(De)Fencing the Cultural Commons Through a (De)Constructive Media Art Curriculum

摘要

Rampant consolidation in the media industry has led to an ever-increasing push to extend the breadth and scope of copyright law. A deliberate and systematic effort to restrict access to cultural texts that were previously accessible has led to a creative climate that is increasingly intimidating to young artists. The personal computer provides students the ability to re-open these texts and reclaim their right to fairly use the cultural artifacts of their surroundings as building blocks of expression. The personal computer can deconstruct closed media texts into malleable parts of visual language that students can reconstruct into new texts. These new texts have the potential to transgress the cultural demarcation erected by big media’s successful lobbying of the US Senate for restrictive copyright legislation.