Utopian Plagiarism, Hypertextuality and Electronic Cultural Production~Critical Art Ensemble

Critical Art Ensemble. The Electronic Disturbance, Chapter 5, Media Mutandis-a NODE London Reader(http://publication.nodel.org )
Source: http://www.critical-art.net/books/ted/ted5.pdf

What is the first idea that pops into your head at the mention of plagiarism? How about theft or dishonesty or cheating, certainly not anything remotely positive. This article argues, quite effectively, that "plagiarism was useful in aiding the distribution of ideas" in the past. But the argument in favour of plagiarism today involves the idea of recombination. Artistic growth in the past flourished when creative minds were allowed to 'build on' the past. The premise was not to allow theft but to allow the free flow of ideas. The logic was that creative ideas inspire more creativity in others. The extraordinary advances we have witnessed in electronic technology have given rise to arguments supporting the plagiarism that the authors describe as "recombinant". The premise is that in a recombinant culture, plagiarism is productive, that one of the "main goals of the plagiarist is to restore the dynamic and unstable drift of meaning by appropriating and recombining fragments of culture". The article argues that although the laws regarding cultural property may have some useful consequences most of them are related to greater efficiency of these same laws with repressive costs that excessively tax the creative potential of the general populace. Plagiarism, on the other hand, stands against privileging and sees all "objects" as equal. it favors the "new perception or idea brought out by intersecting two or more formally disparate systems-recombination! Perhaps the most graphic example was Leonardo da Vinci whose genius lay in his ability to combine what seemed to be separate systems-art and science.
Arguments that demonize plagiarism have often been difficult to argue against. On careful examination they are almost always bad but persuasive arguments. This is especially true in the media today. Anyone who does not support these arguments risks being associated with all of the negatives (thief, pirate,cheat) that are used. The idea of recombination reminds me of the academics who were first to describe the helical shape of the human chromosome- Waston and Crick. Neither of them had actively participated in the research and separate discoveries that preceded their paper. They were able to gather the pieces of the puzzle, so to speak, step back and see the real value of each piece. It allowed them to correctly assemble the puzzle.