.....a small rant.
Today a collage artist told me she didn't want pictures taken, because people are "stealing" her ideas.
Hmmm.
Which ideas, I wondered. The idea to cut largish birds and fish from paper and glue them to a canvas? The idea to use some sort of substance for texture and press leaves into it, so you have the texture of a leaf? The idea to sell multiple separate pieces that combine nicely into a larger and more impactful whole? Or?????
I liked her work, but I have seen each of the techniques she used in use by others, and I've seen leaves and fish and birds ... *everywhere*.
I have thought about this issue. I am sure that making one's living by selling the results of one's creativity will have a serious impact on one's position on this issue. I haven't been selling my work, so that's which side of that I am on.
People will ALWAYS collect ideas as they move through life, and apply those ideas to their own projects.
It's one of the things that make us human!!!!!!!!!!
I also wonder -- who's to say that I, who may think I have a totally original idea, didn't see something like it, somewhere, some time............
In any case -- if you are going to publish finished work, you have to know that people who like that work are likely to make some aspects of it part of their own repertoires. And some will do their best to make flat-out copies, and maybe even pass it all off as their own.
That's reality.
So getting bent out of shape over it is like getting bent out of shape because of rain.
It's easy for me to say, because I don't make my living putting my work out there for people to buy. Or copy.
But I think it's a plain hard fact that people will try to make their work more like work they admire.
Each person's work is a bit different from that of everyone else. Even in a class setting where everyone has the same instructions and the same materials, each piece is different.
We all put something of ourselves into the things we do. Something that distinguishes our work as our own. Color choices, composition choices, materials choices......... Our decisions make our work ours.
If our work isn't particularly unique, it will be easy to copy. If it is unique, even use of the same materials and techniques will not result in copies which will be identical to the originals..................
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4 comments:
Reminds me of the lady who was upset by my use of "Real dogs don't eat kibble" as a blog post. It wasn't stolen from her, I came up with it on my own. And I didn't think of it as entirely original on my part.
Our software is copyrighted, but only the actual code can be protected. There are only so many ways that you can collect and work with basic accounts receivable or payroll or other accounting data. The process is generally the same, no matter who writes it.
Yep.
One of the (many many) things to love about Elizabeth Zimmermann is her attitude about this sort of thing.
Her position was that people had been knitting for so very many years that surely *everything* had already been thought of.
So she said, when she came up with brilliantly innovative ideas, that she had "unvented" something. She thought of it as having unearthed something that already existed, but wasn't currently at the top of the collective consciousness.....
Much healthier (and -- more realistic!) attitude than "*I* thought of this; I'd better watch out because someone will try to steal it!!!!!"
!!!!!
Ah yes, I hadn't thought of the knitting analogy and should have. There's only so many sock designs, or sweater designs. They do have to fit a human body.
I bet EZ *did* think of ways to do things that no one else had ever tried. She was one remarkable mind.
And I so appreciate her sharing/teaching attitude about it all.
Much healthier than the whole pinched crabbed "They're stealing my ideas!" crowd. (Thinking of someone like Gollum, crouched atop a heap of bits and pieces, looking around out of the corners of his eyes as he guards his preciousssssssssssses........)
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