Prof VJ writes (T. ARAGNO RESPONDS):

Investigate these links from the class reading list: RTMARK, FREE CULTURE (LESSIG), FREECULTURE.ORG, COPYLEFT, AND CREATIVE COMMONS. (WHY THESE SPECIFIC READINGS? TO WHAT DEGREE DOES THE "AGENDA" CONTROL THE DISCUSSION?)

Consider further research into topics like the "gift economy" and "peer-to-peer networks (P2P)". Are distributed artist networks conspiring to make up their own theory? How do works of art theorize themselves? Is that the conspiracy of art? (THIS REMINDS ME, ALBEIT OBLIQUELY, OF A SOL LEWITT "ESSAY" ON CONCEPTUAL ART -- I THINK IT WAS "PARAGRAPHS ON CONTEMPORARY ART" -- WHEREIN, IN THE MIDST OF ESSENTIALLY SAYING THAT CONCEPT WAS THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL ASPECT OF ANY GIVEN ARTWORK, HE HAD A SMALL FOOTNOTE (see HeRe) THAT MADE ME THE READER REALIZE THAT EVEN THIS ESSAY WAS, ESSENTIALLY, A WORK OF ART, TOO, AND THAT THE VERY SMALL DISCONNECT BETWEEN LEWITT'S USE OF THE FORM OF THE FOOTNOTE AND THE TRADITIONAL USE OF A FOOTNOTE WAS ENOUGH FOR ME THE QUESTION THE ENTIRE CONSTRUCT OF THE ESSAY AND SEE IT AS A WORK OF ART.)

You may also be interested in looking up the term "attention economy". How has the fluidity of digital source material made it easier to surf-sample-manipulate the data of everyday life, and how does contemporary remix culture challenge the status of intellectual property?

For your own artistic practice, do these evolving copyleft procedures have any value in helping you intervene in the mainstream culture? What are the political ramifications of this kind of "open source lifestyle"? Is it even possible that this kind of alternative approach to copyright and licensing could actually prove financially beneficial to a contemporary art practice? If yes, then how? If no, then why not?

Finally, how do the methods and techniques used by Baldwin in Tribulation 99, the culture jammers he features in Sonic Outlaws, and The Yes Men, connect or disconnect with your own current thinking on the way artists manipulate data to create an interventionist practice that jams with both conventional politics and the traditional media apparatus?

Quote from William Burroughs:

posted by Professor VJ at 2:00 PM 0 comments