Friday, November 21, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
Friday, November 7, 2008
appropriation essay ^_^
Appropriation
When I first read the word, I have to admit, I had no idea what appropriation meant; other than it had the word “appropriate” in it. Most of the time, I’m wrong about the definitions of words. So I just left it alone until I read The Ecstasy of Influence and saw a documentary called How Creativity is being Strangled by the Law. In the documentary, I was shown how different it is today for people to express themselves and, in fact, copying other people’s work to do so. It is not illegal, of course, to mention a song or to sing its lyrics, but there is such thing as plagiarism; taking someone else’s work and calling it your own. But that’s not was TED talks about. He talks about user generated content, our read/write culture, and the changes that have been taking place.
In the documentary, Ted uses Sousa as an example and how he hated the new “talking machines”. Sousa proclaimed that this new machine would destroy the creativity of the masses, or something along those lines. On this, I’m not sure of what to say, but I think appropriation is alright if one wants to use it for noncommercial means. I mean, if a television show wants to pose the Mona Lisa in an episode, that’s not plagiarizing. If the company who ran the show did indeed say it was theirs, and it wasn’t a copy of the original, then that would be some massive plagiarism on their part along with some enormous lawsuits. But using others’ work as a means of self expression is exceptional, in a way, in my opinion. I’m not very computer literate so an “AMV”, as Ted observed, impresses me anytime I see one. With this rise of technology, I’m not really surprised that younger generations are learning how to use this to their advantage and with such a pace as well. I honestly don’t think there needs to be a law against appropriation because I think it would be ludicrous to monitor. Making a law means you have to enforce it as well, and I don’t know how the government would keep track of every single case of appropriation. Besides, appropriation isn’t stealing, therefore it isn’t a crime. It’s just blending it with one’s own creativity and making it into something else that says or shows something in a different way; or for another means. Appropriation isn’t really cheating, not all of it anyway. It’s just expanding on another’s creativity to create something different. Like in the essay, artists of all sorts have appropriated things from the past for today’s uses. Plot lines, lyrics, even in dance, there is no limit to what one can learn from; especially from the masters of the past.
When I first read the word, I have to admit, I had no idea what appropriation meant; other than it had the word “appropriate” in it. Most of the time, I’m wrong about the definitions of words. So I just left it alone until I read The Ecstasy of Influence and saw a documentary called How Creativity is being Strangled by the Law. In the documentary, I was shown how different it is today for people to express themselves and, in fact, copying other people’s work to do so. It is not illegal, of course, to mention a song or to sing its lyrics, but there is such thing as plagiarism; taking someone else’s work and calling it your own. But that’s not was TED talks about. He talks about user generated content, our read/write culture, and the changes that have been taking place.
In the documentary, Ted uses Sousa as an example and how he hated the new “talking machines”. Sousa proclaimed that this new machine would destroy the creativity of the masses, or something along those lines. On this, I’m not sure of what to say, but I think appropriation is alright if one wants to use it for noncommercial means. I mean, if a television show wants to pose the Mona Lisa in an episode, that’s not plagiarizing. If the company who ran the show did indeed say it was theirs, and it wasn’t a copy of the original, then that would be some massive plagiarism on their part along with some enormous lawsuits. But using others’ work as a means of self expression is exceptional, in a way, in my opinion. I’m not very computer literate so an “AMV”, as Ted observed, impresses me anytime I see one. With this rise of technology, I’m not really surprised that younger generations are learning how to use this to their advantage and with such a pace as well. I honestly don’t think there needs to be a law against appropriation because I think it would be ludicrous to monitor. Making a law means you have to enforce it as well, and I don’t know how the government would keep track of every single case of appropriation. Besides, appropriation isn’t stealing, therefore it isn’t a crime. It’s just blending it with one’s own creativity and making it into something else that says or shows something in a different way; or for another means. Appropriation isn’t really cheating, not all of it anyway. It’s just expanding on another’s creativity to create something different. Like in the essay, artists of all sorts have appropriated things from the past for today’s uses. Plot lines, lyrics, even in dance, there is no limit to what one can learn from; especially from the masters of the past.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
