Printernet, Piracy & Publishing
Christophe Clarijs
Printernet, Piracy & Publishing
Christophe Clarijs
N
“It is not a negation of style, but a style of negation.”
Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle, 1973
DEDICATED To — THE PEOPLE OF THE INTERNET SPECIAL THANKS To — My friends and family, my parents Stephan & Pascale, Hugo Puttaert of Visionandfactory, everyone at Sint Lucas Antwerp College of Art. IN MEMORY Of — Megaupload.com
Printernet, Piracy & Publishing™ by © Christophe Clarijs graphic - and editorial design by Christophe Clarijs self-published through Lulu, http://www.lulu.com © 2011-2012 by Christophe Clarijs All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, all other material © rightful owners. All rights reserved. The events, institutions and characters presented in this book are entirely real, believe me or else! Any resemblance to actual persons is coincidental, or not coincidental. This publication may be reproduced by any means you see fit, under explicit mention of the author’s name and credentials. www.christopheclarijs.be (tba) First edition published in June 2012, Antwerp Belgium ISBN (see backcover of book)
6
#TableOfContents FOREWORD by Guy Debord ....................................... p.3 THE INFLUENCE OF PIRACY ON THE VALUE OF THE OBJECT ........................................ p.7 — Dear Mr. & Mrs. .......................................................... p.8-11 Jolly Rogers, Blackbeard & Apple Store ................. p.12-13 Self-motivational Posters ........................................... p.14-21 What’s Next? .......................................................... p.22-23 Book Pirates of Peru ..................................................... p.26 Kopimism ....................................................................... p.27 Terms of Use ............................................................ p.28-31 Don’t Copy That Floppy™ ..................................... p.32-35 You Wouldn’t Steal A ... ! ..................................... p.36-39 To Copy = To Learn ............................................... p.42-43 MacPaint ................................................................. p.44-46 Pop-ups and Spam-ads ......................................... p.48-49 The Internet Is Leaking Into Reality ....................... p.50-51 Flying the ‘Designer’ or ‘Pirate’ Flag .................... p.52-57 Pirating The Oscars ................................................ p.58-59 Copycat Design ...................................................... p.60-61 Mega Mega Mega Mega King Upload ............. p.62-63 Tie Dye .................................................................... p.64-67 Flags on Display ...................................................... p.68-75
7
The Influence of Piracy on the Value of the Object Some prophets of doom foresee that the shift to a digital culture will make print obsolete and tarnish our relationship with the designed object. But can these new media also have a positive influence on the traditional forms of publication? In 2001 the now infamous Napster toppled the music industry. This is more than ten years ago and the internet landscape has changed a lot since then. Custom peer-to-peer features have become common and widespread, but there is still a lot of resistance from the big institutions. Although others have embraced file sharing and are fighting against the increasing censorship. With the arrival of e-books and the rise in popularity of online marketplaces you can feel a similar tension developing in the book industry. But there is also a big countermovement that, like with the rediscovery of the LP, won’t give up on the physical book. Even in the design world there are two noticeable sides, so I ask myself a second question: what can these pirating techniques or strategies mean for graphic design? Rule #01: Never put white text on a black background!
9
Since my experience is limited I thought I’d ask different designers and artists, whom I admire, to answer a couple of questions about this subject: 1. What do you think the role of a graphic designer is in the publishing process today? Do you think this role will change with the rise of e-books and internet publishing? Will the designer become more indepedent because of this technology or just more dependent on it instead of working with other people? 2. How important is it to have an internet presence today? Do you think it can actively work together with print? Should the aesthetics change as part of the different functionality or can they operate within the same visual identity? 3. Bringing literature closer to the public, especially children, might be challenging in the traditionl sense. Do the increasing push for digital media create an opportunity to bridge this gap or can this mean a part of the community becomes shut off from reading for financial reasons?
10
4. Do you think the skepticism towards digital downloads in the music industry and the current criticism to online marketplaces in the book industry are comparable? If so, do you think the digital life of books will be as succesful as music in mp3 format? Or is our relationship with the book as a physical object just too strong and precious to lose hold off? 5. Some say in the future most of our information will be sent through digital channels and the book will become an expensive art object, do you agree? Does this mean the work of graphic designers will become completely virtual as well? Or are revivals, such as the LP, a recognisable reaction to this evolution? In the end I didn’t send the questions, because reaching those people proved harder than I thought. If I had sent them, I would have made my own interpretation anyways. But formulating them certainly helped me find out which issues I wanted to examine more closely.
11
The influence of piracy on the value of the object
In 2001 the now infamous Napster toppled the music industry. This is more than ten years ago and the internet landscape has changed a lot since. Custom peer-to-peer features have become common and wide-spread, but there is still a lot of resistance from the big institutions. Although others have embraced file sharing and are fighting against the increasing censorship. With the arrival of e-books and the rise in popularity of online marketplaces you can feel a similar tension developing in the book industry. But there is also a big countermovement that, like with the rediscovery of the LP, won’t give up on the physical book. Even in the design world there are two noticeable sides, so I ask myself a second question: what can these pirating techniques or strategies mean for graphic design?
Christophe Clarijs
Research Objective Master 2011 - 2012
Publishing as a Graphic Designer in the Age of the Internet
Some prophets of doom foresee that the shift to a digital culture will make print obsolete and tarnish our relationship with the designed object. But can these new media also have a positive influence on the traditional forms of publication?
12
on the infl
ct
new media affect our relationship with printed matter. Could you answer one of the following questions, please?
of the obj e
1. What do you think the role of a graphic designer is in the publishing process today?
2. How important is it to have an internet presence today? Do you think it can actively
Do you think this role will change with the rise of e-books and internet publishing?
on the va l
a graphic designer in the present internet era and how the
cy
I am currently working on my master’s degree in Graphic Design at Sint-Lucas Antwerp, Belgium about publishing as
nce of pira ue
ue
Dear, Mr. or Ms.
work together with print? Should the aesthetics change as part of the
Will the designer become more indepedent
different functionality or can they opperate
because of this technology or just more
within the same visual identity?
dependent on it? Instead of working with other people?
3. Bringing literature closer to the public,
4. Do you think the skepticism towards
especially children, might be challenging in
digital downloads in the music industry and
the traditionl sense. Do the increasing push
the current criticism to online marketplaces in
for digital media create an opportunity to bridge this gap or can this mean a part of the
the book industry are comparable? If so, do you think the digital life of books
community becomes shut off from reading for will be as succesful as music in mp3 format? financial reasons?
Or is our relationship with the book as a physical object just too strong?
5. Some say in the future most of our I sent this questionnaire to a number of artists who inspire
information will be sent through digital
me, to find out what your views are on the subject so I
channels and the book will become an
can compare those experiences to my own discoveries and
expensive art object, do you agree?
opinion. You can read my research objective on the verso side of this flyer.
Does this mean the work of graphic designers will become completely virtual as well? Or are revivals, such as the LP,
Please send your answers to: christophe_clarijs@hotmail.com or mail them to the return address.
a recognisable reaction to this evolution?
Thank you for your help! :-)
13
Jolly Rogers, Blackbeard & the Apple store “The origin of the pirate flag has been lost. It is thought that pirates originally used a red flag, also common in naval warfare, to signal that no quarter would be given. This red flag was called Joli Rouge by the French, and may have been corrupted into English as Jolly Roger. From the red flag it seems that individual pirates began to develop their own personal flags in order to terrify their prey into a quick surrender. In contrast with the well known red flag, they used the black flag of quarantine and disease as the base, with the universal symbol for death, the skull and bones, and modified it to suit their individual tastes.”
Sharing is caring!
Bartholomew Roberts’ flag, for example, it shows the captain and Death holding an hourglass.
14
15
16
Self-motivational Posters ASCII art is a remnant of the age where printers didn’t have the capacity to print high resolution images, that’s why people used the characters of the American Standard Code for Information Interchange to form printable compositions. For a lot of pirate groups it has become a historical way of displaying their logo inside the text documents that accompany their warez. A couple of experiments with different generators resulted in a series of images and an idea to make posters based on pirated statements for personal inspiration. “I’ll be there for you, ‘cause you’re there for me too!” Out of this idea I made another series images based on the hidden wires we all have in our houses. Distorted photographs turned into an ASCII grid pared with similar pirated statements. “My ideas are all different, but they look the same.”
17
18
19
20
21
do you have bembo?
The pirate as cultural entrepreneur
we are interested in readers making libraries heads and bodies are just consumers
Anonymous liked your post!
I’ll be there for you, ‘cause you’re there for me too!
nobody knows anything! #epic #cool #awesome #design
The pirated translation of the movie voiced over by a monotone male voice
22
When the time comes we will host in all parts of the galaxy.
every person on earth will read every word i write online
A digital Pompeii
design whatever you want! i don’t know editing about anything
I wish I could illegally download a girlfriend
Are you doing something that will benefit the public?
hopefully more will come of this than .jpegs floating around the internet
23
What’s Next? So far I’ve been experimenting with form and meaning trying to figure out what I want to say and how I want to say it. But now it is time to decide what’s next: how do I combine the traditional forms of publications with the new possiblities of today’s digital media? Can I turn webcontent into printed matter? What about the forgotten or extinct ways of communication such as Morse code? Spam on a fax-machine, how does that work and what does it look like?
24
25
26
24 hour Wikipedia blackout on January 18, 2012
With the development of GPS controlled drones, far-reaching cheap radio equipment and tiny new computers like the Raspberry Pi, we’re going to experiment with sending out some small drones that will float some kilometers up in the air. This way our machines will have to be shut down with aeroplanes in order to shut down the system. A real act of war.
being the galaxy’s most resilient system. And all of the parts we’ll
use to build that system on will be downloadable. With the development
of GPS controlled drones, farreaching cheap radio equipment and tiny new computers like the Raspberry Pi, we’re going to experiment with sending out some small drones that will float some kilometers up in the air. This way our machines will have to be shut down with aeroplanes We’re just starting so we haven’t in order to shut down the system. figured everything out yet. But we A real act of war. can’t limit ourselves to hosting We’re just starting so we haven’t things just on land anymore. These Low Orbit Server Stations figured everything out yet. But we (LOSS) are just the first attempt. can’t limit ourselves to hosting things just on land anymore. With modern radio transmitters These Low Orbit Server Stations we can get over 100Mbps per (LOSS) are just the first attempt. node up to 50km away. For the With modern radio transmitters proxy system we’re building, we can get over 100Mbps per that’s more than enough. node up to 50km away. For the p But when time comes we will host in all parts of the galaxy, being true to our slogan of being the galaxy’s most resilient system. And all of the parts we’ll use to build that system on will be downloadable.With the development of GPS controlled drones, far-reaching cheap radio equipment and tiny new computers like the Raspberry Pi, we’re going to experiment with sending out some small drones that will float some kilometers up in the air. This way our machines will have to be shut down with aeroplanes in order to shut down But when time comes we will the system. A real act of war. host in all parts of the galaxy, being true to our slogan of We’re just starting so we haven’t being the galaxy’s most resilient figured everything out yet. But we system. And all of the parts we’ll can’t limit ourselves to hosting use to build that system on will be things just on land anymore. downloadable. These Low Orbit Server Stations With the development of GPS (LOSS) are just the first attempt. controlled drones, far-reaching With modern radio transmitters cheap radio equipment and we can get over 100Mbps per tiny new computers like the node up to 50km away. For the Raspberry Pi, we’re going to proxy system we’re building, experiment with sending out that’s more than enough. some small drones that will float some kilometers up in the air. But when time comes we will This way our machines will have host in all parts of the galaxy, to be shut down with aeroplanes being true to our slogan of in order to shut down the system.
We can’t limit ourselves to hosting things just on land anymore.
27
The galaxy’s most resilient bittorrent site thepiratebay.se /blog 19.03.12
Book Pirates of Peru “As a cultural artifact, the book has undeniable power, and the idea of a poor, developing country with a robust informal publishing industry is, on some level, romantic: the pirate as cultural entrepreneur, a Robin Hood figure, stealing from elitist multinational publishers and taking books to the people. The myth is seductive, and repeated often. In a country where a new book can cost 20% of the average workers’ weekly wage, it’s worth asking who could afford to read if it weren’t for pirates?” - Daniel Alarcón I was asked which kind of pirates I meant and if I had thought about the negative side: I think this quote sums up the duality we are faced with when talking about piracy. On the one hand it can be a lucrative, yet criminal occupation, but on the other hand it can be a liberating system for the public domain. The connotation of a free-rider who makes use of a good or service without paying for it and does not contribute to maintaining it is in a sense true. However, we mustn’t underestimate the importance of a countermovement to go further than the norm to inform people all over the world.
28
Kopimism On January 5th of 2012 ... was declared an official religion in Sweden, this does not mean the country will change its zero-tolerance policy on the matter of piracy.
“Kopimism is an online movement espousing the benefits of free file-sharing that is officially recognized as a religious community by the Swedish Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency. Kopimists consider copying information as a fundamental right and encourage piracy of all types of media including music, movies, TV shows and software.�
29
Terms of Use Limited Vocabulary for the Average Pirate Anonymous - an Internet meme that originated in 2003 on the imageboard 4chan, representing the concept of many online and offline community users simultaneously existing as an anarchic, digitized global brain. It is also generally considered to be a blanket term for members of certain Internet subcultures, a way to refer to the actions of people in an environment where their actual identities are not known. Individuals appearing in public as Anonymous often wear the Guy Fawkes masks popularized by the comic book and film V For Vendetta. Bootleg - a recording that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. Originally came from concealing hip flasks of alcohol in the legs of boots. Copyleft - a play on the word copyright to describe the practice of using copyright law to offer the right to distribute copies and modified versions of a work and requiring that the same rights be preserved in modified versions of the work. In other words, copyleft is a general method for making a program (or other work) free (libre), and requiring all modified and extended versions of the program to be free as well.
30
Creative Commons - a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. Licenses are free of charge to the public. Fair Use - the condition under which you can use material that is copyrighted by someone else without paying royalties. P2P - computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application. They are said to form a peer-to-peer network of nodes. Peers make a portion of their resource directly available to other network participants. Peers are both suppliers and consumers of resources. Occupy - an international protest movement which is primarily directed against economic and social inequality. Open Source - a philosophy or pragmatic methodology that promotes free redistribution and access to an end product’s design and implementation details.
31
P2P - computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application. They are said to form a peer-to-peer network of nodes. Peers make a portion of their resources, such as processing power, disk storage or network bandwidth, directly available to other network participants. Peers are both suppliers and consumers of resources, in contrast to the traditional client–server model where only servers supply (send), and clients consume (receive). The PROTECT IP Act, Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act, or PIPA - a proposed law with the stated goal of giving the US government and copyright holders additional tools to curb access to “rogue websites dedicated to infringing on counterfeit goods”. The bill was introduced on May 12, 2011, by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and 11 bipartisan co-sponsors. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that implementation of the bill would cost the federal government $47 million through 2016. Pirate Parties International (PPI) - the political international of the Pirate Party movement. It was formally founded in 2010 at the PPI conference in Brussels, Belgium. Its purposes is to help establish, to support and promote, and to maintain communication and cooperation between pirate parties around the world.
32
SOPA - Stop Online Piracy Act is a United States bill introduced by U.S. Representative Lamar S. Smith to expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. Provisions include the requesting of court orders to bar advertising networks and payment facilities from conducting business with infringing websites, and search engines from linking to the sites, and court orders requiring Internet service providers to block access to the sites. The law would expand existing criminal laws to include unauthorized streaming of copyright material, imposing a maximum penalty of five years in prison. A similar bill in the Senate is titled the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). Torrent - is data about a target file, though it contains no information about the content. The only data that the torrent holds is information about the location of different pieces of the target file. Torrents work by dividing the target file into small information chunks, found on an unlimited number of different hosts. Warez - refers primarily to copyrighted works distributed without fees or royalties, and may be traded, in general violation of copyright law. The term generally refers to unauthorized releases by organized groups, as opposed to file sharing between friends or large groups of people with similar interest using a darknet.
33
Don’t Copy That Floppy! A nostalgic and primitive aesthetic, referencing an age where the computer and the internet were new and exciting tools, is what I’ve been trying to emulate in all these visual experiments. On the border between horribly ugly and strangely recognisable. Things that coexist in a virtual environment are often misused, copied, plagiarised by anonymous users. These images are a selection out of many inspired by an anti-piracy ad from the early 90’s called ‘Don’t Copy That Floppy’. It shows two typical American highschoolers from different racial backgrounds playing a computer game. When one of them decides to copy the floppy, so he can play more at home, he is taught a valuable lesson about piracy by a virtual rapper called MC Double Def DP, the “Disk Protector”. The images in the video show an age where graphic design has an entirely different aesthetic, one that I associate with internet piracy today.
34
35
36
37
You Wouldn’t Steal A ... !
A series of images made by placing a monitor directly on top of a scanner. While the video plays the scanner moves and continuously registers on one strip creating a gradient-like image. I used the famous antipiracy message found on dvds: ‘Piracy, It’s A Crime’ warning both the pirate and the author of the movement between the digital and the analog. It reminds me of xerox art made with photocopiers by mail artists but in the digital realm. The images barely leave their digital form, yet the distortion still takes place between reader and writer who incidently are both machines.
38
39
WR
SHA 40
CA IS
NG I R
NG RI
PIRA
S
CY I
G ON
41
42
43
44
To Copy = To Learn In the classic academies student painters spent many hours copying the old masters to learn the technique. I asked my seven year old cousin Max to help me interpret ten of the most famous - and most copied paintings in history. Out of this selection he had only seen ‘The Sunflowers’ by Van Gogh. Since he likes to draw and often asks how to get better at it I wondered if he could make his own sketch based on this painting. In the end I think he did quite an amazing job, I’m certain many people will get the reference. This made me think about originality or inspiration and how the presence of memes has become even more important in our society since the origin of the internet. We are bombarded with images, but how many of these images stick? Our subconscious definitely plays an important role while doing creative work, but can we control the output by controlling the input?
45
MacPaint “The drawing program MacPaint, which was released with the computer in January of 1984, was an example of that brilliance both in what it did, and in how it was implemented.“ - ComputerHistory.com To run this old program I installed an emulator on my Macbook Pro called Mini vMac and started drawing in bitmap, similar aesthetics as previous experiments arose.
46
47
48
Past, Present and Future HEADLINES about Piracy ‘A California Civil War Over Internet Piracy’, ‘Internet piracy habits die hard; so now what?’, ‘Acta: EU court to rule on anti-piracy agreement’, ‘Anti-piracy pact falters after protests’, ‘The ethics of internet piracy’, ‘A $4 million slap for porn piracy’, ‘Megaupload Defendants to Face More Criminal Counts in Internet Piracy Case’, ‘The Tricky Job Of Banning The Pirate Bay’, ‘Internet piracy bill a complex issue for artists’, ‘Enforcing antipiracy law on Internet encounters sea of turbulence’, ‘Debate over Internet piracy exposes deep divisions’, ‘Study finds Internet piracy resilient despite MegaUpload takedown’, ‘UK publisher Hachette moves to block unauthorized eBook downloads’, ‘EU Asks High Court to Decide if ACTA Infringes on Rights’, ‘Piracy Driven by Overseas Film Release Lag Time, Researchers Say’, ‘What US Stop Online Piracy Act Means for Indonesia’, ‘Rise of Online Organizing Makes Internet Crowd a Must-Win Constituency’, ‘Internet Pirates sentenced to jail’, ‘Filesharing is dead’, ‘Do you remember the free internet?’, ‘Where were you when Megaupload went down?’, etc In Memory of Filesharing 2001 - 2011
49
your ads here? only $10,00 monthly charge!
A common phenomenon online are the ugly and annoying pop-ups and spam ads. Even for the most popular websites (That’s you, Facebook and you too, Youtube!) it is one of their main sources of revenue.
Feeding on the off chance that an average user might click on the fake buttons by accident. They are an awful eyesore, a side-effect of the freedom on the internet. For graphic designers and illustrations, the ads and logos of sponsors on their neatly designed posters might be a comparable intrusion offline. I wondered what if the agencies thought of a way to combine both? Creating a space on every poster on public display for their advertisements. The idea is to sticker fake ads on
50
existing posters or other publications to annoy both the reader and publisher. To raise awareness about the absurd grip advertisement has on the public domain. The fake ads themselves are puns on the current censorship on internet piracy, while other rubbish is left to float around. Offering free iPads, MP3s, trials for shady torrent services, a free MMORPG game and more. Wishing every visitor congratulations with lots of exclamation points seems to be their main strategy. There is no shame in the design of the ads, images are pirated and misused for fraudulous purposes. Stretched out fonts and drop shadows are favourites, ofcourse!
51
52
There was once a gap between the virtual world of the mind and the physical world of the body, now a bridge has been build through printing typography, touch-sensitive screens, 3D glasses, projections and all other media we know. Their usefulness varies from storing information to sharing it with others, from entertainment to education. To protect this information, from being sold by someone else besides the owner, copyright laws were invented. Today we live in an age where this ownership stretches from a fictional story to the genetic code of the living. It has become a business in itself for big corporations to stop people from using their products, it can be a very lucrative occupation. The rules changed when people realised there was nothing to protect but the initial cost to make the original. When something can be spread without losing the original you can share it with the whole world for no cost to the creator. However in a system that was build on getting paid to make the copies someone demands to make a profit. It is easy to confuse these current breakthroughs with a revolution, it is flawed because it overlooks the qualities you lose by copying digitally. I’m trying to bring those to light by subjecting graphic design to these pirating techniques. I want to explore what they do to the traditional means of communication and publication. Both in a negative and a positive way.
53
Flyin g the
‘Pira te’ F lag
54
ag l F r’ e n sig e ‘D e h t g n i Fly
55
FREEDOM MP3s OF THE PRESS Modification of the American Flag using squiggles, illustrates the ultimate goal of online piracy.
Read healthy and safety regulations before waving this flag!
56
A ‘designer’ flag using Unicode symbols
... and its ‘pirate’ flag counterpart.
57
@DRWMMMWNC MMMMMMMMMMMM; BMMMMMMMMMMMMM MMMMMMMMMMMMMM; ;MMMMMMMMMMMMMMn SMS MM MG FME@@DC@B7jZMM, BMMMMMj MMMMWE@ i NWMMMD W ZMG M2;.:7. @ML MMM. hMMMo WMMMMMMMB MMMM7 7MBMMMML @nZLo KMMMWMM @ZMMMMBo :GMMMWO@ . SMMMMMMMM@ MMS; @LBMMMMPWMMMMMBEDSXKW ZMMMMMMMK@ 7QMMMMMMMM MMMRc FMM2 . :
The ASCII art Jolly Rogers.
P-) = the official piracy smiley icon.
58
Don’t copy that floppy, read-only.
“YOUR BUNKMATES ARE THE HARLEQUIN NASTINESS OGLING FROM THE SECRET PORE OF A FRENCH WHIPPINTHIG!” Pirate-insult-generator uses the authentic comic sans.
59
Pirating The Oscars A poster Jan-Bart De Bock and I made during the masterclass Nodebox. For years internet pirates have managed to leak nearly every nominated film before the Oscar ceremony, but recently the tide seems to be turning. We set out to visualize this evolution. The data was provided by Andy Baio of Waxy.org through Google Spreadsheets. The data visualization was created with Nodebox 3. The silkscreened version, one on gold paper and one with gold ink, emphasizes the link with the Oscars.
60
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
U.S. Release
First Leak
PIRATING THE OSCARS
Oscar Year
N
For years internet pirates have managed to ‘leak’ nearly every film release before the Oscar ceremony, but in recent years the tide seems to be turning. We set out to visualize this evolution by comparing the official US release to the first known leak of every Oscar nominated movie since 2003. Do these figures show the current pressure put on piracy by the government and the industry? Have the studios learned not to distribute screeners in advance or have pirates moved on from uploading low resolution material? With this infographic we hope to give an insight in matters that are hard to make out of the raw numbers alone. The Oscars Annual Academy Awards Ceremony Data provided by Andy Baio of Waxy.org
Data visualization with NodeBox 3
Graphic design by Jan-Bart De Bock & Christophe Clarijs
61
62
Copycat design This experiment takes hold of a recurring style of design and uses it to promote its own message. The extremist opinions of the ‘Westboro Baptist Church’ have been widely reported on in the media and thus they have been able to spread their hatefilled message across the globe. They chose a striking and weird visual identity, which I thought would be an excellent example. Gradient backgrounds varrying from a ‘Reggae’ red yellow and green to the tricolors of the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ are overlayed with despicable slogans set in ‘Kabel Black’. A font I do not own and therefore, in keeping with piracy, I used screenshots from Fontshop.com to recreate a series of posters. By recreating their slogans based on a pro-piracy message I hope to show their vulgarity as well as the power graphic design can have. Copying can reveal the hidden mechanisms of graphic design, more so these could be used in a similar way socalled protestors of the church are using them at rally’s to disempower the originals.
63
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Dotcom
MEGA MEGA MEGA MEGA MEGA MEGA
P
i
r
a
t
e
Kim Dotcom, born Kim Schmitz[6] January 21, 1974,[7] also known as Kimble[8] and Kim Tim Jim Vestor,[9] is
a German - Finnish[10] businessman who rose to prominence during the dot-com bubble and was convicted of insider trading and embezzlement in its aftermath.[11] He is also known as the founder of Megaupload and its associated websites.[11][12][13] He legally changed his surname to Dotcom circa 2005.[14] On January 20, 2012, the New Zealand Police placed him in custody under the charges of criminal copyright infringement in relation to his Megaupload Web site.
64
65
66
Tie Dye In an effort to combine the aspect of freedom with the tangible I started experimenting with tie dyeing fabric. First on a t-shirt to create a gradient effect reminiscent of the design in this book. Then with two flag sized pieces to create real tie dye effects inspired by hippie culture and their appearance. By removing the psychedelic colours from the technique we no longer associate it with radient positivity, but in this subverted form it fits into the domain of internet piracy.
T - - - - E
- I - - - - Y - - E - - D - - - - - - - - P - - - - - - E - C - - - - - A - E - - - - - - - - - E P - - L O V - I - - - - - - - R - C - - - - A - Y -
67
68
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
69
Flags on Display There are a number of methods for how one can display a flag. It is important to note that even without wind the symbol should be clear and therefore different techniques are used to spread out the canvas. Ofcourse, this was of no importance to the traditional pirate. Their flag was flown from the mast of their ships. Contrary to national and international ceremonies where the flag becomes a political symbol of the nation and its allies. I intend to use the flag to make internet pirates identifiable in real life. In recent years political parties have incorporated their stance towards piracy into their identity. There are even parties whose agenda relies completely on pro-pirate activism: the Pirate Parties. However my intentions are much simpler, the flags should be seen as a presentation tool for this book. Their sloganesque qualities and immediate recognition translate a more layered visual language into universal icons. Though, the images or texts on the flags will convey a deeper message, the eyecatching and possibly intimidating use of black and white in the pirate flag remains simple and close to the original. Some of these flags will be based on existing designs and thereby carry the copying technique of the pirate.
70
71
This design for example is based on the existing flag below, in which the contemporary aesthetic of stretching images is present. The lion, a symbol of power, is replaced by the yacht of Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom.
Royal Banner of King Richard I (1198 - 1340) Gules, three lions passant regardant in pale or.
72
Flag of the British Indian Ocean Territory (1990) A blue ensign with white wavy lines with the Coat of Arms of the British Indian Ocean Territory.
Another flag of which I appropriated the symbolism and design. The wavy lines represent the waves of the British Indian Ocean Territory. It has been trendy for a while to use the standard wavy line of a border in InDesign as a meaningless, but visually interesting
FREEDOM MP3s
graphical element.
OF THE
In the case of my flag it can still be
PRESS
seen as a symbol for the sea and hence the pirate. It also refers to the placement of a flag within a flag, much like the StarSpangled Banner. Don’t misread the message ‘freedom of the press’ advocating for a free internet! The only bounty internet pirates are after are free mp3s, right?
73
74
75
Is there a more appropriate symbol for a commercial pirate than the logo of Pirato chips? Perhaps, but I just couldn’t resist using his smug moustached face on a flag! The design on the right features a stock image and a marble pattern, all it takes to be a young internet famous graphic designer? It isn’t something I’d consider printing, but I think it still deserves a place in here. In all sincerity, I hope the internet meme TL;DR is not a metaphor for the attention span of the average designer and his or her audience in the present day.
76
“Too long; didn’t read.”
77
Q “Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before. He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way.” - Bokonon in Kurt Vonnegut’s ‘Cat’s Cradle’. Now I would rather consider myself to be ignorant about this subject than all-knowing, because I believe the work I did this year is only the beginning. It touches on something that is bigger than a single person trying to master a sense of what graphic design is or can be. However the most important thing I certainly have learned is that there is less room for prejudgements about aesthetic in graphic design than ever. Any sign can serve a purpose, everything can be a medium. I restricted broad ideas and fascinations to a more specific research topic. Struggled with the constant search for new- and hipness in contemporary work. Tried to find an appropriate place for nostalgia. Ended up with a graphic language that finds its balance between both. All this to reflect on the current means of publication at our disposal and the call to keep them liberated from crippling censorship and greed.
78
I Left These Pages Blank, So You Can Help
79
‘Printernet, Piracy & Publishing’ is a research publication by Christophe Clarijs documenting the work in progress of his master year at Sint Lucas Antwerp, College of Art & Design. It reports on various experiments conducted to find an answer to the question “What is the Influence of Piracy on the Value of the Object?”. The publication itself shows how the web can influence the traditional media of print and the new means of publishing at the disposal of the graphic designer today.
82 N