Michael Robinson and Takeshi Murata are two artists who both reconfigure assorted source materials. Their work has certain common characteristics that I'm compulsively drawn to, such as a leaning toward psychedelia, a bulk of 1980's cultural reference points, a campy use of digital technology, and varied transformative approaches to their source imagery. Check out Takeshi Murata's work on Youtube or watch an excerpt here. And lots of Robinson's work is up on his Vimeo page, which, speaking of sharing, is really nice.
With this kind of work there seems to be very little risk or cost to the originator of the original since the original remains in tact and inexhaustible. For better or worse, Little House on the Prairie stubbornly keeps existing in its previous form regardless of Robinson's intervention. Letham's "Ecstasy of Influence" articulates it much better than I can:
..."a car or a handbag, once stolen, no longer is available to its owner, while the appropriation of an article of “intellectual property” leaves the original untouched. As Jefferson wrote, 'He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.'"
HOLD ME NOW from Michael Robinson on Vimeo.
VICTORY OVER THE SUN from Michael Robinson on Vimeo.
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