Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Thoughts on Open Source, Creative Commons, and "Free" Culture in the Vain of Obsolecense

Obsolescence is one of my favorite abstract concepts. Abstract Concepts being of course my favorite, as it eats itself. Obsolescence does something similar. For those within it they exist in a vacuum of sorts. Though -as we all recall from 8th grade earth science- nothing can exist in a vacuum. Yet here we are, existing.

A "vacuum fluctuation" or an error occurs which allowed -from the start- creation. The vacuum was manipulated, a literal paradox occurred in a vacuum. Andrew Joron places the universe corollary to what the surrealists defined as l'hasard objectif. "In such cases, randomness momentarily acquires structure, an arrow-shape that pierces the mesh work of a system's sustaining feedback loops... the Universe itself is thought to have resulted from a random 'vacuum fluctuation.'"

Or as Shelly might put it, "... a sword of lightning, ever unsheathed, which consumes the scabbard that would contain it."

I know, holy fuck! Right?

While Shelley mentions this in relation to poetry, directly, Joron is discussing the centralized global power structure the U.S. is encountering opposition to by way of terrorism.

What does poetry, a restructuring of global power dynamics, and copy right law have in common?

They all are changing dramatically as a result of the internet. There no longer is a need for centralization.

Web 2.0 realized this a few years ago. I'm listening to ThruYou right now, a site devoted to composing beautiful music pieced together with Youtube clips. Is this the new composition?

Well, yeah, kind of.

Is this different than how I arranged my original thoughts through the lens of Shelley and Joron?

Well, no, not really.

Are either of these copy right infringements?

That's to be decided.

As intellectual copy right becomes obsolete by way of the internet so do we. Our senses have a conscious construct. We are perpetually aware of what makes up our consciousness. As I think of Joron, I hop on Google books and search vacuum before running to my bed-side bookshelf to grab the tangible copy, made by a press on the other side of Denver. I link you to it. My thoughts fade as you become aware of their construct. Your pre-perception fades as you move from my use Joron for obsolescence to Joron's use of vacuums in relation to shifting diplomacy.

You use a vacuum in your own way. Poof! vacuum fluctuation. The Universe is born out of this for the first time. Still, it was here before.

We exist in paradox. Surrealism is the new realism because we're aware of it.

Web art is aware both of it's obsolescence and it's manipulation of open and closed source material. It's conscious connectivity overwhelms us. It's Kant's sublime. It's shitty reggae sublime. It's horrific to compare those two things.

Still, as we step away from that moment we no longer desire it. We've had it. It's wonderful and grotesque. It's living in a large city for a few months, two weeks after realizing the D runs express from Columbus Circle to your stop on 125th.

It's realizing how little you know. It's embracing obsolescence. It's becoming Shelley's unsheathed sword of lightning forever consuming the scabbard that could never contain it. It's existing in paradox.

Poof!

Vacuum Fluctuation.

In this way I wholly embrace open source material and detest copy law in the same way I detest censorship. Both inhibit creativity. Both frighten me.

What interests me, is the awareness of theft. The awareness of the overwhelming puts me in the community of obsolescent art. One example is an erasure of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. The work begins with his material but through a process of erasing and then reconstructing I have my own. I've then been sneaking lines of this piece into my own work. I have little clue where his words and my words meet. They've become a new work.

Remix art is the new Lenny Bruce. Or George Carlin

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