It always amazes me how the most creative folks often have one part of their radical plan which is very old style and conservative. In particular, Vice, the growing edge-dwelling media group which began publishing in 1994, when as they put it "any idiot could publish," is hoping to become a major cultural force, as Wired Magazine recently reported by joining up with Intel on The Creators Project - a place where "the brightest young minds" can get together to create and distribute new art. One of the things that is true of any Digital medium is that it is a "natural mashup". By natural mashup I mean every digital incarnation of anything is infinitely reproducible at extremely low marginal cost; infinitely distributable on the web, and infinitely recombinable with other digital experiences. Digital is the only medium for art which is message, means, distribution and options - are all created together and naturally. I call this the "digital gift". Put another way, digital gives options that non-digital does not. Below is one of their featured artists in an interview.
Of course, the digital gift allow enormous degrees of freedom to artists and publishers alike, and according to Wired's report, Shane Smith, co-founder of Vice, is working with Intel to create an atmosphere like the 1920s Paris Salon culture where artists of different flavors mashup (not a 1920s term) to create new thinking and new things. To my eye, the one fly in the ointment is that Vice could have used something like IndieGoGo -- which is like a crowdsourcing venture firm/investment bank which will help anyone raise money for any idea or cause -- and take 9% off the top. The Creators Project could allow the audience to help fund the art. It seems like the "radical" media empire is still conservative where the money is concerned.
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