Sarah,
Many thanks for getting this discussion going. Over
the last ten days there has been much discussion
about this particular exhibit. A parallel discussion
is being moderated by Steve Cisler on the ISEA 2006
Piracy Working group that will be meeting during the
Pacific Rim New Media Summit in August. As you point
out this is now a recurrent issue with a number
of exhibits.
I guess I would like to focus on the identity theft
part of the discussion.
A few years ago a researcher as part of their PhD
appropriated some of my texts, and reposted them on
a fake web site under my name. The texts were doctored
with the end of the text becoming pornographic. The
stated purpose of the research was to investigate
on line authorship, text migration etc.
After i objected the person removed the text. The trouble
is if you google my name you still find that text. If an
employer were doing a web search on my name they would find it.
This could cause me material harm ( a phd student working
with me was seriously concerned as his name had been used also)
. It always seemed to me
that the researcher could have done the same project using
fictitious names rather than mine.
A similar problem is occuring on the site you mentioned
Part of the site is a log register of people who supposedly
logged into the site and contributed. This is apparently
a fabrication ( some dead people have also logged in).
There is false information on the site=- for instance
an artist from a european country is described as being
from an asian country.
I have teen age childen and they are quite happily
mixing and mashing music= but there seems to be an inherent
difference between music and text ? The argument could be
that visual, sound and musical work on the web is all mixed
together and cut and paste= but I guess the problem becomes
when a persons name who is not the author of the mashed
material is attached = then surely it becomes identity fraud ?
What creates additional confusion is that the artists project
is presented as a curatorial project of an arts institution
and not as an individual artists project.
Clearly art institutions would not consider altering an artists
work in video art or sculpture= why is it ok for an institution
to alter an artists web site pages when exhiting them ?
I look forward to the discussions
roger malina
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