Recombinant Culture's topics - tribe.net

Neoism

Karen — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 21:32:27 GMT

IS this NEOISM?

K. E.

posted in Recombinant Culture - 2 replies

International Collage Exhibition and Exchange

PoosieKat — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 20:27:27 GMT

International Collage Exhibition and Exchange

The 7th Bakers Dozen international collage exchange has now joined earlier exchanges on the outofsight.co.nz site.

And now....The 8th International Collage Exhibition and Exchange
Exhibiting in April 2006

A list of those artists whose collages have already arrived is HERE.

Artists each make 13 collages, size about 8" X 10" (20cm X 26cm), and send them to me in New Zealand, to arrive by 20th March, 2006.

1. One from each artist will be offered for sale at an exhibition here in New Plymouth, New Zealand with the artist setting the price.
30% commission taken.
That selling exhibition will also be on the Net on the Virtual TART site, at http://virtual.tart.co.nz
allowing the world-wide audience the chance to buy these collages.
If unsold, that collage will rejoin the exchange.
2. One is part of a month-long exhibition on the Virtual TART site during April, will then be exhibited May 3rd to May 27th at the Hill Country Arts Foundation in Ingram Texas, (thanks to Ken Malson for setting this up) and become part of their permanent collection, while remaining permanently on exhibition on the outofsight.co.nz Internet site.
3. One will be sent to be part of the permanent collection of the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts at Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, USA. (Thanks to Hank Foreman for this.)

The other 10 (or 11) are shared out into parcels which are sent back to each contributing artist.

So you send 13 of yours, get back 11 others (or 10 and money from your sale), and you become part of two public collections.

Interested in taking part?
Here's how it works:

Make 13 collages, on 8" X 10" (20cm X 26cm) (actual collage area can be smaller, but the 8 X 10 outer size makes packaging easier). Not bigger than A4 size.

Send :

* your collages,
* your name & address,
* email address if you've got one
* (and the URL of your own website if you've got one and want it listed)
* Mark which collage you want to offer for sale, and the price.
(Make it clear which currency you're talking about!!!!)
30% commission will be taken.
The exchange rate is such that US$100 is about NZ$140 so you might have to lower your usual prices perhaps.
* If you want to select which ones go on the Net and then to Texas, and to Boone too, that's fine
* and send $40 US or $35 Oz or $30 NZ depending on where you live (for handling, website, NZ exhibition, and return postage) Or £20 € 28 CAN$ 45. Or ¥ ... ? Rupees? Just a cheque (or check) or cash, nothing fancy like bank drafts or money orders.

to:
Dale Copeland
7266 Surf Highway
R D 37
Okato
NEW ZEALAND

(Postal code 4652 if you need it,
Phone number 0064 6 752 8126)

to arrive before 20th March, 2006 The exhibition of one work from each artist will be shown on the Virtual TART site at http://virtual.tart.co.nz during April 2006 then permanently on the Net on the outofsight.co.nz site, while the actual collages will be exhibited in the Hill Country Arts Foundation in Ingram, and become part of their permanent collection.
One from each artist will be sent to be part of the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts at Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, USA.
One from each artist will be exhibited and offered for sale in New Plymouth, New Zealand and also on the Net (at 30% commission)
A package of 10 or 11 collages by other artists will be sent to each participating artist by mid May 2006.

http://outofsight.co.nz/Dale/collage.htm

posted in Recombinant Culture - 1 reply

my tribe art project needs your comments

bragitta — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 01:22:32 GMT

I am starting an art project on my tribe page
creating art pieces and asking questions
and the comments that it receives will inspire the next question and art piece

so
would you like to join this art project??
feel free to hop on over to my tribe page and leave a comment or two
even become a new friend

thanks
bragitta

posted in Recombinant Culture - 0 replies

California tying education tech grants to copyright education

magnathree — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 14:00:25 GMT

California tying education tech grants to copyright education
2/15/2006 11:17:58 AM, by Ken "Caesar" Fisher

Legislation is being considered in California that would see the state's educational technology grant program tethered to requirements for teaching copyright law to students. Introduced nearly a year ago, AB 307 would amend section 51871.5 of the Californian Education Code to include new preconditions for public schools applying for funding under the oversight of the California Technology Assistance Project. The project is designed to provide a network of technical assistance to schools and their districts in implementing education technology as determined by the Californian State Board of Education.

Schools that wish to apply for grants will need to demonstrate that they have a plan to educate their students in three areas: the "ethical behavior in regards to the use of information technology," "the concept, purpose, and significance of a copyright," and "the implications of illegal peer-to-peer network file sharing."

The bill is the brainchild of California Assemblyman Ed Chavez, who decided that such legislation was needed after observing studies that show that the largest groups of P2P users are teens and people in their 20s.

"This activity has resulted in multi-billion dollar losses to the content industries in California particularly the music and filmed entertainment industries," according to a comment from Chavez's office. "When computers at public schools and college campuses are used for illegal file sharing, precious and costly bandwidth is consumed resulting in increased costs to taxpayers. An educational program targeted at students could help stem this activity. Many students, teachers, and parents do not realize that downloading a copyrighted song or film over the Internet is illegal and no different than stealing a CD or DVD from a retail store."

Assemblyman Chavez's office also indicated that the MPAA has formally supported the bill, and the RIAA is also a backer. Citing a Pew Internet and American Life Project report, the Assemblyman's office indicated that they are concerned about Americans' "dismissive" views on copyright.

The bill has been referred to the Committee on Education, and few expect it to meet much resistance on its path to becoming a law. Should it pass, the Visual and Performing Arts Framework for California Public Schools will be used to determine the content of the teaching.

Propaganda or power to the people?
School districts around the country are considering their own educational efforts as they relate to technology, although most are grappling with more basic issues such as access to computing technology, training, and making technology relevant to education. Nevertheless, educators and politicians are starting to understand that the educational environment is an ideal setting for educating students about copyright law, but there are no shortage of concerns regarding what that education will entail. While stopping unbridled P2P usage is at the top of most curricula, fair use isn't.

A case in point is the MPAA's public education effort on their own site. The industry association once hosted a FAQ for DVD usage, but many believe that it was so riddled with errors and misstatements that the MPAA simply removed the FAQ. The MPAA, for instance, had described the DMCA as being designed to implement World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaties, when the DMCA in fact goes far, far beyond anything required by the WIPO treaties in question (treaties that have not yet been fully honored or ratified by most other nations). Such matters may seem minor, but to many educators, they're anything but.

Other the other hand, many parents and politicians are more concerned with results than methodology, especially in this age of lawsuits aimed at fire sharers. In their view, an educational program, even if it is biased in the direction of the entertainment industry, is better than nothing at all.

posted in Recombinant Culture - 0 replies

interesting mix

spacemonkey1134 — Mon, 30 Jan 2006 21:02:40 GMT

of stock footage and other elements
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1185812222812358837

posted in Recombinant Culture - 0 replies

tic-tacs

magnathree — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 04:59:18 GMT

anyone notice the jingle in the new 'tic-tacs' ads on TV?
its another jingle -
it was a 'sprite' ad done by raymond scott in the 50s

posted in Recombinant Culture - 6 replies

NYT Op-Ed

magnathree — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 15:13:39 GMT

Buy, Play, Trade, Repeat
by Damien Kulash Jr. of OK,GO
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/06/opinion/06kulash.html

posted in Recombinant Culture - 1 reply

Up and coming "Sticking" Tribe...

JamaicanSteve — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 20:12:41 GMT

Come and join the "Stick Something" Tribe!

A tribe for all thoes out there that are into the art of sticking things to stuff! Whether it be stickers, wheatpasting posters or otherwise.... If you stick it, lets see it!

http://sticksomething.tribe.net/

cheers~
Jamaican Steve
THINK BIG, live small...DSNT!

posted in Recombinant Culture - 0 replies

Sexual Healing

rhd — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 15:32:51 GMT

The Earl of Bandwidth has relased a Remix of Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing". In this rendition, Mr. Gaye has been has stumbled into a digital rabbit hole of indeterminate size. Think of it as the synthesis of WebMD and set of fine silk sheets.

Check it out at:

http://recombinanthumandragon.com/eob.html

posted in Recombinant Culture - 1 reply

my blog

Robert — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 01:31:43 GMT

yeah, it's shameless self-promoing...but i think my blog may be of some interest to those who are interested in recombinant culture...anyway

http://dubology.blogspot.com

posted in Recombinant Culture - 0 replies

"Derivative Music"

magnathree — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 14:42:56 GMT

from "Cites & Insights"
Volume 5, Number 12: November 2005
from walt crawford
C&I is a newsletter about
"Libraries, Policy, Technology & Media"

'Derivative Music'
This belongs as part of a grander essay, but for now… I was reading Michelle Manafy’s “edit this” in the July/August 2005 EContent, “DRM’s demon days,” about a remix album, DRM, and related issues. In dis-cussing what Lawrence Lessig calls “our cut and paste culture,” Manafy says:
Upside: creative and intellectual output that stands high on the shoulders of others, greater than the sum of its parts. Downside: derivative drivel and outright thievery.
True enough—and I was reminded of some of the upside in the history of music, before hyper-restrictive copyright interpretations made it possible for even a tiny sample of a piece to be considered protected.
Case in point: a plagiarist called Johann Sebastian Bach—who built works on themes from other people and whose works served as inspiration for new pieces by others (and himself). Case in point: Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis—probably safe enough since there’s a 343-year gap between the original and the “derivative work,” but nonetheless a derivative work. And, to be sure, thousands of mediocre compositions whose only thematic worth comes directly from earlier pieces (and then there are the brilliant pastiches of Peter Schickele).
In my youth, I was an avid collector of music from the Baroque and the 20th century, with special emphasis on two great composers who, to some extent, represented the peak of their eras: Bach and Stravinsky. Which leads me to my final example of the value of derivative works—a piece I consider stunning but which is (apparently) relatively little-known: Stravinsky’s transcription and orchestration of Bach’s Variations on ‘Vom Himmel Hoch.’ It’s Stravinsky’s take on one of Bach’s most memorable pieces, which in turn is based on a German Christmas carol. It’s distinctly Stravinsky, distinctly Bach—and derivative.

posted in Recombinant Culture - 7 replies

News . . . + Derivative Music

magnathree — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 02:57:59 GMT

patents on 'languages' (like XML)?
if i learn to speak or write it -
do i have to pay royalties on my own
thoughts after that if i accidentally
think in that language?
did any classical composer since
bach make music that was not
at least informed of bach?

posted in Recombinant Culture - 1 reply

news . . . .

magnathree — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 05:00:31 GMT

An American firm is looking to 'monetise' some patents it sees as covering the XML format, with its sights set on multi-million-dollar licensing agreements.

A small software developer plans to seek royalties from companies that use XML, the latest example of patent claims embroiling the tech industry.

Scientigo owns two patents (No. 5,842,213 and No. 6,393,426) covering the transfer of "data in neutral forms." These patents, one of which was applied for in 1997, are infringed upon by the data-formatting standard XML, Scientigo executives assert.

Scientigo intends to "monetise" this intellectual property, Scientigo chief executive Doyal Bryant said this week.

Rather than seek royalties itself, Scientigo has forged a tentative agreement with an intellectual-property licensing firm that will handle contracts with third parties, Bryant said. A final agreement could be announced early next week, he said.

"We're not interested in having us against the world. We're just looking for ways to leverage an asset; we have pretty concrete proof that makes us feel comfortable saying it is an asset," Bryant said.

Scientigo's claims are the latest to crop up in an industry that is sharply divided over the role of patents.

Advocates argue that the patent system protects intellectual property as intended. Detractors, including those who call for the elimination of software patents, say that patents make it simpler for businesses — sometimes pejoratively dubbed "patent trolls" — to legally prey on unsuspecting software users.

Bryant said that Scientigo over the past several months has had discussions with 47 companies regarding the patents, including Microsoft and Oracle.

Based on these talks, Bryant said he is confident that the company's patents will command royalties from software companies and other large organisations, such as Amazon.com, which use XML.

Vast ramifications
The ramifications of such a licensing request could be vast. XML has become a widely used method for storing and sharing information in many forms, from purchase orders to information in Web pages.

Most software companies use XML in some way, as do individual developers and corporate customers. The standard itself is developed by the W3C, which published an initial draft of XML in late 1996 and proposed XML version 1.0 in December 1997.

Patent lawyer Bruce Sunstein, a co-founder of Boston-based Bromberg & Sunstein, viewed Scientigo's patents and concluded that the company will have difficulty in enforcing claims over XML.

Sunstein noted that XML is derived from SGML, which dates back to the 1980s. SGML, in turn, is based on computing concepts from the 1960s. If Scientigo's claims were ever litigated, the company would have to address all the prior work on data formats.

"You can wish them good luck if you want, but there is a lot of history this patent will have to deal with, and the fat lady has not finished singing on this one yet," Sunstein said.

Companies respond
A representative from IBM said that its intellectual property lawyers had not yet heard of Scientigo's claim.

Microsoft declined to say whether it has spoken to anyone from Scientigo. In general, though, the company minimised the effect of patent claims on something as legally well-protected as XML.

"XML has been around a long time, and people shouldn’t assume any one patent has broad implications. Often, patents are quite narrow and mostly irrelevant to the industry at large," David Kaefer, a Microsoft director of business development in charge of IP licensing.

Meanwhile, the W3C has not been contacted by Scientigo, according to spokeswoman Janet Daly.

Daly noted that companies or even individuals often make patent claims on XML. For example, Microsoft, which uses XML as the foundation of many of its products, was awarded a patent for programming techniques related to XML.

"Regularly there are small companies or even individuals who have one or two or 10 patents. And when the company doesn't do very well, the patents become a means of revenue," Daly said.

Scientigo does fit the profile of companies looking to buttress their finances by better commercialising their intellectual property.

The company, once known as Market Central, went through a complete overhaul this year after the arrival of Bryant as chief executive. It sold of its call centre business, eliminated debt, and focused its product development on content management software.

Hue and cry
As part of the restructuring, company executives decided to try to draw revenue from its patents — including the two in question that came through Scientigo's acquisition of the assets of a Texas company called Pliant Technologies.

Bryant does not dispute the company's interest in potentially huge revenue from these patents. A multimillion-dollar annual royalty from Amazon.com, for example, would not be onerous to Amazon and yet help revitalise Scientigo, Bryant said.

"This could be a pretty significant income stream for us," said Bryant.

He declined to indicate which company he is negotiating with to handle licensing.

Bryant did, however, detail the outside firms he enlisted to examine Scientigo's patents and formulate its IP strategy. Those companies include law firms Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox and Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich and Rosati. Another is Inflexion Point Strategy, which describes itself as an intellectual-property investment bank set up to buy and sell IP.

Even with the aid of an outside licensing firm, Scientigo will face a great deal of difficulty extracting royalties from XML users, said Andrew Updegrove, a partner at Gesmer Updegrove and attorney for the standards body OASIS.

OASIS is one of several standards bodies and organisations that uses XML as the basis for its work, noted Updegrove, who runs the ConsortiumInfo.org site that tracks industry standards. With so many people heavily invested in XML, any patent claims over portions of XML would be challenged, much the way the Eolas patent claim against Microsoft was reviewed by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

"The world has learned that you don't mess with the Internet, the Web, or anything crucial to its operation. Mighty will be the hue and cry against any assertion of patents against XML in any kind of broad sense or even in any sense at all. There will be a call for re-examination of the patents, and there will also be refusals to license that will lead to litigation if the patent owner chooses to sue," Updegrove predicted.

Bryant defends the company's plan, saying it's the "right move to make" for his company and shareholders.

On Friday, he intends to fly to the West Coast of the US and finalise an agreement with an IP licensing firm, a move he hopes will validate Scientigo's claims

posted in Recombinant Culture - 0 replies

Project: Photo Alteration

rhd — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 00:17:47 GMT

Anybody interested can check out a collective photo alteration project located here:

http://recombinanthumandragon.com/2005/10/photo-alteration-project.html

posted in Recombinant Culture - 0 replies

Off-Topic, On Birkerts

rhd — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 13:36:32 GMT

This doesn't really fall explicitly within the category of "recombinant culture", so I didn't think it should necessarily be posted here. However, I would love some input from you smart folks on a discussion of Sven Birkerts' commentary on hypertext.

I've started a post about it over at my site:

http://recombinanthumandragon.com/2005/10/in-headlines.html

All the best,
BMR/RHD

posted in Recombinant Culture - 0 replies

Plagiarism and Culture Theft

rhd — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 16:48:44 GMT

As a starting point, here is the section of our manifesto having to deal with the recycling of artworks and the sticky permission issues that often come with it. We'd love to know people's thoughts/critiques.
---------------------------------------------

The project of recombinant cultural production asserts the necessity of hybrids, the impossibility of inventing anything completely new. Works of culture always borrow from, build off of, and make reference to past works, whether they like it or not. Originality is a myth that belongs with the epic works of 19th romanticism. Leave it there. You cannot create something from nothing. One needs raw materials. The process of creation requires appropriation.

Luckily for the recombinant artist, the output of the global culture industry is vast. There is an endless and ever-growing supply of raw materials for conversion. In an age of waste, overproduction, and disposable goods, there is plenty of need to recycle, too. The only question is what one can borrow from whom, and when.

At the moment, these standards of use are largely determined by a culture industry whose goals begin and end with profit, as well as a court system which supports the profitability of that industry. These entities want to control access to certain parts of the spectacle (artworks, recordings, performances) by setting up a mandatory commercial barrier between the artist and the public, turning the appreciater into the consumer.

In order to assure their profit, the culture industry works to monopolize the field of cultural production. When the captains of the culture industry (or their surrogates such as the RIAA and Metallica, or Casey Kasem and U2 vs. Negativland) berate us for using peer-to-peer networks for downloading music, they implicitly infer that a blow to the major labels is a blow to culture itself. “After all,” they say, “if musicians can’t make a living off of their music [though major label contracts, of course], how will they be able to keep playing?” Of course, artists all over the world manage to keep producing work without the aid of giant culture corporations. The real meaning of the question is “how would the culture industry survive if the public no longer accepted the idea that art is principally something to be bought?”

The culture industry would not survive!

The culture industry should not survive!

This is not to say that Recombinant Human Dragon discourages any financial transaction related to art. We understand that many people want to make a living as artists – a decision to be encouraged! We object to the culture industry not for the culture it produces (even though corporate culture is often reprehensible) but for its implicit assertion that art is a commodity first. Thus, we simply and unoriginally advocate that your entertainment dollars be given to artists who are struggling to produce their own work on human terms, rather than celebrities who are struggling to make it clear to their chauffer that they simply cannot be late for the Pepsi photo-shoot.

More importantly, we suggest that art, music, and other forms of culture are not a privilege that should be available only to those who can afford them. They are a necessary part of human life. Culture ensnared in the system of private property means that some people will always be left starving for culture. The ability to copy, reproduce, redistribute and share cultural items provides access to culture for a broader audience, who may or may not otherwise have the means to buy it. One of the goals of the Human Dragon is to develop a discussion of, and ethic of, culture that is available for everyone, call it what you will: affordable culture, public culture, collective culture, communal culture, free culture, open culture.

We don’t believe in author-ity. We recognize that once a work of culture is “finished” being designed and executed, once it is displayed or sold in public, that the artist can no longer control who uses it, or how. Reading a text is already re-writing it. Using a technology is already (potentially) re-designing it. The relation between artist and audience, designer and user, in a word, producer and consumer, is upset. We need to rethink the idea of an active (creative) creator and a passive (receptive) user/consumer.

It should be added it is not “disrespectful” to an artist to take a copy of his or her work and reinterpret it, reuse it, remix it, recontextualize it, or recombine it. Once you put a work of art out there, it has become part of the enormous cultural library that we all draw on. It is naïve to think you can control how your work is appropriated. What’s more, it is egoist. Any artist who’s not interested in sharing their art with others, and in seeing how others (re)interpret it, (re)use it, (re)display it, etc. is a narcissist.

Nor is it necessarily a problem to copy a work—or translate it into another language, for example—to achieve wider distribution. This not only provides culture for more people, often free or at a lower cost (as in the case of pirate CDs and DVDs sold on the street), but also ensures a wider audience and more exposure for the artist. Independent artists need not fear that culture pirates will drive them out of a living. Independent, grassroots, de-commodified culture fosters an emotional connection – a sense of responsibility and community - between artist and audience. The audience will voluntarily support an artist, rather than being coerced into doing so by measures such as copy-protection.

In the world of commodified art, however, this relationship between artist and audience is blocked, mediated, alienated. The culture industry establishes barriers which restrict access to culture and secure profit. The only way to experience a work in this case is through a recognized commercial transaction, through controlled chains of distribution. And the only way to increase circulation of culture is to increase marketing and sales. Free circulation of the “finished” commodity must be avoided at all costs. Such a mindset is obviously devoted to profitability, not to art.

In conclusion, STEAL THIS TEXT.

posted in Recombinant Culture - 8 replies

Trend of Maximum U.S. General Copyright Term

magnathree — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 13:56:37 GMT

http://www.tomwbell.com/writings/(C)_Term.html

posted in Recombinant Culture - 2 replies

Project: Film Stills

rhd — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 14:43:46 GMT

I've been experimenting recently with using a digital camera to take film stills from the TV. The distorted quality you get from the dual media (TV screen plus digital camera) creates some interesting textures. Plus, it's possible to decontextualize individual images from the intended narrative and then create new narratives.

You can see a series of stills I recently took, as well as some additional thoughts on kidnapping images from television here:

http://recombinanthumandragon.com/2005/09/captures.html

posted in Recombinant Culture - 6 replies

Project: Random Flickr Collage

rhd — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 20:55:14 GMT

Use the following URL to access a 6 random photos taken off of Flickr:

http://www.krazydad.com/gustavog/FlickRandom.pl

Incorporate all 6 of these photos into a collage.

Recombinant Culture's topics - tribe.net

Neoism

International Collage Exhibition and Exchange

my tribe art project needs your comments

California tying education tech grants to copyright education

interesting mix

tic-tacs

NYT Op-Ed

Up and coming "Sticking" Tribe...

Sexual Healing

my blog

"Derivative Music"

News . . . + Derivative Music

news . . . .

Project: Photo Alteration

Off-Topic, On Birkerts

Plagiarism and Culture Theft

Trend of Maximum U.S. General Copyright Term

Project: Film Stills

Project: Random Flickr Collage

Howdy!!!