Fair Use

The fair use reading is a topic I have heard many times now its all about appropriation how much of something can you take before its stealing and it seems thee is still no true answer. They say in the reading that in order to use other material for your work you first need permission and need to pay for any source being used. Seems fair but its really not, in my opinion, if not for taking bits of past artists work there would be no new work. All rhythms would be taken and all pictures would be taken. I’m not suggesting that an artist completely steal a picture and then just tint it slightly blue either.

Which brings me to the second article all about an artist taking footage from a war, footage that she did not take herself, and mixing it with images of homes and everyday life by us. Though she took other peoples images and used them for her own work she was creating a completely different idea then the original images. The originals showed a documentation of war or commercials for products here in the states but the way she mixes them makes a strong statement about how we are able to distance ourselves from a war that we are involved in.  As far as the reading goes she got in no trouble for taking and using these images yet Negativland has to tip toe around everyone making sure they have everything in order to just not get sued. 

Listening

At first this assignment was pretty easy, describing a space using just sound. I had no problem listening and finding sounds usually ignored or pushed assisted by louder sounds. I liked the idea of learning about other sounds to put into videos besides just silence I always felt that silence in any sort of movie is only used for a purpose, such as making someone uncomfortable or to add suspense while wait for an answer or whatever the case may be.

The second part of this assignment has been a lot harder then I thought it was going to be. I’m supposed to take the sounds used in the first part and create a song out of them. I am no song writer is what I’m learning with this. I have ideas and when I try them out no matter what I do it just sounds like noise. I have a whole new respect for DJ’s that do this for a living. At first I tried mixing it up in a faster beat like a Fatboy slim song of Skrillex but that didn’t work out so well. I went with what I knew better and my beat turned into a more of a rock based rhythm. Overall I liked the idea of what I was trying but I feel that the outcome for this project might never turn out like I imagine in my head.  

-Alex Schwalbe