Today:1)Check-in2)Remember your Logos are due/how to submit3)The readings4)Working with Ads5)Intellectual Property Law6)Team practice! 7)Homework

“What makes visual media a problem? All societies are saturated in images: forests of symbols, spheres within spheres, scenes of life, imaginary others, dreams, hallucinations, illusions. Social life is dependent on people communicating all sorts of images, visual, aural and literary, in stories, pictures, sounds, songs, dances, myths, prayers and so on, usually while in a state of dreaming semi-consciousness.”

I’m going to hit you with some advertisements that are what we’d call low hanging fruit. We all know that “sex sells.” The following images play off that in various ways. Let’s try to figure out the context and why, rhetorically, they are meant to work. What are we supposed to think when we see them? Do we? Is that good?

Sex in AdvertisingSo I’ve chosen some obvious “using sex to sell our product” ads. As we look at them, use your skills to rhetorically determine what the advertiser is trying to convey to you.

It was so big it tore my mouth, opening that wide.

Hey… I got wood.

The shaving my face thing turns you on, right? Oh.. Nice undies.

Abs included.

Bet you never think of pork the same way again.

Stop looking at my nakedness! Oh, wait, it’s just my super-soft clothes.

I splatter my face with colors, and pose like this, because it’s sexy. And

girls always sit like this.

If you don’t neuter your dog, he’ll want to do what you’re thinking of doing to me. And that’d be wrong.

A switch of topics: IP lawAs we start to look at making flyers and brochures, it’s important that we begin to think about intellectual property and the law. We touched on this very briefly the first day with Shepherd Fairey. We’re going to delve a bit deeper today.

Remix is Like…Remix is the act of taking one or more cultural artifacts-- visual, video, audio, and/or alphabetic texts- and deliberately mixing elements together to create something new that often specifically mimics one or more of the sources. Many remixes are meant to be satirical or overtly political, though satire is not essential.

The problem rises….If you look at my definition, you see the problem really, really early on: “you take one or more cultural artifacts”– stress on the “take.” On the next few slides are some remix images I’ve made myself recently, just for kicks.

Yeah, I’m a big ol’ remix for fun nerd.

Key issue: IP lawThe question here becomes “whose intellectual property are these things?”

Are those mine? I “made” them, but I didn’t make them from a blank slate. Am I allowed to just borrow that stuff?

Let’s ask a lawyer!

Lessig on IP law• Lessig declares that he has the following

positions:– He is anti-piracy– He is anti-war (meaning law vs. creators here)– He is anti-lawyer and anti-lobbyist (he includes

himself here, so he’s anti-Lessig, too)

Lessig video (if you’d like to watch later)

Lessig is like, • “We need to hear less from lawyers and lobbyists

and more from artists [about who owns culture].”

• " This is a relationship between technology and ownership, which is translated to digital technology and copyright.”

Pirate Technologies

player piano – “pirated” sheet music radio– “pirated” records cable TV– “pirated” network TV betamax– “pirated” TV and movies

But as these were regulated, the law always waited to see “the potential of the technology.”

We Didn’t Start the Fire…• “...this is not the first time radical new

technologies have appeared and changed the way that culture gets made and distributed. This is a constant theme...”

• But… The law favored the pirate in those old cases. It is now "fit the technology to the law" and not "fit the law to the technology."

"This architecture demands... the right to remix culture."

Enter DJ Danger Mouse. He felt that the Beatles’ White Album and Jay-Z’s black album went together.So he created “the Grey Album” which you can DL here. but don’t, because it’s totally illegal. *wink*

Or is it? Or… should it be?

RemixRemix

Remix is the act of taking one or more cultural artifacts-- in this case visual, though video, audio, and alphabetic texts are regularly remixed-- and deliberately mixing elements together to create something new that often specifically mimics one or more of the sources.

Remix is the act of taking one or more cultural artifacts-- visual, video, audio, and/or alphabetic texts- and deliberately mixing elements together to create something new that often specifically mimics one or more of the sources. Many remixes are meant to be satirical or overtly political, though satire is not essential.

Remix: from The Daily Show

+ =

Remix: from Marvel Comics

+ =

Remix: from random net site

+

=

If you’re offended by profanity, plug your ears right about now

Whose song is this? Whose song is this?

Another Example• The New Yorker ran a piece on Danger Mouse

and the idea of mash-ups. • “Mashups find new uses for current digital

technology, a new iteration of the cause-and-effect relationship behind almost every change in pop-music aesthetics: the gear changes, and then the music does.”

• So… whose song is this?

A Stroke of Genius“In October of 2001, a d.j. named Roy Kerr, calling himself the Freelance Hellraiser, sent Temple-Morris [a mash-up show duo] a mashup called “A Stroke of Genius,” laying Christina Aguilera’s vocal from “Genie in a Bottle,” a lubricious pop song, over the music from the Strokes’ “Hard to Explain,” a brittle, honking guitar song. “

A few more remixes• Shining• Brokeback

So what we have to consider…1) Who “owns” a particular piece of art2) What can we use and what can’t we use? 3) What IS Fair Use? 4) What is Creative Commons? 5) How do we avoid having to try a justification

like this?

I want us to talk a bit more about copyright. And I wanted to bring it home, as much as I could.I want to show you something a little disturbing. You can thank one of your classmates for alerting me to it existing…

So…What do we think of this Twitter account?

More importantly, from a class perspective, is it legally okay? Is it ethical?

Please note that Dr. Phill finds this site problematic and reprehensible, but it exists and we’re studying the real digital world, not Dr. Phill’s ideal version of the digital world. Dr. Phill does not condone such activities.

At stake……is an issue of network distribution and the rights to images.

Do the young women being pictured here give their consent? Can we tell? Can we assume? How might we find out?

Does it matter?

A second thing to ponder…

… is the real implications of the idea of “fair use.”

Fair use has often been the wildcard in discussions of intellectual property. But is it really the shield/umbrella-ella-ella-eh-eh-eh we think it is? (yes, I just stole from Rhianna)

Remember: Copyright: Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time. Generally, it is "the right to copy", but also gives the copyright holder the right to be credited for the work, to determine who may adapt the work to other forms, who may perform the work, who may financially benefit from it, and other related rights. It is a form of intellectual property (like the patent, the trademark, and the trade secret) applicable to any expressible form of an idea or information that is substantive and discrete*

*from Wikipedia

Factor 1: Purpose/CharacterThe first factor is regarding whether the use in question helps fulfill the intention of copyright law to stimulate creativity for the enrichment of the general public, or whether it aims to only "supersede the objects" of the original for reasons of personal profit. To justify the use as fair, one must demonstrate how it either advances knowledge or the progress of the arts through the addition of something new. A key consideration is the extent to which the use is interpreted as transformative, as opposed to merely derivative. * *from Wikipedia– via the link on the previous slide

Factor 2: Nature of Work

fair use analyses consider certain aspects of the work to be relevant, such as whether it is fictional or non-fictional.To prevent the private ownership of work that rightfully belongs in the public domain, facts and ideas are separate from copyright—only their particular expression or fixation merits such protection. On the other hand, the social usefulness of freely available information can weigh against the appropriateness of copyright for certain fixations.*

*again

Factor 3: Amount/SubstanceThe third factor assesses the quantity or percentage of the original copyrighted work that has been imported into the new work. In general, the less that is used in relation to the whole, ex: a few sentences of a text for a book review, the more likely that the sample will be considered fair use. *

*from Wikipedia– via the link on the previous slide

Factor 4: Effect on work’s value

The fourth factor measures the effect that the allegedly infringing use has had on the copyright owner's ability to exploit his or her original work. *

*again, Wikipedia

A Test Case:

So I made something today. I also used it as the title slide for this PowerPoint. It is a panel from a printed comic book with lyrics from a professionally recorded song Photoshopped in to replace the original dialogue.

Tutorials

A number of you expressed that you could use some extra help with the software, so I have posted a number of tutorials to the course website for you.

In the remaining time tonight, I want you to work on a flier with your team. You should use some of the effects you can learn from the tutorials.

The Task

I am offering an IMS 211: The Analysis of Play class this Summer II. Right now, enrollment is… not up to par.

You’re going to make a teaser flyer for it. It’s a class about video game theory. It runs from June 30 to August 9th. It’s a great elective for IMS folks, required for the game minor, and will be taught entirely online.Sell it!

Design Task 5

Take a photo of yourself and make it look somehow different (check out the tutorials for suggestions or come up with your own).

Upload the image to your Tumblr when done.

For next week…

We will talk about the tag assignment. No readings for class, but we might do some IN class.

Keep working on your own flyers. Remember the practice ones in class as you try to make yours the best you can. And keep up with your blogs!