gap

gap is the growing space between contemporary creative re-mix culture and the increasingly ubiquitous and particulate presence of intellectual property concerns. The gaps between things are the only places left for the public gaze, the only spaces left that are not branded, trade-marked, or claimed as visual property. gap mimics and inverts the modern technique of media protectionism, and through that practice transforms and re-mixes source video that is itself branded and copyrighted. The song that slowly takes over in gap, "Froggie Went A-Courting", is a folk song that has been re-mixed since 1549. As private commercial images infuse every aspect of our private lives and public spaces, the public, in turn, absorbs these images into its folklore. Today our cautionary moral tales are about Paris Hilton more than Brer Rabbit. Re-mix is folk. gap asks us to consider the implications of public space in new media not just as a block of time (PSA's) or block of frequencies (Public TV) but perhaps also as a more complex intermingling; public commons pixels and private property pixels sharing the screen in a dynamic social dance.