An ongoing project of mine (hidden
away in the background) is making new artworks from books by Virginia Woolf
(particularly Mrs Dalloway), in the hope of teasing new voices from her
beautiful, intricate narratives. In this blog post I wanted to look an example
of an artist whose work also does this, an artist whose work also raises
questions surrounding copyright.
In 2010 Simon Morris published
the book Getting Inside Jack Kerouac's Head
through his own imprint informationas material in 2010. His book started
life as a blog in which Morris copied a page a day of Jack Kerouac’s novel On
the Road as an exercise in better understanding the book and the author’s
writing process. As blogs are displayed
showing the latest entry first, those wishing to read On the Road through
Morris’s blog will be faced with the book in reverse order.
The printed book retains the
reversed page order and uncorrected text of the blog and the cover is designed
to resemble the 2007 Penguin Modern Classics edition
(compare image 1 and 2). Although the text in the book is ostensibly
Kerouac’s these minor differences distance Kerouac’s work from Morris’ in a
dramatic way; if a reader were to pick up On the Road, they would find a linear
story about a road trip; if a reader were to pick up Morris’ book, they would
find a disjointed story, a story that prompts the reader to question the nature
of the book they were holding. The
difference here is a conceptual one.
I heard Morris speak at the Whitechapel Gallery in 2011 about his own approach to
using the material of others as a starting point. He said that ‘If
there is no danger of being original it can be very liberating.’ Morris’ view implies that it is Kerouac’s On
the Road, which carries the burden of originality and not Getting Inside Jack Kerouac's Head. It is this weight
however that makes copyright such a fiercely contested terrain. I think this
sense of freedom is apparent in the work, as the book comes across as a game in
a way, one that one that Morris has played with commitment and determination.
Copyright and reproduction are
important topics in the book world, particularly with the threat of Google’s
mass book-digitization programme, which has dramatic implications for the
global publishing industry (according to Robert Darnton, in The Case for Books).
Google’s quest to scan and make available millions of books has
triggered legal action from publishers and re-raised questions of intellectual
property and ownership. Morris’ book can’t help but touch on that as it is
almost (but not quite) a word-for-word copy of Kerouac’s.
Questions of copyright and
ownership first came about in the 18th century when it was created to break
monopolies in book publishing, ensuring authors were protected and other
publishers were able to distribute works (Lessig, Free Culture, 2006). Two hundred years later copyright now appears
to protect the interest of corporations, ensuring that intellectual property
can be controlled long after the death of the original creator.
Several publishers (and notably
the author J. K. Rowling – who released the digital versions of Harry Potter)
are moving away from such strong digital encryption, allowing books to be
shared more easily. And perhaps these gestures, along with the works of artists
such as Morris, are pushing the boundaries and encouraging others to play with
content and give it a new or alternative life.
{Chris}
{Chris}
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