What Color are Your Bits?

I thought the article had a good point about trying to take something as quantitative as computer science and trying to put patents on it and protect it. I think that the author's link to Monolith had a great quote in it. It said that: "The real world of copyright does not operate in a legal fashion." That was, to me, the main thesis of this article; that no matter how we try to merge (or blend, heh) copyright and computer science, we're always going to be sacrificing a little soul on either end, and that we can't really put the "color" into the computer science any more than we could flawlessly shove computer science into current copyright laws.


Here is the article in question: http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/entry/23

Copyright

I think that Robert Silvers tried to apply his patent too broadly. I think if he had stuck to something like jigsaw puzzles or a program of some sort. I'm all for him getting the credit on creating something that should've seemed obvious, but the fact of the matter is, you can't put a patent on an art form. Now an application of an art form is something different to me, I'm fine with him taking it and doing what he wants with it, or even filing multiple patents and never doing anything with them. I see it as his right. I just can't support a view where he takes out an overarching patent on the art form and turns around and tries to restrict its use. On the plus side, I want to research PUBPAT a lot more, and see what they're all about. This has always been an area I've thought about going into.

That's my informal, blog-worthy rationale. Expect there to be edits as I think on it more. Please feel free to comment below and I'll do the same for some of yours!

-Austin

RE: Final Plan

I have decided to add one more component to this, I would like to take Lil' Wayne's head from this picture and put him into the window behind B.o.B in the "Airplanes" artwork. I figured the project needed something more than filters and color changes in order to be challenging enough for me. Maybe now Doctor Oldham will think I'm less of a coward. Also included was the photo from Pretty Lights I mentioned in my last post.

Project Plan Final Draft:

Project Plan Final Draft:

Sorry I'm just now getting up to posting this.

I've spent a lot of time pondering what I'm going to do for my project, and I think I like my original idea a lot more than any of the others I've had recently. I plan to use JES to manipulate some of my favorite album artwork and then collage it onto a canvas using some of the functions we've used in class. I've already started creating some of my own filters, for example one that should bring out the light neon blue in the Deadmau5 album or the Basshunter album, but then again, I have already made a few cool ones like the Pretty Lights cover below that I really love, so I'm not ruling out some of the given filters, so long as they fit the theme and actually look really good. I'll be consulting Guzdal on a few of these, but so far it looks pretty manageable. Here are the albums I mentioned earlier.

MAYBE ANOTHER PROJECT IDEA!

Okay, I honestly am having too much fun with all of this stuff! I've decided I might do something with some shots from OSX's Photo Booth.

Project! Frick yeah!

I have decided that for my project I'm going to do a mosaic of different album cover artworks from my favorite albums. I hope to make my own filters that bring out a sort of radiance on certain colors on darker covers, but I also want to use some sepia and grey scaling we've done in class, just because it really lends itself to certain album artwork.

Michael Carr Reading Response

I, for one, worry a bit about an age where text can be modified with nothing but a keystroke. Several media in my life already take advantage of this "on-the-fly" method of releasing new content. For example, Apple usually releases a new software version of my iPod Touch every year, and it might be a marked change from the previous version. Despite the fact that I still have the same physical device, I now have a completely different interface than from when I originally bought the device nearly 4 years ago. On the flip-side of that coin, when I buy a game for my Xbox 360 that is relatively new, the people who develop the game might release a sloppier version than they would have if they knew that the only shot that they had at making a good game was the first time it was published. Instead, a publisher can set a date for the game's release based on the market and the competition and gloss over some of the bug-testing that it normally would have to go through, since it knows that the customers will find the bugs and complain about them as soon as they start becoming hindered by them. Nicholas Carr's books are a benign illustration of what I fear happening to books and other media that are currently "set in stone" once published. I don't want to read a book, only to go back later and find that it has been edited and now my favorite character has become a much more distasteful persona. I want the author to sweat it, I want the editor to be the bad guy. I want to be a lazy reader, but more importantly, I want the art form to stay true to John Updike's "edges," and to transcend fashion and ephemeral, societal pressures, and just stand on their own as good books.