference project in March 2013. The project meches together the disciplines of dance and law to investigate the position of practising disabled dance artists in the community. The lawyers aim to assess whether the law in its various branches (intellectual property, human rights and medical law) is effective in supporting the work made by artists left outside the mainstream such as disabled dance artists. If it is not, could it? How so? Should it? After the buzz created by the Paralympics, the failure of its susbesquent 'Olympics legacy' (or lack there of) added to the severe cuts gut in the funding of the Arts by the governement, the question of the our cultural heritage and what practices get to 'make it' or not remains all the more relevant and is the context in which the project examines the notion of leadership, authorship and ownership of works made by disabled dance artists.
The Team
Coming on board six months after the project had started, I was the last addition to the research team composed of both law and dance specialists. Co-investigated by Exeter and Coventry University, the team also counts members based in Scotland at the University of Edinburgh and Aberdeen. Whilst the dance side of the project is represented by Pr Sarah Whatley, Dr Karen Wood and Ms Kate Marsh, the lawyers count among their ranks Pr Charlotte Waelde, Dr Abbe Brown, Dr Shawn Harmon, Ms Hannah Donaldson and myself.
The research
The team is very active in disseminating its research and has done so in a variety of way so far such as publications (see reading suggestions below), position briefs, conferences and blogging. Our IPowL shall follow the activities of the project and update you whenever anything IP-like comes up!
As IP enthusiast you might be interested in having a read at the following articles:
- Brown, A. and Waelde, C., "Human Rights, Persons with Disabilities and Copyright", Forthcoming in: Ch. Geiger (ed) "Research Handbook on Human Rights and Intellectual Property", Cheltenham, UK/Northampton, MA, Edward Elgar (2014)
- Brown, A. Waelde, C. and Harmon, S. , Do You See What I See? Disability, Technology, Law and the Experience of Culture, International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law, vol. 43, no. 8, 2012, 901-930
- Brown, A. and Waelde, C., "Does copyright law deal with difference?", Pre-print article to appear in Dinwoodie (ed) "Is Intellectual Property Law a Lex Specialis?" Edward Elgar 2014
- Waelde, C. Whatley, S. and Pavis, M. , Let’s Dance! – but who owns it?, (2014) 36 European Intellectual Property Law Review 217.
Some of these articles are available in full on the project's website here.
By Mathilde Pavis
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