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Imitation Is the Mother of Invention |
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| Topic: Society |
1:01 pm EDT, Jul 7, 2002 |
When Fran Lebowitz cracked, at the awards ceremony of the Council of Fashion Designers of America last month, that "homage is French for stealing," her remark got a laugh but also some yawns. That Ms. Lebowitz's quip itself had a shopworn ring might be expected at a time when nearly every aspect of the culture somehow benefits from re-use. The idea is essential to post-modernism. In music it's called sampling. In high culture circles, where it's known as appropriation, it's ancient history. It was two decades ago when the art critic Craig Wright observed that appropriation, accumulation, hybridization and other "diverse strategies" had come to characterize "much of the art of the present and distinguish it from its predecessors." Now, those diverse strategies have become so institutionalized that when Moby turned Alan Lomax's 1930's tapes of Southern spirituals into a best-selling album of ambient music, he won Grammys and made millions. When Paul Thomas Anderson channeled Robert Altman's oeuvre, he was awarded the Palme D'Or at Cannes. When Sherrie Levine made stroke-for-stroke copies of watercolors by Mondrian, postdoctoral students lined up to write dissertations on her attenuated ironies. ... Half of fashion, in fact, seems to owe its professional existence to a single truism: one is as original as the obscurity of one's source. But isn't this as it should be? What is originality, anyhow? In spite of the current embrace of sampling and appropriation, "we persist as a culture in our commitment to the ideal of originality. The artist who admits to working in the manner of another artist will likely stand accused of being second rate." Wouldn't it be better to scrap the originality fetish and treat the creative act as "a combination of copyings, various and multiform"? Pablo Picasso: "Mediocre artists borrow; great artists steal." Copying is for artists, not consumers. Imitation Is the Mother of Invention |
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IP: Response to John Gilmore from Joe Sims |
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| Topic: Society |
2:59 am EDT, Jul 6, 2002 |
Joe Sims has responded to criticism from John Gilmore, on Dave Farber's Interesting People-mailing list. Sims states that Gilmore "doesn't have a clue about most of what he is talking about, and thus his views are basically worthless." Sims writes: "Since John Gilmore chooses to use my name in his imaginary history of how we got to where we are, I thought it would be appropriate to lay out the real facts. ... Perhaps Gilmore once had something to offer of value, but that does not include either political science or history. ... [Gilmore's] greedy lawyer canard ... simply reveals [his] lack of understanding of the law business. Drama Drama Drama IP: Response to John Gilmore from Joe Sims |
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Interview with Alan Kay in the Journal of the Center for Business Innovation |
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| Topic: Society |
12:27 am EDT, Jul 2, 2002 |
From Cap Gemini Ernst and Young, this publication might be compared to the Harvard Business Review. Here's a soundbite about the center: The Center for Business Innovation is a source of new knowledge and insights for management. We exist to discover and develop innovations in strategy, organization, and technology that deliver high value to business. Our work, performed in collaboration with leading thinkers in business, academe, and other research organizations, fuels development of new strategic consulting services, and is communicated broadly to general business audiences. On the subject of "connected innovation", the current issue of their journal includes, among other things, an interview with Alan Kay. Alan Kay is one of the most influential computer scientists of the modern era. His contributions, among many others, include the concept of the personal computer. We sat down with him to discuss his take on how innovations happen. In brief, Alan Kay rocks. Interview with Alan Kay in the Journal of the Center for Business Innovation |
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washingtonpost.com: FBI Begins Visiting Libraries |
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| Topic: Society |
6:20 pm EDT, Jun 25, 2002 |
The FBI is visiting libraries nationwide and checking the reading records of people it suspects of having ties to terrorists or plotting an attack, library officials say. The FBI effort, authorized by the antiterrorism law enacted after the Sept. 11 attacks, is the first broad government check of library records since the 1970s when prosecutors reined in the practice for fear of abuses. washingtonpost.com: FBI Begins Visiting Libraries |
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David Bowie, 21st-Century Entrepreneur |
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| Topic: Society |
11:23 am EDT, Jun 14, 2002 |
Bowie: "I don't even know why I would want to be on a label in a few years, because I don't think it's going to work by labels and by distribution systems in the same way. The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music will take place within 10 years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it. I see absolutely no point in pretending that it's not going to happen. I'm fully confident that copyright, for instance, will no longer exist in 10 years, and authorship and intellectual property is in for such a bashing." David Bowie looks forward to the next music revolution. David Bowie, 21st-Century Entrepreneur |
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Tenet to Rebuild Palestinian Forces |
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| Topic: Society |
1:23 pm EDT, May 31, 2002 |
CIA Director George Tenet is making a secrecy-shrouded visit to the Middle East to try to rebuild Palestinian security forces that were badly mauled during Israel's recent anti-terror campaign on the West Bank. Except for Tenet's Friday departure, details were not disclosed for security reasons, including even his precise destination. Off he goes, but what he'll accomplish, nobody knows. Perhaps his actions will serve to strengthen those who might oppose Arafat in the much-talked-about future Palestinian presidential election. Tenet to Rebuild Palestinian Forces |
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An Erosion of Civil Liberties |
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| Topic: Society |
1:21 pm EDT, May 31, 2002 |
Attorney General John Ashcroft has a gift for making the most draconian policy changes sound seductively innocuous. He was at it again yesterday, describing new domestic spying powers for the Federal Bureau of Investigation as nothing more than the authority to surf the Internet or attend a public gathering. That is profoundly misleading. In reality Mr. Ashcroft, in the name of fighting terrorism, was giving F.B.I. agents nearly unbridled power to poke into the affairs of anyone in the United States, even when there is no evidence of illegal activity. The New York Times is clearly unhappy with recent changes at the FBI. But they seem to be narrowly focused on the negative privacy implications, while not assessing the likelihood that these changes will prove (in)effective in "preventing" future acts, or that they will disrupt the FBI's responsibilities with regard to law enforcement. An Erosion of Civil Liberties |
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washingtonpost.com: The New Face of Another Gilded Age |
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| Topic: Society |
11:24 am EDT, May 28, 2002 |
We have just witnessed, in the spectacular growth of U.S. fortunes over the past two decades, a once-in-a-century phenomenon. Puffed up by the boom in high-technology and finance, a select group of Americans has accumulated an even larger boodle in an even shorter period of time than the titans of the Gilded Age amassed 100 years ago. The numbers almost defy belief. ... If the recent accumulation of wealth in the hands of the few resembles the Gilded Age, what about the politics? ... While history often repeats, it usually does so only in outline; ... politics today has a somewhat different cast. ... Money will keep talking, the public interest will keep walking. The great battles, in short, are still ahead. washingtonpost.com: The New Face of Another Gilded Age |
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Los Angeles Times: New Ad Campaign Aimed at TiVo Owners |
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| Topic: Society |
9:52 am EDT, May 21, 2002 |
A new breed of interactive TV commercial debuts today, aimed at the people most likely to skip them. Watch my ad, please! Ad Wizard: Hey! I noticed that no one is using video-on-demand to deliver real content, and no one wants to watch ads. The two must be made for each other! Let's use VOD to deliver ads! Isn't that a great idea? Los Angeles Times: New Ad Campaign Aimed at TiVo Owners |
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