Discussion of all things related to Public Domain

[tom poe <tompoe AT amihost.com>]

OPEN STUDIOS: RUNNING BOARD 

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ENTERTAINMENT NEWS: 
Each month, we'll highlight a few of the previous month's news articles
(hopefully with active links).  Subscribers and supporters are encouragd
to email us with links you found to be interesting.  We'll add them
here.  It's a good way for collecting an archive you can refer to when
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Is Being a Webmaster for Controversial Islamic Websites A Crime? 
A USA Patriot Act Prosecution Raises the Issue 
By ANITA RAMASASTRY 
---- 
Monday, May. 03, 2004 
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/ramasastry/20040503.html

" After the September 11 attacks, a group of Muslim students held a
candlelight vigil in the college town of Moscow, Idaho, and condemned
the attacks. The leader of that vigil was a Saudi computer science
doctoral student, Sami Omar al-Hussayen." 

"Now, ironically, Hussayen is on trial for what prosecutors claim is a
terrorism-related offense. He is alleged to have served as a webmaster
and discussion group moderator for several Islamic groups that have
published content on their web sites advocating jihad and praising
suicide bombings." 
- - - 
http://launch.yahoo.com/read/news.asp?contentID=218018
Recording Companies Agree to Pay $50M 
(AP, 05/04/2004 2:14 PM) 

By Deepti Hajela 

" A two-year investigation by New York state Attorney General Eliot
Spitzer's office found that many artists were not being paid royalties
because record companies lost contact with the performers and had
stopped making required payments." 
- - - 
http://news.findlaw.com/ap/ht/1700/5-13-2004/20040513073005_078.html
Thursday, May 13, 2004 
Conn. Man Fined for Downloading Music 

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) - A federal judge has ordered a Bristol man to
pay more than $4,000 for downloading five songs from the Internet. 
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http://news.findlaw.com/ap/e/1403/5-13-2004/20040513121504_50.html
Thursday, May 13, 2004 
McCartney's Rehearsals Draw Complaints 

LONDON (AP) - He may be one of the world's most popular musicians, but
Paul McCartney failed to impress residents in a corner of east London
when he began rehearsing nearby. 

"I rang up the environmental health officers at the council and they
told me 'It's Paul McCartney,'" Pemberton said. "I said 'So what? He
doesn't pay my (taxes), and if it was me that was doing this I would
have been prosecuted.' 

"I thought it was quite unacceptable and even my cat was disturbed," he
added. 
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http://www.kensei-news.com/bizdev/publish/factoids_us/article_23374.shtml
Nielsen Rating System At Odds With RIAA's Claim Of "Lost Sales 
Source: Music Dish - Moses Avalon 
May 5, 2004, 08:49 
By Moses Avalon 
"RIAA says sales are down. Soundscan says "Wha..?" Who should you
believe?" 

"- For the first quarter of 2003 Soundscan registered 147,000,000
records sold. 

- For the 1st quarter of 2004 Soundscan will report 160,000,000 records
sold. 

That's 13,000,000 more units, almost a 10% increase in sales since last
year. " 
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http://www.eff.org/cgi/tiny?urlID=199
Clear Channel Limits Live CDs 
Company to block bands from selling instant albums 
STEVE KNOPPER 
(Posted May 24, 2004) Rolling Stone 

"- - - Clear Channel Entertainment has bought the patent from the
technology's inventors and now claims to own the exclusive right to sell
concert CDs after shows. " 

"We want to be artist-friendly," says Steve Simon, a Clear Channel
executive vice president and the director of Instant Live. "But it is a
business, and it's not going to be 'we have the patent, now everybody
can use it for free.'" 
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http://makeashorterlink.com/?H50A52B68
Posted 5/26/2004 3:51 AM 
Minnesota woman caught in crackdown on music downloaders 
"ST. PAUL (AP) — A Minnesota woman who says she doesn't even know how to
use her home computer has been caught up in the music industry's
crackdown on people who download copyrighted music illegally." 
- - - 
THE COMMUNITY SCENE: 
Open Studios works with communities around the country and around the
world to build and operate community-based recording studios.  You can
keep up with the latest happenings by checking this section each month. 
Learn what others are doing, and get ideas for your community. 

Did you know that in the future, grandparents will have refrigerators
with computers on the side, the monitor stylishly displaying files from
the Internet?  Imagine the grandparents, each morning, walking over to
their refrigerator, loading up the day's drawing made by one of their
grandchildren?  Nice, eh? 

NO ENTRY THIS MONTH 
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HOW THEY DO IT: 
This on-going series explores potential business strategies and ideas
for musicians, artists, and authors interested in pursuing careers
outside mainstream industry practices. 

NO ENTRY THIS MONTH 

- - - 
FEATURED ARTISTS: 
This month we feature Dave Soroka, Canadian Songwriter, his newsletter
of May 10, 2004, and a truly interesting road show.  We hope you will
take a seat in the van, and enjoy the tour with him.
http://www.davesoroka.com 
dave AT davesoroka.com
PRE-FAME TOUR 2004

I'm planning a whirlwind tour of the USA and Canada.

And I'm having more fun right now than I've had in years.

The itinerary could change over the next few weeks, as things that are
now tentative either fall through or solidify, but the general plan is
to leave Grand Forks on June 28th, play in Olympia that night, then
travel down the coast to LA, across the USA, up to Toronto and back
across Canada, somewhere around 7000 miles altogether, playing 12 to 15
shows along the way, all in 25 days, because I'm scheduled to open the
Freedom Festival here in Grand Forks at 4:00 PM on July 23. Whirlwind.
Breakneck. Ridiculous. 

Maybe it can't even be done. But I'm gonna treat it like a game and see
just how close I can come.

I don't have a visa to play for pay in the USA, so I have to call this a
promotional tour and play for free everywhere I go. I might, however,
leave my hat lying around during the show, and whatever happens to fall
into it, whether it folds or jangles, I am not likely to want to return
to whoever dropped it. 

And this tour is, in fact, promotional. But it's also a chance for me to
meet a lot of people who through the internet have become friends, and
other friends I just haven't seen in a long time, and who I miss.

At this writing the things I have lined up for sure are:

-a house concert in Olympia, Washington, Monday June 28th -Thank you to
my sister Eileen and my niece, Amy.

-Abuelitas Restaurant in Topanga California on Wednesday June 30th
-Thank you to my webmaster, Django, and his uncle, Thomas Breiter in
Topanga.

-the Moonlight Music Cafe, Birmingham Alabama, July 8th - Thank you to
Keith Harrelson.

-a house concert in Bowling Green Kentucky on Saturday July 10th - Thank
you to Karlos and friends.

Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Paris Texas, Lexington Kentucky and Port
Colborne Ontario are looking good, but nothing definite yet.

history:

When I was in LA in 1985, putting a band together, playing around
wherever we could, I called what I was doing then my Pre-Fame Tour, but
that's only just the first time I put a name to it. I realized that I'd
been on my Pre-Fame Tour for a good many years, right since the very
first time I played a song for people, way back in 1969.

To try to sum it up somehow, I'd say it's been an on-again, off-again
kind of a road trip, with long stretches of staying at home and living,
loving, and working in-between. 

So, I'm calling this latest trip my Pre-Fame Tour 2004. Keeping in mind
that fame is a relative thing, and that there are widely varying degrees
of the stuff, I am thinking that sometime in the next year or so I'd
like to begin my Now I'm Famous Tour, and stay on that for the rest of
this outrageous life.

still some dates to fill:

-Las Vegas Nevada, July 1st
 
-points anywhere between Albuquerque and Nashville for July 3rd, 4th,
5th, 6th and

-Nashville, July 7th

-Mayfield Kentucky, July 9th

-points between Lexington Kentucky and New York City, July 14th and 15th

-Port Colborne Ontario, July 16th

-Toronto, July 17th

-Calgary or vicinity, July 21st


What I'm looking for is anyone who can set me up with a house concert or
some other kind of gig. I feel certain some of you reading this know
people in these areas who would be willing to turn their livingrooms
into small concert halls for an evening, call 20 or so people over, let
me do my show. 

Some of my new friends in Curlew must know a few like-minded individuals
scattered across the USA...

Not only that, but I need as much media coverage as possible. Anybody
out there who can set me up with radio or tv interviews, internet
webcasts, print media of any kind, please do so. There are already
several media people, including two so far from CBC Radio, who will be
following me through these newsletters, which I will continue to put out
as I travel using the computers of friends along the way.

I am also trying to get several other people involved in this tour. My
webmaster, Django, for one. I think it'd be fun to have him along. Also,
an old friend of mine who photographed one of my concerts many years
ago: Kolya Malloff. And Karl Schmidt, down in Kentucky, if you are
interested in shooting this tour or any part of it, I'd love to have you
along. 

And then I also want to see if there is anyone in my movie connections
who wants to come along and shoot the tour documentary-style. So far
I've got an "I might just be interested" from Derek Lebrero of Driven
Films, the Canadian production company that's using two of my songs in a
movie called Thousands Of Miles, which will be going to the Sundance
Film Festival this year (go to http://www.thousandsofmiles.com to see
more about this film).

So, anyone out there who can fill any of these needs, please get hold of
me at dave AT davesoroka.com. Right away.

IN OTHER NEWS

The Movies:

As I mentioned above, two of my songs have been used in a movie called
Thousands Of Miles, an independent Canadian production. Anyone who wants
more info, please email me and I'll forward to you the info pack/press
release that director Derek Lebrero sent me.

I heard from one of my movie contacts in England that my songs may soon
be used in another feature film. The company is Troma, and the man there
is Andrew. Andrew has used my songs in a trilogy of short films called
Sophistry. They are planning a fourth segment, and the talk is that they
might then combine the four short films into one feature-length movie.
I'll keep you-all posted on this.

A Book:

Theresa Carel of Artistic Pathways in Curlew Washington is compiling a
book of my lyrics and poems. I have in my possession a first draft and
it is beautiful, a real work of art. I'll let you-all know when it's
available.

More Live Recordings:

I did another concert in Curlew Washington just last night, and man,
what a night. I haven't listened to the recording yet, but I have a
feeling it'll be good, and if it is then I'll make a CD out of it. Hell,
even if the music was badly recorded, I can easliy edit together a
45-minute-long album of enthusiastic cheering, yelling, clapping and
shouting...what an audience! What a town! They wore me out. I played for
close to three hours and they were calling for a second encore when I
finally just had to put my guitar down. Man, I ain't done with Curlew.

I have a couple of discs that I recorded up in Silverton and Nakusp
recently, and although the audiences were rather small, the recordings
turned out pretty good, so as soon as I can make the time I will edit
those recordings into an album I intend to call One Outside Mother. Go
to my website at www.davesoroka.com and look on the home page for an
explanation of where I got that title.

To Reiterate:  I need gigs. Let me play for you and your friends at your
house. 

Next newsletter as the news happens, which might be quite frequently,
maybe weekly, for the next little while. 

Thank you for your time. 

All the very best to every one of you.

Dave.
- - - 
COLUMNS: 
A]  Anatoly Volynets - Culture vs. Copyright 
Synopsis of Previous Issues 

One of the basic points I stand for is that culture and copyright clash
completely. In previous issues we discussed the nature of arts,
licensing in cultural affairs, arts and personality. 

Culture Beyond Arts 

Table of Contents 

1 Preamble 
2 When Do People Create? 
3 Summarizing Questions 
4 The First Attempt To Analyse 
5 How Creation Happens? 
6 Going After Examples 



1 Preamble 

When we were discussing the nature of arts as a branch of culture it was
both difficult and easy. It was difficult because the subject is quite
mysterious, and it was easy because arts are the most typical
representatives for culture and say a lot for themselves. How about
other areas of human life and activities? Is there a place for culture
to show itself there? 

As soon as we define culture as the realm of creativity and dialogue, we
face culture, whenever we encounter these. 

This can happen even in the least creative case: 
production of some simple, well known goods. When you produce something,
there are some physical materials you use, time you spend and ideas you
implement. The ideas could be yours (only a few of them) and those of 
others (tens of thousands of them collected in the course of history and
set in the simplest product of contemporary industry). Is creativity
required here? 

Well, let us see what my first graders have to say. 

2 When Do People Create? 

Teacher. When do people create? 

Beta. What do you mean "when?" 

Kappa. Well, sometimes we do, don't we? 

Delta. And the question is,"when?" 

Beta. I'm thinking we need to clarify the question. 

Teacher. Looks like it. 

Gamma. We are not talking about time, are we? We're talking about
situations, right? 

Teacher. Of course. 

Alpha. I know! It is when someone hasn't prepared for a test. One should
be ver-r-ry creative! 

Teacher. Could be. Can you elaborate? 

Gamma. Could it be that one has to reinvent some scientific data in that
case? Is that what you mean? 

Alpha. If people are not prepared they guess, nothing else. 

Kappa. But some people guess better than others. 

Alpha. "Creative guessing!" Hah-hah-hah! 

Kappa. Why don't we turn to the arts? 

Delta. It's too obvious. Of course people create while doing arts.
That's got to be true by definition! 

Teacher. Not necessarily. 

Delta. I got it. If a painter is just copying a unique work of another
artist, he is not creating, is he? 

Teacher. Not necessarily. 

Gamma. I watched a movie "The Moderns." There was one very talented
painter and he got a commission to make copies of some Matisse's
paintings, because the customer wanted to sneak the originals away from
her husband... Then she robbed the painter, because she didn't want to
pay him, but she mistook the copies for the originals. And the painter
was really proud afterwards that he was able to make such perfect
copies! 

Alpha. OK, he was happy. What does that tell us? 

Beta. Well, he was talented and he was proud he could do it. It does
tell us something. 

Alpha. What? 

Delta. I believe, that not every single painter can make a precise copy
of a great work. He has to be talented to be up to the job. 

Alpha. If someone is a talented copier, does this mean he is creating
while copying? 

Teacher. Good question! 

Beta. I wish I had a good answer. 

Kappa. Maybe it is something like understanding of other people? Don't
you think? 

Delta. You mean, to see all of the details on one's painting and
reproduce them? 

Beta. Look, what have we got here: if exact reproducing requires
creativity, then not exact reproducing, when you substitute author's
details by yours, is not creativity! 

All, but Alpha. Wow! 

Gamma. How can it be? 

Alpha. Wait-wait, who says it can? Who says that reproducing requires
creativity? 

Beta. No one does, so far. I said "if." 

Gamma. But can it be that a talented work is not a creative one? What is
talent for? 

Alpha. How about photography? 

Beta. I got something. Look, a photograph reflects something real,
exactly how it is, right? 

Gamma. So? There are interesting and telling pictures out there, and
there are many of them that are good for a trash can only. How is this
possible? 

Beta. That's where I was heading. When you make a picture and manage to
get what you wanted and how you wanted it... 

Delta. You mean, when you have a goal to catch something or what?.. 

Alpha. My uncle is a photographer, a very good one, everyone says that.
He says you have to be ready for a quick shot. It is not like you have
to have some goal... 

Beta. I understand, you have to be prepared... But this is also a goal,
isn't it? 

Alpha. It's different. 

Kappa. Alpha is right... And Beta is right... 

3 Summarizing Questions 

Teacher. Don't we have something for the first summary? 

Delta. A bunch of questions. 

Kappa. It is something. We wanted to clarify our problem, remember? 

Teacher. I remember. Would you like to try, Kappa? 

Kappa. OK, but you all help me. 

Delta. Count on me. 

Beta. I'll join in. 

Gamma. I'll do my best. 

Teacher. Alpha, do we join? 

Alpha. I'm not sure we've got enough material for all helpers... I'll
let you know, if you miss something. 

Teacher. It's a deal. Go ahead, Kappa. 

Kappa. OK. We have got so far... First: Could someone really be creative
taking a test he is not prepared for? Does this question stand? 

Alpha. Baloney. 

Delta. Continue Kappa. You got one. 

Beta. Generally, if you do not know something, then it becomes a problem
to solve... 

Kappa. OK. The second question is: could it be creative guessing? 

Alpha. But this is the same question! 

Delta. I believe, guessing is part of any creation. 

Alpha. But this doesn't make any sense! 

Teacher. Alpha, we shall discuss this, but let us do the summary first. 

Alpha. We were going to sum up questions, but the first one is obviously
not a question at all, and the second one is the same as the first one. 

Beta. I wouldn't be so sure about both. You can never predict what pops
up in a discussion. 

Alpha. All right, I'll keep silent, whatever you say. 

Delta. You can't, Alpha. You promised to let us know, if we miss
something. 

Alpha. That's enough! You want to discuss me or our subject? 

Teacher. Our subject... And I assume, everyone is ready to continue. 

Kappa. If someone does not like a question, we can reformulate it,
right? 

Teacher. Acceptable. 

Kappa. OK. Do we have the correct question about test taking, or is
better to leave the general question about guessing only? 

Gamma. Why can't we discuss both? 

Delta. I agree. We do not know where to go, anyway. 

Alpha. Exactly. 

Delta. OK. We don't know where to go anyway, so we need as many
questions as possible. 

Alpha. And to stay here overnight. 

Gamma. It is destructive... 

Alpha. What? 

Gamma. What are you doing now, it's destructive. 

Alpha. And to collect a thousand questions to solve a single problem is
constructive... 

Gamma. Do you really hope to solve it today? 

Alpha. Why do we even start it, if we do not want to solve it? 

Beta. Who said we don't? 

Kappa. We've counted two questions so far. The third one would be
whether doing arts is always a creative process. 

Alpha. Who questions that? 

Teacher. I do. 

Alpha. Why? 

Teacher. Why don't we finish with the summary first? 

Kappa. The fourth one will be "could copying be creative?" The fifth
one, "if a work is talented, does it mean that creativity was required
and involved?" 

Teacher. This is an excellent formulation. 

Kappa. The sixth question: "is copying of a painting like understanding
of an idea?" 

Beta. I have another one: "is copying of a creative work the same as
understanding of its author's thinking?" 

Delta. Why the same? How could it be the same? 

Gamma. Kappa said "like". 

Kappa. Aha. Can we put it this way: is copying generally like
understanding? 

Delta. Of course! You never repeat after someone if you do not
understand what was said! 

Beta. Yea... and this does not mean that repeating and understanding are
the same... 

Gamma. What does this mean? 

Beta. I think they are related... 

Alpha. Come back guys... You are disrupting the accounting process... 

Kappa. All right. So the seventh question could sound like: how do
copying and understanding relate to each other in general terms? 

Teacher. Perfect! 

Delta. I got the eighth one: is seeing a creative process? 

Gamma. Where did that come from? 

Delta. I asked earlier whether a copier is creative because he is seeing
all of the details. 

Gamma. I got an example when the seeing of all the details relates to
creativity. It is investigation. 

Beta. Hey, good example. Sherlock Holmes is a creative guy... 

Alpha. What does he create? 

Delta. A picture of a crime. 

Alpha. That one was created by a criminal. 

Teacher. The crime, not the picture. 

Gamma. Sherlock Holmes does not know the criminal's plan and actions,
thus he has to invent it from scratch and check against evidence, right?
It is a creative process. 

Kappa. Hah, look, we got it again: a bad investigator cannot re-create
the picture - how it was in reality - and amends it with invented
details and happens to be less creative at the same time? Wow! 

Teacher. Have we picked all of our questions? 

Kappa. There were few more... About photography... Does creation relate
to some goal? 

Beta. I would ask another one: does seeing something unusual mean being
creative? 

Kappa. Seeing again? 

Teacher. All right, we got pretty decent list. May I add one last
question: do all creative features of human activity equally apply to
arts and non-arts? Or better put it this way: do all of our questions
equally 
apply to arts and non-arts? 

4 The First Attempt To Analyse 

Beta. We've been touching this problem all the time. 

Kappa. Actually, we got on track many times, but were interrupted. 

Alpha. Don't blame me. 

Kappa. It was not you... or not only you. We interrupted our discussion
to proceed with the list. 

Alpha. Aha! Thus goal can be disruptive! 

Delta. Maybe there could be different goals? 

Alpha. Look, like I said: suppose you go out to make a picture of your
friend, OK? Then you see a beautiful flower, OK? And you pass it by,
because you have another goal and you miss... 

Beta. I believe that picture you are going to take can be as
beautiful... 

Gamma. And that one of the flower can be spoiled as well? 

Kappa. Alpha is right, a creator has to be ready... 

Beta. Actually, yes, you don't know for sure what happens in the end,
because it wouldn't be creation otherwise. 

Gamma. But this equally applies to both pictures! You aren't just
"taking a picture" if you want it to turn out well. 

Delta. Thus, there has to be a goal of some sort. 

Kappa. OK, suppose you know what you want, I mean a picture... OK, you
have a goal... You even have two goals... 

Delta. I know: the goal number one - to get something special on film,
the goal number two - to make it beautiful... 

Alpha. Here we go! The goal number three - to make it quick! 

Beta. Of course - to catch a moment when one and two meet. 

Kappa. Let me finish, guys... Actually you helped a lot. Let me finish
now. 

Delta. Go ahead. 

Kappa. What if you realize all the three goals, but cannot make it? You
click, click, click... and nothing good comes out. What then? 

Alpha. What then? You are a bad photographer then. That's it. 

Beta. I got it. You can know, what you want,.. have many goals to put
together, but do not have required skills. Is that, where you were
heading, Kappa? 

Kappa. Maybe... I'm not sure. Just asked, because it's kind of an
obvious question to ask. 

Delta. I remember, it was Beta's assumption in the very beginning, that
a talented author can achieve what he wants, right? 

Alpha. What if he wants something stupid? 

Gamma. "Stupid" is not an issue here. Stupid can be beautiful. 

Alpha. Have an example? 

Gamma. All right, have you watched "Chicago?" 

Alpha. I did, so? 

Kappa. Hah, Roxie is stupid and beautiful! That's right! 

Alpha. She is not that stupid. 

Beta. We lost our subject here. We were talking about "quick shot",
remember?.. - that a picture could be ugly for some reason. And Alpha
said, it could happen if the photographer could have a trivial aesthetic
goal, or what? 

Teacher. Logically, it is correct. 

Alpha. I didn't know I am that smart! 

Gamma. Remember that movie "The Majestic?" - when the producer suggested
changes to the movie scenario? - in the beginning and in the end? 

Kappa. Yea, yea! He said such stupid things! 

Delta. And he could have them all done! 

5 How Creation Happens? 

Teacher. Looks like we are approaching another little summary. 

Beta. May I? 

Teacher. Sure. 

Beta. In order to create, an author needs: 

Firstly, to have a subject, like he wants to make a picture of someone; 

Secondly, to have an aesthetic idea of how he wants it; for him to want
it beautiful. 

Thirdly, the aesthetic idea has to be kind of unique; 

Fourthly, to be skillful enough to implement these three; 

Fifthly, to catch a moment when all four meet. 

Delta. Isn't the fifth point included in the fourth one? 

Beta. Why? 

Delta. You said "catch," right? Isn't that about a skill? 

Beta. No, I actually meant a moment of time. It should happen. It is not
enough to be ready. You are ready to catch a moment, but the moment must
occur, right? 

Delta. Got it. 

Alpha. I can imagine a photographer saying to himself: I'll do it
beautiful such and such, blah-blah-blah... 

Gamma. Maybe yes, maybe no... 

Alpha. You make a quick shot, when you see it is worthy... this is it. 

Kappa. And what happens, if you don't like the picture? 

Alpha. Then you do it again. That's it. You do not theorize here. 

Beta. Of course, you do. You ask yourself what was wrong and do it
again. 

Delta. Hah, you guess! That's what you do! 

Alpha. Ah, long time... 

Gamma. Why not? You guess and check it, and guess again and check it
again,.. until you have gotten what you like most... until you're
satisfied... On the other hand, they say Mozart never did drafts, he
just wrote his music. 

Kappa. But others do drafts and their art can be no less talented, I
think. Like I know that Degas made countless sculpture models for his
paintings and was never satisfied with them. He even destroyed them
driving his agent crazy. And other people have always considered these
sculptures to be genius works. 

Alpha. Mozart was a genius. 

Delta. You can do guessing and checking in your mind and nobody will
ever know, how many drafts you actually did. 

Gamma. And you can do it fast. 

Alpha. Yea, a thousand strokes per second:
strike-strike-strike-strike-strike-strike... 

Teacher. Is this really so important? 

Alpha. What? 

Teacher. All these technicalities... how it finally comes to perfection.

Alpha. I didn't start this. 

Beta. It is interesting, although is not relevant to the initial
question, I agree. 

Teacher. What, in your opinion, is the most important point in your
summary, Beta? 

Beta. I cannot skip any one of them. 

Kappa. Yes, you can. Just ask, how necessary each of them is. 

Beta. They all are necessary. You drop any single point and you will not
get a work of art. 

Kappa. But you really don't know how to make a beautiful picture in the
beginning, right? How does your aesthetic goal work then? 

Beta. And if one doesn't have this goal, how can a beautiful picture
happen then? 

Kappa. What if you wanted to make one picture, but happened to spot
another subject? 

Beta. I just changed the subject, but I could not skip it at all, right?
You cannot make a picture of nothing. 

Alpha. Why don't you make "nothing" your subject then? 

Beta. Still have to have a subject. 

Delta. OK, what if we ask another question: can these points of yours be
applied to art only? 

Alpha. The initial question was about creativity in general, not about
arts. 

Gamma. Yes, and we even have questions, whether art is always creative
and whether all we asked about art could be applied to non-arts and vise
versa. 

Teacher. That is right. 

Kappa. Listen, Beta: one can be really-really non-creative even having
some subject, right? 

Beta. ...Yes, obviously. 

Gamma. Can one be non-creative and have a creative goal? 

Beta. You mean one can want to create something?.. Just want? 

Kappa. Yes, and this will be number two, agree? 

Teacher. I am recalling that Beta said the idea must be about how to
make something beautiful. 

Gamma. If we are talking about arts! 

Delta. Yea, we can drop this requirement about beauty. 

Beta. I feel like you are going to leave me bone dry. 

Alpha. You will survive, don't worry. 

Kappa. Hold it. Number three: one can have excellent skills... 

Beta. ...And accomplish nothing. I give up. 

Delta. Wait-wait, you cannot have the third point in place and be
non-creative! 

Gamma. That the idea should be unique? This works by definition, doesn't
it? 

Alpha. How will one know that one's idea is unique? 

Kappa. What do you mean? 

Alpha. Someone could have had the same idea earlier. 

Kappa. What difference does it make? 

Delta. If you come up with something new for yourself, it does not make
you less creative if some other guy did it before. 

Beta. Definitely... You are seeing something new and you know it is new.

Kappa. Seeing?! 

Alpha. If you are seeing something, then everyone can see it. 

Kappa. How about a photograph? 

Alpha. ...No, it's different... I told you many times: you have to be
quick. 

Beta. Or else? It disappears? 

Alpha. ...Not necessarily... But other people won't see it your way. 

Delta. You said if you see it, everyone can. 

Kappa. No one will!.. until you point it out!.. This is, how it works!..
For one. For two, I think we were talking about some kind of inner
seeing... Like we were discussing earlier... You guess, you try,.. say
don't like it, do it again... until you like it. It's like you're seeing
something in your mind and try to match it. 

Teacher. What is it?.. Assuming the subject is here... 
And the subject is seen for every passer by... Remember that flower,
Alpha suggested? But you, creator, have to see something invisible for
others, right? What is it? 

Beta. It is "how!" I said it in my summary! It is _how_ you want it. 

Gamma. And what is this "how," anyway? 

Kappa. Can we hypothesize that it is _how_ you organize your subject..? 

Delta. OK, let's take that flower. What do I have to do? Organize things
around it in my mind? 

Alpha. You do nothing around it! You shoot! Quickly! This is it! You
don't have time for long discussions, calculations, plans, checks,
whatever! You just shoot! End of story. 

Beta. Listen, Alpha: why are you skipping everything we have been
discussing and repeating the same thing like a parrot over, and over,
and over? 

Kappa. Beta! 

Beta. OK-OK, sorry. 

Teacher. I think we have gotten to a very interesting point. At the very
moment of creating you arrange things in your mind in some
unique-to-yourself-way. I think, this is the essence of creative
process. 

Kappa. Uh, you did a summary this time. 

Teacher. It was too tempting... and exiting. 

Beta. I believe this formula can be applied to things aside from art as
well. 

Alpha. To passing a test. 

Gamma. Why not? If you try to recreate a piece of knowledge... By the
way, Alpha, it was you who offered the theme of test. Maybe you have a
say on that? 

Teacher. Actually I do not see what the specific situation of the test
adds to our analyses. Maybe we can talk about recalling things in
general... what do you think? 

Delta. We already have a question about seeing. Recalling seems to be in
line. 

Kappa. If we add the arrangement thing to Beta's summary, we will have a
pretty decent tool to research different examples. 

Teacher. This is absolutely perfect! Who is to implement the idea? 

Gamma. I can do it: 

A creation happens when a creator catches a form, so that he can arrange
his subject in some new way. He has to be skillful enough to implement
the new arrangement. 

Teacher. A form?! This is new! 

Beta. This is the word! A new arrangement of some subject and the new
form that things get organized into. Form sounds better. 

Alpha. Better than what? 

Beta. Arrangement. 

Delta. Arrangement sounds more like the process and form sounds like the
result. Both are suitable in a way. 

Alpha. If you say: "Arrange things in some new way" it is just long for
"create." 

Kappa. For me these are not simply "long" and "short," because the long
formulation shows how it really works, while the term "create" just
names the process. 

6 Going After Examples 

Gamma. By the way, sometimes they coincide literally. 

Delta. What do you mean? 

Gamma. Invention. ...Say, an inventor tries to create a new engine. He
has to assemble some known things in some new form... 

Kappa. Don't you think that the idea of a new engine has to come in his
mind first? 

Gamma. For example? 

Kappa. Well... I think I don't have any specific knowledge... 

Delta. Jets! My dad says it was revolutionary change in aviation! 

Alpha. Ah. The Chinese invented gun powder rockets lo-o-ong ago. And
there were aircrafts invented. What it took is to just join these two
ideas. 

Kappa. Just join?! That easy? 

Gamma. "Join"! See? 

Alpha. What? 

Gamma. What "what"? You take two different things: aircraft and rocket,
and arrange them into one idea - jet! See? 

Alpha. What I'm trying to say, is that it was not so horribly new. 

Kappa. What is "horribly new" for you? Something born out of nothing? 

To be continued. 

Topics to be covered: Discrepancies between worlds: tangibles and
intangibles, Economics of Culture and others. 

Anatoly Volynets, Board member of Open Studios, and President of
Total-knowledge.com, will continue his thoughts next month about the
copyright implications on culture.  You can contact Anatoly at: 
av AT total-knowledge.com
*** 
This article licensed under Authoright: 
http://www.culturedialogue.org/ 
*** 
Literary editing by Alexandra Volynets 
*** 
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