Reception History "round one"

It was a late October afternoon, the rain was steadily falling giving a bone chilling dampness to the air and the sky was a gun metal gray. There was not the slightest hint the weather was going to clear up. To make matters worse I was growing weary and still had not found what I was looking for. Although, I knew I was exactly where I needed to be to begin my search for this small white box, this object of art long lost.

The trial was fast paced and turning out to be very exciting from a laymen’s point of view. Both the defense and prosecution seemed to have done their homework and with each turn of events the excitement mounted. That’s when the defense lawyer decided to pull out his big guns and he sent me off to search for an old relic he was sure still existed in this warehouse of rare and antique art objects.

It would not have been prudent for me to continue with this search had it not been for the Preservation of Art Laws (POAL) passed some fifty years ago. By putting these preservation laws into motion society had been able to maintain and restore artifacts from our past. By building on the knowledge and ideas given to us from our creative forefathers, it only seemed right that we return the favor to those who would soon follow after us.

Then maybe…just maybe, because of the preservation art laws I would find this small white box in time to show the judges. Turning the court’s judgment in our favor for a change. If the courts passed these copyright laws as they were written, the results could be disastrous and next to impossible to change in the future. By stopping the passing of these laws we would at least have time to present a compromise. The corporate giants would have their limitless copyright extensions and society would still have the right to continue to create from our past.

It was hard to believe I was looking for a piece of art that had originally been a university art student’s project for an assignment of a remix of Lessig’s book, Free Culture. The piece had been described as a small predominately white rectangular box, approximately seven inches in length by five inches in height and width, very light in weight and very simple in its overall design. I would notice several curious geometrically shaped groupings of text on the outside of this box, but the placement of this text would lack structure or order. Actually the placement of these geometrically shaped groupings of text would give way to a random and chaotic layout with the text sometimes overlapping, sometimes placed upside down, even sometimes pieces of the text would be cut out and discarded. Furthermore, while reading this random and chaotic layout of text I would begin to realize that these writings came from within Lessig’s book.

However, the most intriguing part of this small white box would be a singular small rectangular opening in the upper left hand corner on one side of the box. Compelling the viewer to pick up this seemingly unsuspecting white box and daring the viewer to peer inside. Once the viewer peered through the opening into the white box the visual impact of the diminishing repetition of the copyright symbol would become fully realized. If society continued on its present path of self-destruction, by permitting ‘ALL’ copyrights to be extended indefinitely, how long would it take before there would be nothing left to use as source material in the creative realm.

Though unseen, I could sense the small white box’s presence in the dark and forbidding shadows of this old warehouse of art. The size of the object I was seeking and the vastness of the room seemed to work against each other. Because it was a diminutive piece, perhaps that was one of the reasons I had yet to find it. However, what it held inside was more than just a simple message to the masses. It was for that reason alone that my need for comfort was overridden by my sense of urgency to find the white box and I pressed onward with my search. If I was successful in my search and found this object of art, would there still be time to change the course of events that had recently thrown our society’s creativity into an abyss.

If we allowed the corporate giants and their high priced lawyers to dictate our decisions for the future, what price would we ultimately pay in the end? This seemingly insignificant piece of art held a visual warning for all of mankind of what might become of our society if greed and indifference were to win. And if we were unable to, or worse unwilling to, convince our judicial system of the pitfalls of their past decisions what then? Left on our present course how could we be sure of what the outcome would be?

What had once started off as a noble and justifiable idea called Intellectual Property (IP) had quickly turned into a spiraling downward fall for an unsuspecting society? Intellectual property had allowed people to create and innovate in the same way they could own their personal property without the fear of it being taken away. The IP owner could control and be rewarded for the use of his IP and thereby encourage further innovation and creativity for the benefit of all mankind.

The fallacy of our decisions in the past would plague our memories in the future. The corporate giants and their high priced lawyers would again lead us anywhere but down the promised garden path. If the bad decisions of the past had not been made, maybe then I would not have been crawling around in this dark old moldy warehouse and the freedom to borrow from past creations would have been the norm instead of the exception to the rule.

Why can’t mankind leave well enough alone…why must mankind always take something good and twist it around until it becomes something bad? I knew the answer even before I had asked; it’s mankind’s nature…never to be quite satisfied with what he had. Mankind would always tried to improve, change, or re-invent something to make it better somehow. And most of the time that was a good thing, but limitless extensions of the copyright laws was not one of those times. The original copyright laws were intended to protect the creative population. Those laws were never written to stop creative freedom.

So why now? Why had the big corporations decided all of a sudden that the original laws were not quite good enough? Why was it always the power hungry and the greedy that could never be satisfied? It was always the corporate giants who thirsted for more power and more money until they ultimately destroyed the good meant for all. Of course, this was not the first time for big business or their lawyers nor would it likely be the last time, so long as their greed’s were satisfied in the end.

It never ceased to amaze me the lengths to which the powerful would go in order to get what they wanted without the slightest concern for what they might ultimately be doing to the very structure of society’s foundation. And for what…a few more dollars in their pockets? So what if they halted progress or tore down what the creative population wished to build up. Why does history have to repeat itself over and over again?

Let the big corporations and their high price lawyers have their extended copyrights. There are fewer of them than there are of us (the creative people) and it’s about time they learned the hard way what greed and power does to those who lack compassion for their fellow man. By hording their company’s creations it would only be a matter of time before they would stumble and fall flat on their faces. But the rest of society should be exempt from these limitless extensions of copyright law. The creative population should be allowed to continue to create and to grow. Building a stronger foundation and a deeper awareness through life’s experiences and creations from our present as well as from our past.

Therefore, here I crawled, shifted and moved all sizes of objects from one place to another in this dusty old warehouse trying to find the one piece of evidence, that hope against hope, would turn the judges final decision in our favor. Maybe this time history would not repeat itself. Maybe this time the rich powerful corporations would not be able to sway the court’s decision. Maybe this time the visual impact of the message inside this small predominately white rectangular box would hit the mark. Maybe this time...

Part II. Results From the Reconstruction of an Image Description

Once the written descriptions of our chosen art works were handed out, each of us went to work reconstructing the image we were given. As we read and re-read we put media to paper and an image was reborn. In some cases not exactly the image the writer was hoping for, but nonetheless an image. It was fascinating to see the variations in each person’s reconstructed piece. There were a few images containing all the elements, but in total reversal of the actual piece, in a flip-flopped orientation. There were at least three that came so close I would have been able to pair them up with their companion piece, no problem at all. One of these was mine. Or so I thought at first glance.

I truly thought I had captured the description of my image, if only because of my approach to the problem. My first attempt, I sat and studied the painting and once I thought I had the image in my mind I left the room and wrote it down from memory. Writing down just the concrete parts of the image as I had remember them. During my second attempt I took what I had written from memory and compared it to the actual painting. Although pretty good for a first attempt I still needed to clear up the omissions and mistakes before going final. So I filled in the missing pieces and clarified some of the more obvious mistakes. One such mistake was a branch that split off from the main branch and doubled back into the center of the painting crossing in the front of the falcon. Also from memory I thought I had noticed some feathery down from the young falcon blowing in the breeze. That was totally out in left field, there was absolutely no sign of a breeze or wind of any kind whatsoever in the painting.

After correcting my memory omissions and mistakes, I began to elaborate on my perceived emotion from the painting, trying to, with words, pull out what I felt from viewing the painting. I remarked about the dominance of the boulders and their relationships to one another and to the diminutive size of the falcon in comparison. I pointed out the colors of the boulders, but omitted their color independence one from the other. Thereby leaving the reconstruction artist somewhat confused and in the outcome, all the colors were mixed together rather than being independent one from the other.

My depiction of the branch in the foreground was not quite as sound as I had thought it to be. Evidence of that was in the rendition of the artist’s omission of the top half of the branches climbing up the left side of the painting. I left out the fact that the main branch spilt into three secondary branches, on approximately the same horizontal axis where the falcon sat on his rocky ledge. Two of these branches continue to twist and climb upwards filling from the left side of the painting to the center, arching inward and toward the upper right, tickling the rocks with their spindly barren smaller off-shooting branches. None of these branches attempt to cover any part of the falcon. Although one of the smaller branches, reaching to the right and above the bird’s head, does aid in the visible formation in the shape of a “C”.

Although I mentioned the shadowing effect in the painting, I made no reference to the placement of the sun other than late afternoon. Again leaving the reconstruction artist without enough information for a more accurate placement of those shadows, which show up on the left side on the rocky formation behind the dead grayish-white branches in the foreground. One aspect of these shadows seem to indicate an overhang from an upper rocky formation not seen in the picture, but evident from the light and shadows. The strongest light was seen also in the same formation of the “C,” covering the top half of the branches, the top of the falcon on the right side of the painting. It was here that the individual colors of the rocks show up. There was also a shadow cast from the young falcon’s torso and slightly uplifted left wing, falling underneath the falcon to the left on the third branch that splits-off from the main branch that doubles back in the lower center of the painting crossing in front of the falcon.

My description of the immature falcon was also lacking enough facts for a more accurate rendering. His feathers were a bit more ruffled in the painting than I had indicated in my original description. I also forgot to mention, that the falcon was in a three quarters position facing the twisted branches on the left side of the painting. However, only after seeing the reconstruction artist’s rendering, did I think of a description that would more accurately portray his posture in the painting. I should have said that the falcon peered from under his wing in a Dracula-like pose from a seated sleeping position. His coloring was also more of a grayish-white though, the other artist shows him as predominately brown. I should have been more descriptive with the amounts and placements of the colors of the falcon. The black markings were more on the tips of the feathers about the head and shoulders indicating the age of the falcon. The shadowing on the falcon is also omitted from my original description again leaving the artist nothing to work with. I could have said that the falcon's shadows are shown from underneath his slightly lifted Dracula-like wing and that part of his lower underbelly that can be seen from his three quarters angle to the viewer. The light strikes the bird’s upper torso, back of his neck, head and outstretched wing.

Again this has been a very stimulating and eye opening exercise. One that has helped, from first hand experience, my understanding of the reasoning behind the expression, “One picture is worth a thousand words.” Depending on the complexity of the object of art, it should be considered that sometimes more than a thousand words might be necessary in order to bring that image back to life.

The Original Painting by A. Cialone is shown below:

The rendering of the reconstruction artist shown below:

Part One: Reconstruction of an Image Description

Earth tones dominate this vertical painting of an immature falcon. In the background there abounds large boulders of gentle grays, soft tans, muted pinks and very pale orangish-yellows. Each of these rocks struggles for dominance of position among its brothers. They appear to reach out in all directions from their individual magnificent size, indicating that they are part of a much larger formation. They are smooth and worn, but covered in striations, cracks and deep fissures. Giving away that this scene takes place in an area that has stood the test of time.

The shadows on these boulders are only ever so slightly noticeable with the exception of the deep fissures. The fissures reach back into the depths of their joining holding a special wonder of what might be contained behind them. In proportion to the young falcon these boulders loom over his small statue as if to say they will remain even after his departure. From the lighting used for the shadows there is a sense that this is a late fall afternoon and winter might be fast approaching.

Among these massive boulders there sits a young falcon, on the well-hidden stony ledge created by the joining of these boulders, just below center and to the right of the total image. From his three quarters vantage point he is hunched over and peering from under the feathers of his left wing, which is slightly raised out from his body as he inspects that which has aroused him from his moment of solitude. His look is somewhat intense, but shows no signs of fear, only irritation at being disturbed from his quite perch among the cliffs. His colors camouflage his existence quite nicely among the earthy tones of the boulders in the background. His feathered covering is predominately the same gentle grays, whites, soft tans with black markings. The black markings on his wings are probably the only evidence that he is actually there. The artist depicts this scene with a cold stillness through the lack of any noticeable wind or movement at all within the picture.

In the foreground a large dead grayish-white branch looms in front of the rock formation as well as the young falcon. Striped of its foliage, its form is twisted and its spindly smaller branches join the twisting and turning of the large branches as they reach upward. The large main branch enters the painting from the lower right corner and meanders slowly to the left and starts an upward stretching and twisting of its branches of various sizes toward the sky that the viewer knows is there but is unseen in this painting. One of the twisted branches doubles back toward the right side of the painting and crosses in front of the young falcon breaking the complete form of the bird’s frame and allowing its tail to peek over the edge of the cliff where the falcon sits.

The Artist's Statement

The Box contains what I believe Lawrence Lessig’s book is trying to point out dealing with copyrights and intellectual property in our future. The shape is not necessarily significant, with the exception of the execution of the project. The color indicates the purity of the original reason behind copyrights and intellectual property. The words placed on the box are from Lawrence Lessig’s book, Free Culture. Their random selection, placement and arrangement represent the lack of regard for Lessig’s words from corporate America. I believe they truly can not see, or do not wish to see, what they will ultimately do with their repeated extensions of copyrights. They can only see these extensions as a means of control and power, which translates into more money (for them). The cutting up of the random pages from Lessig’s book shows the words are there, the logic is there, but we see only bits and pieces of the reasoning behind what Lessig is trying to point out. In short, humanity is not able or choose not to be able to see the "Big Picture".

Once the viewer looks into the box, the reality of what is bound to happen comes in to view. The Copyright repeats and repeats and repeats itself until public domain is no longer an option from which to create. This once again shows how something that was good and well intention at its creation is now being abused and is not working for the good of “ALL,” but only for the good of a “FEW”.

Now we look at the doctrine of "Fair Use" within copyright law. To determine if; my project for this class would be in violation of "Fair Use" laws, had Lawrence Lessig NOT waived part of his copyrights and allowed a remixing of his book? To grasp an understanding of that part of copyright law which defines "Fair Use," I have cited this statement from the website indicated below:

...Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered “fair,” such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair:

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

2. the nature of the copyrighted work;

3. amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

The distinction between “fair use” and infringement may be unclear and not easily defined. There is no specific number of words, lines, or notes that may safely be taken without permission. Acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission.

Copyright protects the particular way an author has expressed himself; it does not extend to any ideas, systems, or factual information conveyed in the work.

When it is impracticable to obtain permission, use of copyrighted material should be avoided unless the doctrine of “fair use” would clearly apply to the situation. The Copyright Office can neither determine if a certain use may be considered “fair” nor advise on possible copyright violations. If there is any doubt, it is advisable to consult an attorney... (http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html)

Had Lessig NOT given others permission to remix his book, then I would say yes, I am in violation of "Fair Use" laws. However, is Lessig being as clever as a fox? By waiving parts of his copyright is he facilitating the spread of his point of view to the public of the possibility of an oncoming catastrophy in the future? Only time will tell.

Creativity Protection For All

I have to agree with the need to keep copyrights (CR) and intellectual property (IP), but I have to disagree with the way they are being exploited by corporate America. After reading Lessig’s book I came away with, what seemed like to me, the plain and simple truth of the problem at hand. Copyrights and IP are just two more noble ideals headed down the tubes.

The original reason for having CR and IP, in the first place, was for the protection of an individuals’ original creation(s) for a defined length of time. (The catch phrase here is, “a defined length of time.”) As Lessig points out, it is in our very nature to build on what we have already seen, known, even experienced. It’s how we function as a society of social beings. It is the very reason that we have progressed to where we are today. Yet the deep pockets of corporate America have managed to put something as noble and well-intentioned as CR and IP into a choke hold for their own greedy purposes. He who has the most money has the most power and therefore makes all the decisions.

I agree with Lessig, this was not the intention of the framers when CR and IP were created. There has to be a set of checks and balances in the system for the original intention of CR and IP to work for the good of “ALL”. To protect the rights of the creators and to protect the rights of those who would (if allowed to) follow in their footsteps. By rebuilding, recreating, reinventing or just plain ole rearranging what we already know is, to continue to develop, to have a purpose. It’s who we are and how we function.

I’ve come away with a new point of view and a better understanding concerning copyrights and intellectual property as we move into the 21st century. I can’t say I’m thrilled about the idea now that I’m aware of Corporate America’s plan to control what originally would/could/should have been in “our” public domain.

Differences Between Search Engines

Following up on our discussion in class, Google doesn't have a monopoly on web indexing. The class has been tasked to compare and contrast the results of entering a common search word or phrase, like “let it be” with and without quotes, using three or more search engines.

By actually doing the research, my understanding into the workings of a typical search engine has been improved. I started this research by reading parts of Anatomy of a Search Engine from our list of suggested topics. I became interested in PageRanking and how some search engines use this method as a means of placing a website’s key words into a hierarchy. At first I thought I was getting off the track then realized this could be one of the possible “why or how” answer(s) to the question. In reading The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine document I found this passage, which explains the way PageRanking used in Google.

2. System Features
The Google search engine has two important features that help it produce high precision results. First, it makes use of the link structure of the Web to calculate a quality ranking for each web page. This ranking is called PageRank and is described in detail in [Page 98]. Second, Google utilizes link to improve search results.

2.1 PageRank: Bringing Order to the Web
The citation (link) graph of the web is an important resource that has largely gone unused in existing web search engines. We have created maps containing as many as 518 million of these hyperlinks, a significant sample of the total. These maps allow rapid calculation of a web page's "PageRank", an objective measure of its citation importance that corresponds well with people's subjective idea of importance. Because of this correspondence, PageRank is an excellent way to prioritize the results of web keyword searches. For most popular subjects, a simple text matching search that is restricted to web page titles performs admirably when PageRank prioritizes the results (demo available at google.stanford.edu). For the type of full text searches in the main Google system, PageRank also helps a great deal (Brin).
http://www-db.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html

Now getting back basics of the assignment. The search engines I chose were Dogpile, Ask Jeeves, Mooter, and of course Google. The first three entries for Google, sans quotes, where LetsSingIt.com - Your lyrics engine on the Internet!, Amazon.com: Music: Let It Be... Naked and Let's Go. But once I placed the “ “ around the phrase ‘let it be’ the first three entries changed to; Let It Be Records - Enter, Amazon.com: Music: Let It Be [SOUNDTRACK] and albany waterfront park - let it be! Dogpile’s first three entries, sans quotes, followed this pattern; Let It Be Records - Enter, Rentamatic 10,000+ Letting Agents with Properties to Rent and >>> Landlords, Tenants, Letting Agents - Rental Property Resources -. Dogpile’s response with quotes appeared this way; Let It Be Records - Enter, The Reel Beatles: "Let It Be" and The Atlantic May 2003 Let It Be Rauch. Next up came Ask Jeeves’ results, first with sans quotes; Let It Be-www.ez-tracks.com, Let It Be-eBay.com and Let It Be-BizRate.com. Ask Jeeves again, with quotes, shows almost no difference at all until the third entry; Let It Be-www.ez-tracks.com, Let It Be-eBay.com and Let It Be-eBay.com. It was right about then this was getting a little too predicable and, like my teenage son says, boring. So on an off chance I decided to take one more pass at yet another search engine and selected Mooter. Using ‘let it be,’ sans quotes, with this search engine threw me a curve. I actually thought I had done something wrong and re-entered the query again, but came up with the same results both times, “HTTP Status 500 -.” Well that was a bit of a let down. Ok Mooter one more time, with quotes, and I could compile the results for the paper.

What a difference a search engine makes and what a concept…images in the round. I liked it! Plus you could even select your choice of Mooting colors in red or blue. My curiosity peeked and with a renewed spirit towards this project I pushed on. Finding the layout intriguing and wanting to see where these images would lead me, I surfed them all. At the center of the overall image was All Results, then starting at the top and reading right the categories where as follows: speaking words of wisdom let, band, beatles, find myself in, in my hour, album and in my. To sum up my research, not all search engines are created equal. While Google and others search engines may use PageRanking as a way to hierarchy key words to fill their requirements, if you really want to do an in-depth search, don’t limit yourself to only the more popular know search engines. The World Wide Web is indeed a big place and for those want to stretch their wings and fly…well, what better way can it be said…the sky’s the limit.

Hunting Elephants

Well, Saturday I woke up with my usual list of things to get done for the day. After going over that list I sat down at the computer to print out the class assignments. I had no trouble with Anne Fadiman or William Burroughs readings, but once I started trying to print the Melancholy Elephants I got missing page after missing page. I even sent an email to the professor letting her know of the problem just in case someone else was having trouble.

But Never say Never...I found a work around! I started by adding one '/" section after the other until I reached the main page. The only part of the given URL that was causing the problem was the "__1.htm" the last section. Once I reached the main page and found that several chapters were up for grabs I selected chapter One and POW the "Melancholy Elephants" appeared and printing them out was a breeze.

Of course that was the begining of how the day was to go. But hey that's life and you roll with the punches. For me, at this stage in my life, the alternative is not even an option. Takes too much time, energy and joy away.

To Blog or not to Blog

Judging from what I have seen/read of other blogs, a stream of conscience seems to be the choice of beginnings. If you find my blog site then send a comment and let me know. I'll just say thank you in advance!