I am an artist and I appreciate all forms of art, especially paintings. Van Gogh is one of my favorite artists of all time. Starry Night is one of my favorite paintings, ever. I have never done my own version, but many others have. Here are some of the neat versions that I found ON THE INTERNET.
This is done out of coiled pieces of paper, not even paint. So clearly this is very different from Van Gogh's original Starry Night.
This is absolutely amazing! A cake inspired by Van Gogh. I want this cake! Using frosting to make an old masterpiece and NEW masterpiece of its own.
Jean-Michel Basquiat is one of the most popular artists of the 1980s. He worked with Andy Warhol and many other artists. He used many previous works of art from the Renaissance and other eras to inspire his art. Clearly his art was nothing like those types of work, however, he used them to make his own version.
This is a piece clearly inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Yet it is so different. Basquiat took what he got out of this painting and made it into his own creation.
These are just a few of the millions of pieces of work that has been inspired by legendary artists of the past. So the argument continues. Is this wrong? Should they be allowed to use other's work to inspire something new that they have created? I admire all artists and would clearly give them credit for any inspiration I used from them.
The
Internet is probably the greatest tool that the world has ever seen. The things
that people have created on the Internet are amazing yet not many are legal.
Using the past, what we know people loved to hear or see, has always been a way
for people to create new things, videos, music, art of any kind. In the
twentieth century though, this concept has become illegal, breaking many
copyright laws. People want to remix, or create something new using parts of
something old that people have always loved and cherished. The most convenient
and accessible way to copy someone else’s work is the Internet. Which creates
our issue at hand; the Internet is causing a huge impact on creative works in a
positive but illegal way.
Being an artist I understand the need or want for others to enjoy my
work. Yet, there are so many copyright laws now that restrict you from ever
even considering making something close to someone else’s work. Girl Talk, a
remix artist, commits this crime everyday. Girl Talk, or Gregg Gillis, uses the
popular hits from all eras to remix them with popular current hit songs. The
problem he faces with remixing is that paying the rights to every song he uses
would become outrageously expensive and frankly, not worth it. For each sample
of another song Girl Talk uses in one of his remixes, he has to pay on average
$2500 to each of the corporations that owns each title song. So for a typical
Girl Talk song, for it to be legal, he should pay $262,500, and for a typical
album he should pay, on average, $4,200,000. (Gaylor) How could corporations
expect someone to pay over four million dollars to create something completely
new with the help of musical geniuses from the past?
“Creative
Commons is a nonprofit organization that enables the sharing and use of
creativity and knowledge through free legal tools” (Creative
Commons). For all artists there is an Internet source that is in the process of
taking down the corporations that are limiting our use of other peoples’ work.
Through this source, you are able to select the specific licenses, or who is
able to use your work. Their mission is to make people more creative and
widen their knowledge of other cultures, eras, the past and make something new
out of it. So there are ways to get around the problems of illegal usage of
other peoples’ work, so why is this still an issue today?
Everyone
wants credit for the work that they have done, there is never a question about
this. However, production companies and other corporations have taken extreme
measures. People are going to jail, being fined thousands of dollars simply
because they downloaded a song from the Internet and made it into their own new
creation. Internet sources like Creative Commons need to be used more often and
more efficiently, especially by famous artists to allow the use of creative
works to anyone they choose. Creative Commons has opened the door for something
amazing in the Internet world, giving people the chance to share their
creations in the exact way they choose. It is not fair to limit people on their
creativity; using works of the past is not stealing, it is recognizing and
rewarding these amazing artists for the culture they have given the world. “Our
vision is nothing less than realizing the full potential of the Internet to
drive a new era of development, growth, and productivity.” Their vision
statement should be an overall goal for all Internet users; cites like Creative
Commons need to set the new standard for creative users of the
Internet. “Creativity has never had it so good”, so lets keep it this way
and allow the Internet to take your creativity anywhere and everywhere.
Works
Cited
Creative
Commons. (2001). What is Creative
Commons? About. www.creativecommons.org
Gaylor,
B. (2009). RiP!: A Remix Manifesto.
Holloway-Smith,
B. (2012). Illegal Art: Considering Our Culture Of Copying. Junctures: The
Journal For Thematic Dialogue, (15), 19-26.
Let the
creative juices flow. (2012). New Scientist, (2866), 3.
The concept of virtual
reality is becoming a popular topic in the technology world. Virtual reality is
the idea of using technology to feel as if you are in another world. However,
“it old fools two senses”, visual and hearing (Freidman). People are
constantly using technology as a way to solve the issues in their lives, but
not in a beneficial method. While we see virtual reality in today’s technology,
there is still the future ahead of us with many new technologies and
psychological complications.
“The brain often fails to
differentiate between virtual experiences and real ones” (Blascovich). By this
we can believe that any world that we can see and feel as if we are in it, is
the real world. That is a scary thought. “The brain doesn’t much care if an experience
is real or virtual. In fact, many people prefer the digital aspects of their
lives to physical ones” (Blascovich). When people are in their virtual worlds
they can escape the troubles that face them in the real world, so
understandably escaping sounds like the better option. However, its clear that
the real world problems, do not actually go away. Another problem is that
people start to think that the virtual world is real, and in a sense go crazy.
They are in the virtual world too much, and it is better than their real world,
so they prefer it and accept that as their new reality.
“Thirty years – we should be able to build
computers that are as smart as we are” (Friedman). I love technology, however I
am not comfortable with the thought of a computer walking around, thinking,
talking or living as I am.“A future with human-level artificial intelligence,
however produced, raises problems for existing legal, political, and social
arrangements” (Friedman). Not only is this scary, but what Ariel Garten says
about “thought controlled computing” in the video Know thyself, with a
brain scanner is just as frightening. Having technology know things
about us and react in certain ways due to our brain waves. Some people, like
Ariel Garten, think this technology is a huge revolution, but for someone like
me, who thinks technology is going to take over the world one day, this is
scary.
The more I study
technology, the more I see how it is becoming more invasive into our lives. As
I have concluded before, technology is a great thing and helps me out,
personally, in so many ways; however, it is so intrusive in so many people’s
lives. People do not understand how to escape, and it has become more difficult
with the concept of virtual realities being a whole other world for people to
escape to. However, I do not think that I am the only one who feels
somewhat overwhelmed by technology, and I commend these people. In my own
personal opinion, I think that technology needs to take a step back from
virtual realities. We have all these other ways to use technology to escape;
there is no reason have digital worlds where people become someone else.
"Humans continuously search for new varieties and modes of existence, only
this time we're doing it via the supposedly cold machinery of digital
space" (Blascovich).
What about you? As a college student, or someone just getting out into the real world, trying to find a job? How much do you see yourself connected to the Internet? Personally, I recently deleted my Facebook account; Why? I'm not really sure. I do know that I felt a little overwhelmed and needed to delete some form of myself off of the Internet. Like I said, I removed myself from Facebook as one small step. I think that I could take a step back from technology, but with school and that being the main form of communication, and since I need a job, it is very doubtful that I will be off of technology anytime soon. For myself, I have noticed that it is harder for me to go to sleep at night; I find myself laying down and getting back up to check my email, grade, asUlearn. But that's me. What about you? Do you think you have become too involved on the Internet? To the point where there is no return? Could you completely remove yourself from the web? Have you found yourself or your mind altered because of technology?
I watched this video about, literally, is the internet making us crazy? Another drug reference, "internet cocaine", was referred to in this video. "Media is my drug." Making me see all the negatives AGAIN to the internet. What do you think? Are you addicted to the internet as much as these people seem to be? Can you have a conversation with something without checking your phone? Can you detach from technology?
Today’s generations are so
enthralled with any sort of technology, and these technologies have ultimately
come from the most influential, the Internet. “The Internet was seen as just
another medium, a delivery system, not a diabolical machine. It made people
happier and more productive” (Dokoupil, 2012). This was the opinion of most
people worldwide. The scientific affects on the minds of billions of people and
the physical and mental changes that prove these affects give us reasons to
fear the Internet and the technology that comes with it.
The brain, as discovered
by the British biologist J. Z. Young, “might in fact be in a constant state of
flux, adapting to whatever task it’s called on to perform” (Carr, 2010). With
our brains always changing, anything could cause them to develop new reactions.
“Hours spent with today’s digital technology and on the Internet are bound to
result in a shirt in neural processing” (Horstman, 2010). These reactions can
lead to mental disorders like depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder,
tinnitus and even ADHD (Carr, 2010). We are able to associate these disorders
with the Internet, or technology, because the same repeated actions done on the
Internet cause these the types of reactions that these disorders show. Peter
Whybrow suggests, “the computer is like electronic cocaine” (Dokoupil, 2012).
Suggesting that the Internet is addictive; “many addictions, too, are
reinforced by the strengthening of plastic pathways in the brain” (Carr, 2010).
So like the use of drugs, we are becoming addicted to the Internet and all of
our gadgets? That is a scary thought, because for substance abuse we can go to
rehab and get real help, but there is no technology rehab center.
But it can't all be bad
right? The Internet has clearly helped our society in developing programs,
jobs, increase in test scores, create other technologies that we never knew we
could have. Technology is something that I, along with my generation and
the generations after mine, have become dependent upon. However, this does not
mean that we are going to become victims of major brain alterations. Yes, we
use technology too much, but it is not too late to realize the affects it is
having on our minds. People need to understand when to use technology. Work
environments, school environments and various forms of entertainment need to be
limited. Our brains need to rest from the over usage of technology; we all need
breaks from work or school, our brains too need breaks. Technology has come
very far and has given us so much, so why are we trying to make technology
sound so horrible? If all it takes is for us to cut back on the hours
spent online or glued to our phones, then why can’t we back off the technology
and use it when needed and prove how great and helpful it really can be?
Works Cited
Carr, N. (2010). What
the Internet is Doing to Our Brains: The Shallows. New York: W.W. Norton
& Company.
Dokoupil, T. (2012). IS
THE ONSLAUGHT MAKING US CRAZY? (Cover story). Newsweek, 160(3), 24-30.
Dretzin, R. (2010). Digital
Nation (Documentary). United States: PBS.
Horstman, J. (2010).
Scientific American: Brave New Brain. San Francisco: Wiley.
