Letters to the editor.

In response to my article, "Digitritis: Virtual Species or Digital Waste," George Dunbar has asked some provocative questions concerning the interpretation of copyright and the breach of its boundaries, questions that I have had to consider on this journey. "Who owns her trash? How would she react if I accumulated some of her discarded artwork and incorporated it into a collage of my own without attribution?" My answer is, it all depends. If it were within the context of an artistic statement that honors the work of art while pushing the boundaries of feminist issues, representation, ownership, and appropriation, as Sherrie Levine has done when she photographed the works of masters of the art canon and re-presented them as hers, I would consider it a tribute. If it were a fragment of the original art and this fragment were unrecognizable and untraceable in its incorporation into a new work of art, fine--you don't need my permission. If my work of art were taken as a whole, my identity removed as its creator, and a continuum of ideas were absent, I would object.

The texture maps that I am re-presenting were painted by me for use in films, and then altered by me to the extent that they are unrecognizable fragments that can no longer function as 3D texture maps. My interest in these remains lies in their abstract relationship to the original. In reworking these digital images I honor the original source in which I find beauty and mystery, extend its life, and create new meaning. I also created a new word, digititus, and confronted the slippery slopes of copyright and its discourse--all in all, a fertile enterprise. The digitritus that I present is less for monetary gain than to challenge copyright issues in an environment of big business and government control that is often hostile to the artist.

Mr. Dunbar is correct in his statement that copyright issues are even more complex today because of the digital revolution. We must take care in our use of artwork that is appropriated. But it would be a shame if there was not the artwork of Hannah Hoch, John Heartfield, Pablo Picasso, George Braques, Andy Warhol, and all the artists who have fed on the material discards of society to both comment on the society and to create something new.

Sincerely,