This is Not 0’s and 1’s
This is not cochineal, and lapis lazuli, and Indian lac, and alum, and linseed oil.
The human being who made this image is not chlorine, and carbon, and magnesium, and sulfur.
This is not 0’s and 1’s.
The copy of this art is not 0’s and 1’s.
The extraordinary human experience of art is not 0’s and 1’s.
21 Comments
Torsten Adair
Ceci n’est pas a chaud au cul?
Hmmm… if this work was not in the public domain, then Duchamp would not have been able to make L.H.O.O.Q. (pardon my French). (Although fair use might apply, but I’m not sure about French copyright law.)
While it is difficult to quantify, much of the human existence is based on chemistry and biology. Dr. Manhattan marvels over Sally Jupiter’s existence on Mars, over the sheer randomness of events.
Here’s another Big Question: if a machine creates something original, is it art? If a machine is designed to create randomly, is it art? If a human does the same thing, is it art?
If fractals, which are mathematical formulas, can be used to create landscapes and other aesthetically pleasing images, then is it art?
(Not arguing, just discussing and asking questions.)
Colleen Doran
What has this work being in the public domain got to do with the value of it not being nothing more than a series of 0’s and 1’s?
If the work had no value, people wouldn’t have cause to copy it, or reference it. That’s the point.
Regardless of whether it is in the public domain.
The human experience is in the human experience.
bodefan
It’s challenging to contrast the views on ownership often expressed here (with which I largely agree) with those expressed by Nina Paley on the issue of creative commons. Her choice to release Sita Sings the Blues to everyone rather than have it unavailable due to copyright license issues on the soundtrack is brave and raises complex questions.
I realize you’re talking about something slightly different and much larger in this post, but in the context of Torsden’s comment and your salient response, it needs to be bought up.
On the central issue of the whole of a person or of an artwork being more than the sum of its parts, yes, this is always true.
But a person’s awareness of these things informs his/her response to them. Seeing yourself as something larger is a conscious decision, and has a substantial effect on the person. Once you realize you have something substantial to contribute, or that a work has something substantial to offer, that takes on a calling.
That gives us all responsibilities as humans, both as consumers and as producers.
We can engage these responsibilities with full awareness and no fear or self-indulgence- work in service to the work- or we can let ego take over and wallow in in own inadequacies or the perception of burden mistakenly associated with this awareness.
More directly put, there’s a danger of using the awareness as an excuse to not do the work. “I have a vast responsibility to my work, so it has to be immortal every time.” Twaddle. Just do the work, and what is of value in you will come out in the process.
It doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be as good as, or better than, the last thing you did.
The opposite path, engaging awareness in service to the work, makes the work a joy.
I know how high-handed this stuff can sound, but it’s difficult to articulate these ideas without sounding that way! I hope I don’t come off as too much of a twit.
bodefan
One sentence ended up in the wrong place. It should read like this:
More directly put, there’s a danger of using the awareness as an excuse to not do the work. “I have a vast responsibility to my work, so it has to be immortal every time.” Twaddle. The opposite path, engaging awareness in service to the work, makes the work a joy. Just do the work, and what is of value in you will come out in the process.
It doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be as good as, or better than, the last thing you did.
bodefan
The fix didn’t take. Sorry for the multiple posts!
Third time’s the charm:
More directly put, there’s a danger of using the awareness as an excuse to not do the work. “I have a vast responsibility to my work, so it has to be immortal every time.” Twaddle.
The opposite path, engaging awareness in service to the work, makes the work a joy. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be as good as, or better than, the last thing you did. Just do the work, and what is of value in you will come out in the process.
Better, I hope.
I’m done now. Thanks for your patience!
Colleen Doran
I edit this only to say how much I love what you wrote and agree with a lot of what you said. I’m going to ramble on a bit here anyway, because why not.
Nina Paley is more than free to release her work online even as I do.
Her choice to circumvent the rights of others because her ideological beliefs do not give her respect?/understanding? for those rights is another issue.
I agree with you that sometimes creators become frozen with indecision about their work. Some may think it’s due to fat egos. Sometimes it is. Others may think it’s due to an insufficient ego. Sometimes it is.
Enjoying the work, or perceiving value in your own work does not mean anyone else will enjoy it as you do.
The professional creator who expects to make a living on their work must always be aware of its value to others. Otherwise, they will need to get a day job.
Assuming that what is of value in you will be of value to others – and finding out it is not – is a source of great pain for many artists. Much of the time, the world does not place a value on what the artist produces.
Everyone wants to believe they make a contribution. Only artists are told that they should expect to be grateful merely for the right to make marks on paper. Anything beyond that is just feed for the ego! 🙂
Making art does not make pain go away. Sometimes art expresses pain.
Sometimes art is a shout. Sometimes art is a scream.
Art is like marriage: the lie is in the happy wedding. There will be tempests after. You must be prepared for sorrow as well as joy, to experience the times when art is hard, and unhappy. Difficulties will imprint themselves on your art, and those real world difficulties aren’t something one can dismiss as the fripperies of ego.
Art is about communication and it doesn’t always communicate what you want, it doesn’t always communicate what other people want.
Sometimes the world does not want to listen to you.
There is a great deal of pain, for many artists, in putting everything they have into the work, putting it out for all to see, and having the world give a collective, “No thanks.”
What really, really hurts is knowing perfectly well that thousands value what you produce, that they read it diligently, and put it on hundreds of websites without asking your permission, or giving a fig how that financially affects your ability to produce more work.
That fucking hurts a lot.
I can’t live on air. And I can’t afford to fight pirates, hackers, and lawsuits against plagiarists.
But people expect me to produce, and produce, and produce.
Produce tangible work that others can then take, reproduce as a series of 0’s and 1’s, and then enjoy to their heart’s content, while returning nothing to me except a crack about how they took nothing but 0’s and 1’s.
No, they took the labor of twenty years of my life.
I’ve gotten two irate letters this week wondering where the next ADS GN is.
I made about $7.5 an hour working on the last one. It took almost five years to earn that money on royalties and website donations.
And my GN’s sell a lot better than many.
Why should we pay attention to any of this anyway?
What joy? What value?
It’s all just 0’s and 1’s.
Arlnee
you got another letter? WTF. I think you should make a standard reply letter basically saying “well I was going to start working on it today but your letter was so nasty I think I’ll hold off for six months just to piss YOU off”
But you’re too nice so that won’t happen XD still, in the universe next door, a shadowy Colleen Doran is firing up her text editor…
Colleen Doran
Yep, got another one.
I’ve gotten some very nice ones, but two of them were blistering.
bodefan
Well, geez. That truly fulfills Bart Simpson’s axiom that something can suck and blow at the same time. I’m sorry some of your so-called “fans” aren’t respectful of your time and hard work.
When I was interning with Reed Waller, he’d get irate letters about the next issue of Omaha being late. His spouse, the late Kate Worley, was recovering from a car crash at the time, and she was writing the book. Later, Reed got cancer that nearly killed him and the letters just kept a’comin’.
I guess it’s important to remember that “fan” is short for fanatic.
Colleen Doran
Bodefan, that just breaks my heart. I am SO sorry to hear that. What an awful story.
scribblerworks
The blindness of some fans to the fact the writers and artists actually have real lives that have unfortunate events in them, that’s the truly sad thing. And that they get all huffy even after the delay is explained to them.
But Colleen, you really do need to compose a nice cold form letter response to those blistering letter types. Something along the lines of “Thank you for being so passionate about my work. If only that passion could be converted into living expenses for me. I had car repairs running $XXXXX last month, which took XX number of weeks of work for me to cover. I was sick for two weeks and couldn’t even focus on the pages to do basic artwork. However, the joyful news is that I expect to produce a new issue of ADS in the next six months. In the meantime, I’ve now spent 15 work minutes composing this response, instead of working on the lastest page of my current job. Have a nice day.”
Something like that. With your much more colorful turns of phrase. You need to put on that mirror armor, that reflects the blistering blasts back at the attacker.
😀
Colleen Doran
Every once in awhile I think, “What would Harlan do?
He’d leave a smoking crater.
I don’t really think it’s productive to go off on a rant on fans who really don’t understand the situation, but it’s tempting.
Colleen Doran
Every once in awhile, I sit down and ponder the fact that I worked very hard to make my debt disappear and acquire some savings, and now I have debt and my savings have evaporated. Which makes me like most people in North America.
Art school was a huge expense, and the pro-quality scanner that is a necessity for archiving the work cost $3000. Most of my computer equipment is a gift from the very generous J-. But the software, extra hard drives, and printer cost another $3,000. Satellite installation and hook-up: $1000.
Art school tuition costs came out of my pocket.
Pnuemonia in 2006, and the relapse, and then the bout with whooping cough in 2008.
The two years straight of ridiculous, low-paying gigs.
The relative who ended up having his bank accounts wiped out and was left on the street.
The fraud who stole my cash, and walked off with a load of my art.
I got the art back. Never got the cash.
And yeah, looking back, I could have been a lot less giving to charities and whatnot. That cost me thousands.
The Foundation of A Distant Soil gets my donations from now on.
My public flounce announcement that I was not going to do anymore advocacy work is an acknowledgment, I guess.
VT
Two irate letters? Nice.
You know, if someone wants me to work on something exclusively for their own pleasure, I call that a commission. And if someone wants to buy my time, as well as dictate how I spend it, that’s not a problem. They just have to pay. For that, my rate’s $300/hour.
I’ll let the reader guess what other professions charge that much.
Colleen Doran
BWAHAHAAHAHA
Um…my lawyer?
Jaw dropping horror:
The total cost for computer equipment, repairs (including major recovery back in 2006,) software, training, and 2 website designs, and maintenance adds up to more than $20,000 since 2005.
I pity the young artist trying to get into the market these days without the computer chops, because I would not have a career right now without it.
All the people who enjoy the website wouldn’t have a webcomic without it.
Miki
I wouldn’t worry too much about 2 letters, but focus more on the thousands of supporters that you do have.
I agree with Scribblerworks – except that rather than reflectiing it, deflect it instead. Compose a very nice letter thanking them for their opinions and suggessting that a donation would be a lot more appreciated.
🙂
I do admire Harlan and love his rants, but I think he has the type of personality that used it as fuel for his creative energies.
I may be wrong but I don’t think that you are that type.
🙂
Colleen Doran
Thanks for keeping things in perspective, Miki.
I rarely get mail like that, but now that the website is getting more and more traffic, people are rediscovering the book. Some of them are not pleased with me, some of them are pleased to find me.
In every case, all I have to do is write them a nice letter back, and that defuses the situation. People tend to be pretty understanding when they realize there is a real human being behind the book.
scribblerworks
Actually, I do agree with the “soft word” response. It’s just that I do have a temper. I’ve often written scathing, biting reactions to things … and then deleted them before posting or sending them. The only purpose such things really serve is to alienate people.
But it is annoying when people pounce on you for no good reason.
Torsten Adair
There’s another option: post the letter here, write a polite response, and then let us, your loyal minions, comment.
Hmm… isn’t that what Mr. Ellison does? Supposedly his “army” uncovered that file-sharing bozo in Florida after said bozo ignored Harlan’s polite cease-and-desist letter.
Colleen Doran
Harlan’s army did not discover the pirate. Both DC and Marvel were aware of the pirate for some time and spent many months working quietly with the feds behind the scenes.
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