MMCC2014 Module 2 PDF

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Module 2...

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Creative Freedoms: Authorship, Technology, Law

MMCC2014 MODULE 2 ➔ Creativity: What is it? 

over the lyrics of “Shake it off”

Questions: o o

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What does it mean to be creative?

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Does it need to be original?

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What does “original” mean?

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What does being an “author” mean?

Builds on the past & ideas are recycled (often we don’t notice) o

songs/videos/photo ideas

Aggressive or Passive 

Scary Movie 3 (create original parody) vs. Date Movie

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The creative process is inherently cumulative yet manifestation of external influences varies tremendously

➔ Romantic authorship 

Construction of authorship from late 1700s through 1800s

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Does not occur in a vacuum and occurs in all kinds of ways

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Best understood as part of a tradition where previous works are expanded on, developed, progressed, subverted, perverted, parodied and versioned

A source of original ideas a solitary and sovereign creator; elitist and isolated from mundane society

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Creativity was other worldly

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A realistic understanding of creativity?

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Creative modes can be direct and indirect, conscious or unconscious, aggressive or passive o

Direct or indirect 

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Clueless (movie) based on another book story 10 things I hate about you (movie) based on Shakespeare's story

Conscious or unconscious 

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Inspiration vs. Plagiarism 

Rihanna copied idea for her music video from David LaChapelle’s short video (about S&M) → Plagiarism

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Taylor Swift is being sued for $42 million

Based on previous work of creativity 

Movies remakes from other movies

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Song can be cover versions

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Artist can implement styles that used before

Copying and imitation exists in every corner of our culture

➔ Examples: 

Beyonce vs. Motown: comparison video made by YouTube user

Creative Freedoms: Authorship, Technology, Law

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Beyonce: single lady vs Motown (group)

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Idea is recycled

The Simpsons vs. Family Guy o

Family Guy copy The Simpsons’ characters

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A short video made that The Simpson’s characters is being cloned by Family Guy

Harry Potter vs. The books of magic (by Carla Jablonski) o

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Woodmansee (1994): there has been a tradition of cocreativity or cumulative authorship and that the independent Romantic author was merely a shortlived ideological construct

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Final work involves many specific roles to complete

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Example: Jeff Koons He created a photo and claimed his creative based on another photo → he used another author’s idea

➔ The cultural life of intellectual property Authors lose control over their works once they enter the public media domain o

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The same story, imagery, and/or symbolism can be retold or represented according to the cultural values of the individual author

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Interpretation, however, is affected by values including gender, social status, sexuality and personal aesthetics

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Appropriation (copying?) is a natural part in the process of creativity and self expression. And freedom in expression is essential in a democratic civil society

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Cultural signs → Technological capabilities → unauthorized use of copyrighted materials

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The digital shift towards online digital media has not only affected the ways in which we access, acquire and consume media but also how we create and what we create

Cumulative authorship: the norm rather than the exception

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Media provides us with vehicles for messages, attitudes and beliefs that are appropriated, subverted and redeployed into ➔ Copying = creativity? (Coombe 1998)

Original lose controls on other copies ➔ “

 The Construction of Authorship” 

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Simpson has many different copies made by other authors

The public, the consumers, the fans make our own meaning as these media forms work their way into our lives and imaginations o

Different version of creative work made by fan/public/consumers (cover songs, parody movies...)

Digital technologies have played a huge role in the changing nature of creativity Greatly lowered the access barriers to production software is easily acquired, distribution is easy courtesy of Web 2.0 platform such as YouTube Digital technologies make it easier than ever to create using existing media Digital technologies make it easier than ever for us to express ourselves Whilst a lot of what is produced is bad, it’s important to a democratic civil society that people are able to freely express themselves ➔ Media made 

Technologies that allow us to “rip, mix and burn” dissolve the authority of the author over the structure and autonomy of the text

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The consumer is able to read in any order, unlock new meanings or create new meanings that can be shared with others

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Digital technology enables and promotes co-creative media allowing users to take control of

Creative Freedoms: Authorship, Technology, Law cultural works - lines between consumers and producers becomes blurred (i.e prosumers) 

Problems arise as most media is subject to copyright, owned by big companies

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The law partially operates on a Romantic construction of authorship . It also partially operates on an ideology it shares with big media owners that see intellectual property or copyrights as real property

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Digital media users raised on recycling the media environment vs. business culture founded on exclusive exploitation of media for profit (and control of its meanings and uses) ➔ Example: “The wind done gone” vs. “Gone with the wind”

READING WEEK 2 Remix Lessig, L. An extraordinary range of : very unusual or remarkable In this realm: a kingdom, a field, a domain Diminished: smaller/less Astonished: greatly surprised or impressed;

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2001, alice randall published the book, she had copyright of the book, however it based on the story of Margaret Mitchell (1936) Same as Harry Potter case: high cost to win the case (cost to prove HP is original and other are transformed)

amazed. he was a oni hed a the change in him

➔ Writing beyond words ➔ RW, Revived ◆ Do not need permission until it’s published ◆ The freedom to quote is not universal in the non commercial sphere ◆ Remix is essential of RW creativity ➔ Remixed: Text ◆ Three layers of the RW system Writing: evolved through two different lives ◆ Obscure to many ◆ Ubiquitous blog Usenet: distributed messaging system (1979) ◆ Then be used as Spam/Scam/Ad WWW: RW medium ◆ First, it was RO, not RW ◆ HTML RW, however, audience is still RO (web blogs) ◆ Comment function audience actually RW Tags and ranking systems (reddit, digg) layer of meaning to RW content Enable readers to mark or ignore

Creative Freedoms: Authorship, Technology, Law Help others understand or find the same stuff change the relative power of the reader Indexed web spider (bots crawl the world of blogs) Measure the significance of a conversation by counting the links that others make to the conversations ◆ Li: 33% teenagers make a blog entry weekly, 41% visit social networking site daily (pp.12) ◆ Benkler: bloggers did better than mainstream media in some cases (p p.12) ◆ The power of advertising ◆ Blog: more creative and improve RO culture Negative side: troll, rude and abusive ➔ Remixed: Media ◆ Creating are becoming an increasingly dominant form of writing significant ◆ The Internet + digital technology media to the masses Remix = quote = new creative work Johan Soderberg: you can do video remix almost for free on your own computer . ◆ Remix artist try to connect different tastes/resource to create something interesting ◆ A mix of images and sounds makes its point far more powerfully than any eighthundredword essay ◆ Cultural reference is used by remixers to create their content ➔ The significance of Remix ◆ Remix is collage; comes from combining elements of RO culture ◆ Remix succeeds by leveraging the meaning created by the reference to build something new ◆ To improve remix: improve the good of community and education ➔ Community ◆ Community in digital age is all around the world ◆ Remix encourage people to be more creative and easier to create things ➔ Education ◆ When kids get to do work that they feel passionate about, learn more and learn more effectively ◆ Kids learn by remixing

◆ Doing something with the culture, remixing it, is one way to learn ➔ The old in the new ◆ Remix doesn t require new thing ◆ Remixed media succeed when they show others something new ◆ Creativity supported by a new technology Copyright and Democratic Civil Society Netanel N. The engine of free expression Copyright burdens speech Copyright is thus a potential impediment to free expression no less than an engine of free expression Copyright provides an economic incentive for speech 1970 Nimmer aptly termed the copyrightfree speech conflict a largely ignored paradox Eg: The American Civil Liberties Union defend artist Tom Forsythe against Mattel s copyright when Forsythe took a naked Barbie dolls attacked by household appliances Copyright law in order to Promote the Progress of Science , meaning to advance learning . Providing an economic incentive for the creation and dissemination of numerous works of authorship copyright promotes free speech Copyrights support for authorship ma y also underscore the value of fresh ideas and individual contributions to our public discourse Copyright too often stifles criticism, encumbers individual self-expression, and ossifies highly skewed distributions of expressive power...