Bootlegging the Zeitgeist

     I was perusing through a couple of TED speeches and stumble upon Johanna Blakley: Lessons from fashions free culture. Johanna Blakley studies the influence of mass media and entertainment on our world. The speech was corky and a full of sarcasm but I also found it to be quite profound and informative. Her breakdown of trademark infringement, and copyright protection was simple to grasp and engaging. Apparently, fashionapparel is too utilitarian to be protected. Hmm, fancy that. However, in spite of the axiom, “without ownership there is no incentive to innovate”but fashion has found a way to evolve,  doesn’t fashion kind of sound like this? 

     Seriously, besides thinking about plight of genetics; I also often wondered why fashion designers worried about having their look and designs pirated or infringed upon. I understand trademark infringement; your logo is your logo, shouldn't duplicate that but copyright protection on clothing? Theoretically, artist always imitate other artist.  Some say Andy Warhol bit off or drew inspiration from Jean Basquiat and Pablo Picasso once uttered the phrase, “good artists borrow, great artists steal”. So what does it matter that a stitch, a cut, a sow or hem is copyrighted? All that extra energy and money spent on trying to copyright a garment is in vein. Spend it on innovation and creativity. They say imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Imitation should be the gateway to innovation. As an artist or writer, if I knew someone was mimicking me I would try my hardest to be unique. I would want to be so different, so brilliant and timeless that it would take an ion to copy my style. So yes, the rest of the ‘copy written’ world should take a page from a fashion free culture. One does not need to own in order to innovate.

           

Johanna Blakley has inspired me to be more creative, really take a look at the world we will live and see what can be mimic, art-imitating life. Bootleg the Zeitgeist to the best of my ability.  In fact that is my current slogan BOOTLEG THE ZEITGEIST! 

Check out other TED speeches from Joanna Blakley and Lear Center's Creativity,Commerce & Culture project. Informative stuff.