In our digital and post-modern world it is hard to get a grasp on the complexities that surround us. These complexities become blurred as the real becomes dry and the fake becomes lord. Even further once fragmentation and disassociation become the lay of the land one no longer even bothers to try and comprehend and instead just meanders along with blinders on to the beautiful complexities that surround us at every turn! But what exactly am I talking about? Take a step back and all will be explained. If you happen to be familiar with the Platonic view of duality some of this will sound familiar but it is not what I am talking about.
Let us start at the beginning - Man/Woman - physical senses - sight/smell/hearing/taste/touch - and from here we can perceive and interpret the world. So from the start we have two things - the world and our own personal interpretation of it. Then man/woman discovered "recreation" traced back even to the earliest cave drawings. Now we have a third "copy" - that is the (1) real thing (raccoon) our (2) perception of the real thing (cute little raccoon) and our (3) recreation of the real thing (a drawing of little rocky - name that song?). But wait already I am confused - is the recreation a copy of (4) the raccoon or a representation of the (5) raccoon or a representation of our (6) interpretation of the raccoon or is it an interpretation of our (7) interpretation of the raccoon. Numbers don't help but the point is not clarity but complexity! That is right; from the start things were becoming complex (philosophy has been around forever!) This is nothing - flash forward a handful of centuries and things really become complicated.
New Media - now things are going to get complicated - way before new media people borrowed from each other - an artist is inspired to paint because of a painting he/she saw - an inventor improves upon someone else's design - a composer hears the most beautiful motif and immediately begins writing his/her greatest symphony. So the concept of "borrowing" is not new. In fact there is a school of thought that believes we are all born with the same source of knowledge - everybody knows everything already and there is nothing new to learn - it is all a matter of tapping into this "collective consciousness" - I bring this up to illustrate how some believe we are constantly borrowing everything we know! I digress.
The photograph and camera are invented - suddenly one can capture a moment in time forever! Let's return to rocky. Now obviously the photograph of rocky raccoon is the original photograph - we took it we developed it we still have the negative - oh darn that’s right: the negative. So we have the actual event (1) (rocky) then we have the (2) negative where the picture lives in reverse and then the (3) print that can be made. But prints can be made forever and they can be developed many different ways. Plus is the negative not the original? What about the actual event - is not rocky the original? What if we develop our print in B&W and Sepia? are they not each their own original? Ok things are getting complicated again - but it is not over.
Roll out the red carpet - here comes Digital. Now we can take a thousand photos of rocky all onto a tiny card or better yet why not just film rocky! Ok now lets alter out footage of rocky by editing it and changing some colors - Now we have our own "original" piece of a rainbow colored rocky running around. Where is the original? What is real and fake? On one hand it is easy to escape these questions by calling it "art" - ok so our rainbow rocky is "art" and therefore original despite the fact that it is at least thrice removed (1 rocky 2 the film 3 the final edit). BUT (the giant but - remember whenever you say "but" you have just completely negated whatever you said before) in our current times we ourselves are far removed from rocky. Instead we are manipulating other's works and pieces into our own and then someone else is going to take our pieces and make it their own. Suddenly one cannot even count how many times removed we are from the "original" and yet every piece along the way was its own "original". Hold tight this next part is going to get complex (I intend to make it as complex as possible too)
So follow the number of "removes":
I take a picture of (1) rocky using my 35mm camera which leaves us with the (2) negative and finally the (3) print I develop. Then I scan the picture creating a (4) digital copy which I copy again (5) in order to work on that copy (it's good practice) which I then upload and post n my blog (6) where someone else (person B) sees it and loves it so much they download it (7) and copy it (8) in order to tweak it to their own liking and then in turn post it to their facebook (9). But then a new company (company C) using a raccoon as their logo sees "rocky copy 9" and they want it. Now as if a large company might even bother to properly obtain the rights of a simple picture but if they did who would they pay? I made the picture but person B further manipulated it - and poor old rocky is left without any consideration. So Company C downloads the image (10) and undoubtedly makes numerous copies and versions of it (11 - ?) finally posting it everywhere on all their sites and letterheads and products and planes and vans and - well here (? - infinity). So there you have it; an exaggerated yet reasonable look at what happens to "originals" and "copies" in the digital world.
Post-what-anism? Post-modernism (PoMo) is in literature the movement that began around the 1900's really picking up around the 20's. It is characterized by many things and while one could say we are still in this era the reality is we are or are moving into another era that has yet to be named but is marked by much of the same things. This most important to this discussion is disassociation and fragmentation. Disassociation? as in the disassociation between real/fake original/copy? YES! Fragmentation? as in the fragmentation of authorship/ownership or even the fragmentation of one object (rocky) into a thousand others (rocky's picture/movie/photoshopped copy/logo/etc)? YES!
You see where we are now in terms of everything above can be explained or at least identified by an understanding of post-modernism. Moreover post-modernism does not dictate these ideas but rather these ideas and notions were already developing and the term “post-modernism” was a way of identifying and explaining what was already going on across the globe (keep in mind that post-modernism literally just means the era after the modern era) . In the tiniest of nutshells: much of these feelings of fragmentation and disassociation were coming from the wars (WWI, WWII, etc) effect on the people as well as a million other things - one major aspect would be the collapse of the "old world" and the start of the new.
Anyway this is not a discussion on PoMo (if it was I am not ding it any justice) but I am illustrating the point of originality and ownership. I don't have the answers nor am I presuming to present them here. Rather I am attempting to enlighten you on a facet of New Media that would otherwise go unnoticed. Next time you see a piece of "art" (in any capacity) ask yourself "Just because it looks nice is it legitimate, original, authentic - does any of that matter?" and please the next time you watch some "reality" television I hope - no I pray - that you at least chuckle to yourself over the use of the word "reality" because nothing is more real than the world around us.
Rocky can be multicolored or made to fly or turned into the next video game or even made to look amazing on Blu-ray. BUT! Rocky raccoon is still the original and everything else is fake...
Or is it? Haha it never ends - you decide.
The meditative Basso
This is the machine I use live and as you can see there is much more going on than meets the eye.
Basso! An experience you will never forget.
Lastly I hope not to offend but merely to represent - HOUSE. House is raw, animal, provocative, seductive, sleek, sharp - Are you House? 
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