Live Art Happening Now – Mulheres Barbadas Streams Five Day Draw-a-Thon

Mulheres Barbadas are a very cool artistic duo who have just embarked on a five-day drawing marathon:

They’re a few steps beyond the starting line of five long days of live painting at Sao Paulo’s concept furniture store Micasa, where they’ll leave nothing—walls, tables, chairs, refrigerators, even owner Houssein Jarouche’s Mini Cooper—untouched with black marker.       LINK

This would be completely cool all by itself, but what makes this noteworthy for me is that they are live-streaming the entire event on their website.  This is a great example of artists taking advantage of the internet to spread their work and to create a relationship with existing and potential fans.  Just like musicians, artists need true fans to survive and to thrive and this is a great way to get some.

I’ve embedded the stream below for your enjoyment:

Pez Candy Company Threatens a Super-Fan in Classic Copyright FAIL

The deeper one digs into copyright laws and how they are wielded the more confused I become.

First, I hear a story on NPR about a guy who runs a tiny Pez “museum” where lovers of the iconic candy dispenser often travel from miles away just to share in their obsession.  Sounds harmless, right?  In fact, I’d go further and say, we’re I the head of Pez, “Wow! That’s fantastic.  This guys is providing us with a wealth of free publicity and keeping our product firmly in the minds of our customers and we don’t have  to do anything but reap the rewards!”

Instead, the Pez people have done nothing but harass this guy…

Doss says this is not the first time he and Pez have crossed dispensers. When he first opened the place, Pez made him change the name from the “Pez Museum” to the mouthful it now is — “the Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia.” Doss calls it harassment.

“It’s as if we’re making something here and putting their name on it. That’s not what we’re doing,” he says.

But Pez Candy Inc. says that’s exactly what the museum is doing. If it was just selling all things Pez, that’d be fine, they say. But, they add, you can’t sell things that aren’t official merchandise, like Pez T-shirts the museum printed up. And you can’t use that 7-foot-tall Pez dispenser the museum made, that stands just inside the front door.

Alan Behr is the lawyer for Pez in Connecticut. He says it’s not really a giant Pez dispenser because Pez doesn’t make a giant dispenser.

“It’s only Pez if we say it’s Pez. The same way you will not see a Mickey Mouse in the United States made by anybody but Disney,” he explains. “It’s only Mickey Mouse if Disney says it’s Mickey Mouse. Otherwise, it’s an infringement. You have to control what is core to your brand.”      LINK

Yes, the boldface is my own addition.  I didn’t want you to miss that last point.  According to the Pez Candy Company it is more important to control your brand (whatever the hell that means) than it is to support super-fans who have the potential to create sales both directly and indirectly.  Rather than give this guy a big pat on the back, they are turning him against them! Where is the profit in this? Where is the logic?!

It’s enough to drive a guy insane, I tell ya…

Also, will Pez Candy come after me for using an image of their dispenser with express written consent?  Stay tuned.

Are the Fine Arts Exempt from Copyright Lawsuits?

While groups like the RIAA and the MPAA do everything in their power to stamp out creativity in the name of protecting some glorified sense of intellectual property, it looks like painters are having no problem profiting from work that clearly borrows the images of previously copyrighted content.

A great example of this is the Crazy 4 Cult 3-D Artwork show put on by Gallery1988.  All the work in the show was based on a number of cult film favorites including “Edward Scissorhands” and “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.”  Below is an example of one of many paintings based on “The Big Lebowski”

Now, there is absolutely no question that this is The Dude himself and one highly doubts that the artist, Misha, would have been able to sell the painting for $800.00 if it was just some random guy, instead.

So, here’s the question: why is this work protected but not, say, the work of musical mashup DJs?  Both are creating original work from existing content and both benefit from the public awareness of the underlying works.  Or how about the ridiculous case of J.D. Salinger suing to stop publication of a book that explores the character of Holden Caufield as an old man?

The point is that we’ve truly lost our way in terms of copyright law.  While creativity and technology have come together to allow for an exponential growth in the reach of diversity of new art the lawyers and those paying their wages are doing everything in their power to shut down the whole process.

Rick-Rolling Kurt Cobain Round in His Grave

One of the most frustrating things about the way copyright law is as a tool to shut down creativity.  In the world of music, this is best exemplified by the “mashup” where an artist takes elements of pre-existing songs and remixes them into something never heard before.

This recent example, taking Rick Astley’s meme-sensation “Never Gonna Give You Up” and mashing it will Nirvana classic “Smells like Teen Spirit,” is a blast:

Now, it is hard to understand how this video could be seen as a crime against the original artists but it will likely be shut down if the creator, DJ Morgoth of Germany, ever tried to profit from his efforts.

Can you imagine the trouble an artist like Andy Warhol would have had today?  He would never have made it out the gates without a fleet of lawyers on retainer.

Also, wasn’t “Teen Spirit” a trademarked deodorant? Where was their law suit?!

thehumanprinter and the Value of Sweat

I’ve read an overwhelming number of posts about something called “thehumanprinter” this week.

As described by PSFK (the last post I read on the subject):

Adding an element of handcrafting to the mechanical process of printing, thehumanprinter is a group of people that translate and hand-render images in the style of a digital printer.

In the same vein as my Print/Vinyl post, this is another fascinating example of taking something easily accessible, and usually free, in its digital form – a photo – and turning it into something people will pay to own.

See, as digital photos approach a price a free, they lose a certain value as a collectors item, or something others might pay to possess.  But take that same image and recreate it through a painstaking human process with a resulting one-of-a-kind object and suddenly you have a potential business model.

Lot’s of lessons here, people, if you’re paying attention.

The CIA, LSD, the Return of Urkel and Still No Viewers

A few years ago, the hot topic was web series being created by Hollywood outsiders.  This was going to be the big revolution where the little guys could finally show the big guys how it was done. After decades of sitting at home and screaming at the TV for being so dull and lifeless, fresh minds and cheap equipment combined with nearly free distrubtion was going to cause an entertainmain revolution.

Well, it didn’t quite happen that way. With a few exceptions such as LonelyGirl15, these series generally came out of the gates fast and fell off the cliff even faster.  Many failed simply because they were not entertaining.  While it is easy to criticize much of what is on TV, it is far harder to produce a superior product.  Others failed simply due to lack of exposure.  After pouring everything you’ve got into making your webseries, there is often little left over for marketing or PR.  Hoping to go viral was, and still remains, the way most webseries hope to find an audience.  This is not proving to be working.

The past year has seen a vast rise in the next wave of webseries: those being produced by professionals from the world of film and TV.  While still working with negligable budgets, experienced pros are getting together to make their own shows free from the contraints of major networks or unions or guilds.

Two examples of this are out right now.  “Road to the Alter” is a mockumentary starring Jaleel White, once the hottest kid on TV as Urkel on “Family Matters.”  The other is “Operation Midnight Climax,” a highly stylized fictionalization of the CIA’s early top secret LSD research.  Check out sample episodes of both below.

What’s more amazing than the amount of work and time that must have gone into these pieces, is just how few people are watching them.

“Road…” is only averaging 2000 views an episode on YouTube while “Operation…” has yet to crack 500 views.

Now, maybe it isn’t fair to judge the success of a webseries on its number of YouTube views but there is little else on which to judge popularity right now.

Either way, it is safe to say that neither is a runaway success.  This forces the question, what will it take to make a webseries into a popular success.

My money is on marketing.

Lady Dior Baffles While it Entertains

Fashion firm Dior has just released the first “chapter” of Lady Dior, a series of videos starring Oscar-winning actress Marion Cotillard.

The video itself is lush and well-shot.  Cotillard, who gave one of the great performances ever in La Vie En Rose, isn’t asked to do much more than look gorgeous and mysterious, does just that with aplomb.

While the story is a bit vague, on purpose one would guess to keep us coming back for me, even more vague is Dior’s distribution strategy.

For starters, there is no way to embed the video elsewhere.  There are also no quick ways to share the link to Twitter, Delicious or any of the other social bookmarking services.  In fact, it appears that the only way to share the video provided on the Dior site is to email a friend the direct link.

Oh, it was also very weird that once the video begins there seems to be no way to pause or rewind.  This was strange considering most of this sort of viewing happens in an atmosphere where the need to pause and rewind can occur with frequency (like when the boss pops his head in).

It’s nice to see brands investing these sorts of resources into gorgeous video but it remains to be seen whether or not they have the ability to distribute these videos in such a way as to actually drive an increase in sales.

Let’s be honest, they’re not in it for the art.

De La Soul on Sampling Circa 1989

The first hiphop group I truly fell in love with was De La Soul.

Their debut album, “3 Feet High and Rising” was a breakthrough for a new fusing between rap, jazz and world beats.  It was also a ton of fun.

I was recently pointed to a wonderful relic on YouTube – the original video recorded by the De La Soul trio that was part of the press kit when the album was released.

Aside from being a cool look at De La back in the day, there is a very brief, but important discussion on the heavy use of sampling in the album.

About 4:00 into the video producer Prince Paul demonstrates how he finds a drum beat on an old Mickey Mouse Album.  Then Mase talks a bit about how they use samples to make something completely new.  Finally, Trugoy lays it out:

“It’s not actually stealing.  It’s like bringing back the old songs. Making the old songs new again, making people like it even more.”

That’s the point, really.  All these musicians who threaten to sue people for sampling seem to not realize that without the samplers their songs would simply fade away forever.  It is thanks largely to the hiphop community that so many great songs from Motown to Nashville have been given a whole new audience.

Anyhow, watch the video below.  It’s a great blast from the past but, at the same time, speaks to issues that have only become more relevant and devicive today.

Five Thoughts on Live Webcasting (and Soulja Boy)

Soulja Boy is certainly now etched into the history of the internet for sparking a “viral” video phenomanon with his little dance and he continues to be a viable recording artist and live performer.

Like a few other web pioneers (i.e. Snoop Dogg), Soulja Boy has been doing some live webcasting and is all amped up about having made the switch from the increasingly obscure justin.tv to the surging UStream.tv

Now, this is all well and good, but why are all of these celebrities wasting such a valuable opportunity on such terrible content?  Sure, it’s kinda fun to wake-n-bake with Snoop but the numbers don’t lie and neither Snoop nor Soulja seem to be attracting more than a couple hundred viewers for each live session.

This would be surprising until you see that there is nothing compelling about the content and even super-fans are quickly losing interest.

So, here are a few ideas for Soulja Boy, Snoop Dogg and any other celeb looking to really maximize live webcasting:

1) Get a decent webcam.  Honestly, there is no reason to look like a low-rent camgirl.

2) Have a real reason to go live.  Let your fans know that you’ll be singing parts of a new song or sharing some never-before-seen picture of you as a little kid.  Anything, really, that makes the live webcast an event.  It’s nice for it to be a small thing, geared toward super-fans but they need a reason to turn up.

3) If you are going to be live, engage your audience.  Answer questions.  Even better, ask questions.

4) Tell your fans that you will be calling one live viewer during your webcast.  They’ve got to be viewing you to be chosen.

5) Play some music live.  Seriously, you’re musicians, right?

How Much is Cable TV Worth Online?

Time Warner is announcing plans of its own to offer broadband streaming access to their channel offerings, for a price.  Right now it sounds like they will include access in existing bundles and may have an option for broadband only access in the future. (more here)

This raises a few questions:

1) If the majority of the content is streaming only, does that mean all programming will be available on-demand at any time or only when it is “aired” on TV? There isn’t a lot of value-added if all one gets is to watch what would be on TV, but on your computer.

2) Considering almost everything on TV is already available online what will Time Warner offer that I can’t already get, often for free?

3) What’s really in it for the broadcasters?  Why should NBC let Time Warner distribute their content online when they seem to be having plenty of luck doing it themselves via Hulu?

4) It seems highly unlikely the Time Warner offering will include the ability to download content meaning that there will still be plenty of reasons to pirate.

To say that I am skeptical of these plans is not over-stating things.  The whole notion of a centralized distributor like TWC that actually doesn’t provide a legitmate service feels dated and increasingly obsolete.

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