I'm watching a show called "A day in the life", an online program produced by Hulu. The descrip reads: "Morgan Spurlock (Academy Award Nominated Director of "Supersize Me") has spent the majority of his career turning the camera on himself, inviting the audience to be a part of his own life experiences. This time, he's refocusing his lens on the most innovative and intriguing individuals in our pop culture landscape, allowing the audience to experience what it's like to be at the pinnacle of an exciting and extraordinary career by being "a fly on the wall" during the course of a typical day. Each episode goes behind the scenes with today's leading figures - celebrities, musicians, comedians, dancers, entrepreneurs - literally chronicling one day in their lives in a half-hour documentary film."
So far I've watched an episode featuring "Mr. Brainwash", an "artist" who became famous thru the documentray "Exit thru the gift shop" and another episode on Girl Talk, a mash up dj "artist". I'm watching this and getting angrier and angrier - both men do nothing more than make direct copies of actual artist's work and pass it off as their own. Blatant, unashamed, arrogant and overpaid they're thieves with an international stage.
The director of "A day", Spurlock, is an incredibly insightful, self reflective man so watching the series has left me wondering - what is his intent? I don't know if the show is dedicated to exploring how the world has started to perceive intellectual and artistic property or a show dedicated to being a look at people who have quite effectively pulled the wool over our eyes or a look at people he considers actual artists....I just don't know. I want to watch more but I feel sick to my stomach and I can't get past the fact that Spurlock seems to celebrating men who's only tangible talent is rooted in effectively stealing other people's work, even famous work (!!!), and passing it off as their own! This is horrifying - it's a celebration of inability, laziness, mediocrity, and stealing.
"Sampling", whether it's in music or art, is something I take great issue with. As an artist, I am horrified that people get away with stealing work and ideas. The law protects most facets of our society from theft but in the art world.....there are no bounds and now we're being told to accept out and out theft, it's no big deal. Yah know, having your work stolen and copied is to people who are talented enough to produce work that hasn't been seen heard or tasted before. It is a big deal to people who produce original work everyday. It is a big deal to people like me who aren't pretending.
Everday all day, we're told what to like, we're told what to buy, we're told what our next big thing is going to be - but usually, that next big thing, is a copy of someone else's proven to be lucrative invention. I really hope this show is meant to be tongue in cheek, I hope Spurlock is just pulling our legs by showcasing artists who are pulling our legs.
Interviewer: "I heard a rumor that you're creating original music now."
Girl talk : "Naaaah, not really. I want Girl Talk to be perceived as original music".
I'm gonna throw up.
http://becklane.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment