From: Beverly O'Neill (email suppressed)
Date: Wed Jun 11 2008 - 03:27:45 PDT
Dear Tony, Thank you for responding several days ago about my UBU
inquiry and describing the response you had to getting slammed into
UBU's hall of shame when you legitimately requested that they remove
your work from the site.
Odd thoughts in random order about bootlegging work from independent
artists
1. the cost of everything media artists use: film stock, processing,
editing, creating internegatives, pulling final prints that will only
last through a dozen screenings and need replacing
upgrading equipment, transferring pieces to digital formats,
collaborating with performers, sound designers, composers,
technicians, buying/learning new softward,
air conditioning/heating the work space, building an audience for the
work, interacting with critics, curators, travelling hundreds of
times, god-knows where to show in possibly empty venues, paying for
copyright access to industry generated music and imagery
( expensive), hiring a very part-time assistant to carry some of the
burden, paying for travel to shoot in required locations, paying a
designer to create a web-site, preparing and marketing DVD's, keeping
the car in running order, renting equipment, paying insurance on
those rentals..
Do this for 40-50 years (I'm thinking of Bruce Conner,Tony and
countless others) work in a fair degree of solitude without much
grant support and then, yes, widely throw open the door to anyone who
wants to loot/ highjack/ mis-represent the work in its most degraded
half-life form on a streaming web-site and talk about how much this
will build a wider audience --for free.
2.. if an artist wants/needs control over a body of work and some
small remuneration for the personal investment made with perhaps even
a grace note of respect thrown in to boot, let's go to that utopia.
3. all students entering art/film schools should know that if they
can't self-finance their careers for an extensive period, most likely
they won't build a significant one these days.
an ancedote. While working on arts campuses I've heard
administrators say many times, the faculty should be grateful that
they get work in their field --frequently for low pay and without
benefits. Why weren't they satisfied being included in the community
--reward in itself-- kinda the UBU approach which states that
filmmakers express appreciation upon finding their name listed on
the site.
The annual income the average artist (media/visual) can expect to
earn from the sale and dissimination of work is $3,000 in the U.S.
In this context bootlegging from media artists is just another
indiginity, but maybe dignity is highly overated..
William Burroughs said that when he passed his mummy would become a
sitting duck. So vexsome being a sitting duck while still living.
wishes,
Beverly O'Neill
On Jun 11, 2008, at 1:25 AM, Tony Conrad wrote:
> Hi Lisa---------
>
> You're getting into a mixed terrain here: we are not talking about
> citation, or appropriation, or
> brief quotations, as your remarks suggest, when you give as
> examples "youtube clip(s)" or "video
> taped off a monitor." That is, this is not about "representations"
> of the work, but the work
> itself, in its various forms. When a feature film is sold on DVD,
> that's not called
> a "representation" of the work; it is called the work.
>
> ---------t0ny
>
>
>
> On Wed Jun 11 1:31 , Lisa Oppenheim <email suppressed> sent:
>
>> Tony- I love your work. And I have enormous respect for you and
>> your practice. Hell, you named
> the Velvet fucking Underground. But on this point I think you have
> it wrong. It is not about your
> work or the way it disseminated, it is about representations of the
> work. Who owns a youtube clip
> of a video taped off a monitor? Is that the work? That's like
> saying a postcard of the Mona Lisa
> is the intellectual property of Leonardo.
>> Much respect,
>> Lisa
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -------- Original Message --------
>>
>> Subject: Re: The Politics of the Bootleg
>>
>> From: Tony Conrad <email suppressed>
>>
>> Date: Wed, June 11, 2008 2:04 am
>>
>> To: email suppressed
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks Rick--------
>>
>>
>>
>> I agree of course: your point is that STRATEGICALLY speaking it
>> makes sense to
>>
>> disseminate one's work as widely a possible. My point remains: the
>> decision to
>>
>> PURSUE this strategem, or not to do so, should belong to the owner
>> (maker) of the
>>
>> work.
>>
>>
>>
>> --------t0ny
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue Jun 10 19:48 , Rick Prelinger <email suppressed> sent:
>>
>>> .......
>>
>>> I defend Tony's right to know where his work is going and steer
>>> it in a
>>
>> direction he feels appropriate. But the times may not favor his
>> or any artist's
>>
>> exclusive control. For Tony, I suspect there is value in
>> maintaining a measure
>>
>> of control and scarcity. I'd only say that the more people that
>> get to see his
>>
>> work and appreciate his career, the value of the billable events
>> that happen
>>
>> around his work will increase. This has been our story.
>>
>>>
>>
>>> Rick
>>
>>>
>>
>>> Rick Prelinger
>>
>>> Prelinger Library & Archives, San Francisco
>>
>>> Board President, Internet Archive
>>
>>>
>>
>>>
>>
>>> __________________________________________________________________
>>
>>> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at email suppressed>.
>>
>>>
>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Tony Conrad 716-400-8738
>>
>>
>>
>> Department of Media Study, Center for the Arts 231, University at
>> Buffalo 14260
>>
>>
>>
>> 190 Bedford Av, Ste 126
>>
>> Brklyn NY 11211
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> __________________________________________________________________
>>
>> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> __________________________________________________________________
>> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> Tony Conrad 716-400-8738
>
> Department of Media Study, Center for the Arts 231, University at
> Buffalo 14260
>
> 190 Bedford Av, Ste 126
> Brklyn NY 11211
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.