CREATIVITY, INFLUENCE, OWNERSHIP, AND ART IN THE DIGITAL AGE

"Artistic Man can only fully content himself by uniting every branch of Art into the common Artwork."

In The Geneology of Digital Performance, Steve Dixon mentions this quote by Richard Wagner. It alludes to Wagner's vision of unifying multiple art forms such as theater, music, singing, dance, poetry into a cohesive piece of work. The ever evolving digital age that we live in has made this vision all the more possible. Lighting designers, for instance, are able to use computers to digitally control lights. The use of videos can enhance any art form, from theater to dance to the visual arts. The digital age has allowed artists to communicate through a diverse array of mediums. Although some argue that this caused a move away from "pure"art and resulted in a more watered down, scattered experience between audience and artist, digital media has undoubtedly moved the expression of art into new and interesting territory.
In "The Ecstasy of Influence," Jonathan Lethem discusses creative ownership. He describes how artists and thinkers, from Nabokov to Dylan, have appropriated and alluded to the works of others. He goes on to discuss how the line between appropriation and plagiarism is blurry- since all works of art sort of seep into culture, the idea of intellectual and artistic property is a strange one. In a way, everything that we create is influenced by what has come before so the idea of anything being completely original is fallacious.
Questions regarding intellectual property have become increasingly pertinent in a world in which anyone who has a computer can access all sorts creative works. This is especially relevant in the music business- over the past few years, there have been cases of songwriters stealing music and lyrics from unsigned recording artists who have put their songs up on myspace.