The Great Pinterest Debate

February 14, 2012 / Sunny / No comments

So yesterday afternoon on Twitter, I noticed a lot of my art friends talking about Pinterest with the hashtag #donotpin. I had no idea what they were talking about so someone linked me to this article.

The debate is whether or not Pinterest (and Tumblr) hurts artists by people not attributing images or linking them to their source blogs when they are pinned and my answer to that is a resounding “YES” and I’ll explain why by posting what I posted on Facebook last night about it, is response to Less Herger’s blog post about it:

You guys should read the article on Pinterest she links though. It’s not as cut & dry as it seems in the case of Pinterest. I don’t use or know much about Tumblr so I can’t really comment on that but Pinterest is a cesspool of unattributed things. The problem with Pinterest is that people are legitimately too stupid to know how to attribute things correctly by pinning the direct source. Pinterest should do more to ensure that its userbase knows how to do this CORRECLY, like maybe having an etiquette section in the FAQs and a link on each pin to report it for copyright violation. The other thing is that Pinterest saves a copy of the pinned image, which is dirty pool. Like the blog post I linked quoted (from the blog posts SHE linked, which I also posted this afternoon on my own FB), Pinterest creates a duplicate, competing image, which is counterproductive to the original artist. 

That said, this image here is a prime example of where I saw an image on Pinterest, unattributed, and I moved heaven and Earth trying to find the original artist so I could buy a print:
http://oiseauxnoir.bigcartel.com/product/shine-print

If it had been pinned properly, I wouldn’t have had to spent a very long day trying to find the original artist but what was WORSE is that what was pinned? Was a VERY high resolution picture of the piece. I don’t know where it originated from but it was likely the artist’s original scan. I saved the image and if I was a dick, which let’s face it, most people are, I could either print my own copy (if I had a nicer printer) or take it to a print shop to get a print of my own for like, $5, which is a very real scenario when no one has any idea if a “real” artist did it or some bored housewife in Idaho (not that that should make a difference but it does).

I like Pinterest. A lot. But I also pin things correctly by attributing them to something’s original source and when I repin things from other people, I make sure they’re attributed correctly as well, but most people on there are NOT that contentious. My mother has been ripped off a few times now by people repinning her things under categories like “DIY” when it’s her original work (this is not copyright infringement but it is damaging when they pin the image and not her original source or when they take her name off their repin).

This hasn’t happened to me yet and to be honest I wouldn’t mind so much if it DID happen to me because I don’t post high-res images and I know that no one could ever recreate in a print what I do in an original but it would hurt my feelings to see a pin, one day, where I wasn’t attributed by proper pinning when I make it so easy for them to do.

Pinterest really needs to take a long look at how they do things. There’s no reason for them to keep a copy of each image and if they insist on doing that, they could at least make it a thumbnail or a smaller image so it’s not competing with the original.

 

So there ya have it. My $0.02 on the subject.

When I woke up this morning and looked at Twitter, an artist I’m not familiar with had posted a pledge for people to take and while I won’t be taking the pledge, as its worded (I’m not going back through all my boards and seeing if they’re attributed correctly but I will make sure they are from now on) but I agree with the sentiment.

The thing is, the arts communities shouldn’t be the ones doing this. It shouldn’t be up to us to police everyone else or to set Pinterest community guidelines.  That’s Pinterest’s job and they’ve really dropped the ball. If you read the blog posts linked, especially the first one, you’ll see that their terms of use are pretty flimsy. You’re only *supposed* to pin things you own the copyright to but 99% of users are not doing that and Pinterest knows this. And they don’t do anything about it. Because that would kill the whole site if they did.

So there needs to be compromise and I think we, the arts community, need to collectively come up with that compromise, develop a petition and take it to Pinterest directly saying that things need to change. This is probably one of the only instances where a petition may do some good. We could PIN the petition and ideally, it would be repinned over and over again, especially if it’s made cute somehow.

Nothing changes if nothing changes. Y’know? So nothing’s going to change if all we do is hand-wring and write angry blog posts. I saw some people deleting their Pinterest accounts in protest but really, that’s just a drop of water in a very full bucket. That’s not going to make a difference for me or anyone else, that’s only going to make a difference for you, it’s going to help YOU sleep better at night…I guess. But what if we could really enable change? What if?

Pinterest is a great service. I love the site. And it could be really useful to artists and bloggers (or artists who blog!) as far as exposure so why not help create this tool while it’s still in its infant stages? I mean, you still need an invite to even use Pinterest! It’s still in Beta! NOW is the time to voice our concerns to enact change! So why aren’t we doing it?

Discuss.

Category: Copyright, Etiquette, Pinterest / Tags: , , , , ,

Is Pinterest a Haven for Copyright Violations?

February 13, 2012 / Sunny / No comments

This article has caused a shitstorm on Twitter (#donotpin) and on Bloglandia in general. What are your thoughts?

Category: Copyright, Etiquette, Pinterest / Tags: ,

Because We’re Lazy

February 3, 2012 / Sunny / No comments

SMOSH:
Doing Our Job For Us
Because We Don’t Want To

Category: Chagrinterest, Pinterest, Uncategorized / Tags: , , ,

Off Your Rocks

January 16, 2012 / Martha_Stupid / No comments

I remember as a little girl, walking around on a Saturday afternoon, collecting rocks. I’d put them in my little yellow basket, you know the one, plastic with a plastic yellow flower on the side, and take them home. I’d set some newspaper down on the kitchen table, get out my set of little plastic, connected together paint containers and the brush that came with them. I’d get a Dixie cup with some water in it and set that on the newsprint. I’d squeeze together the little nibs on the red paint container to open it (I always started with red) and I’d paint the HELL out of my rocks. This my dears was 6 year old crafting at its best. I’d get all the rocks painted and present them to my quaalude ridden mother and she’d proudly praise me while dumping them in the trash so as to not litter her house with more garbage.

Now be aware that I said 6 year old crafting up there. That was the type of thing I was proud of at 6. And then I moved on to other mediums (like painting on naked, muscular men rolled in plastic wrap). What amazed me when I saw this next pin was not so much that someone painted rocks, it’s that someone found a process by which to take more time and end up with something that looks exactly like painted rocks.

The phrase up there, “Art with Anything” does not mean that anything is art. It means that you can use anything to make something artistic. You can use cotton in art. You can use flour in art. You can use food colouring in art. You can even use rocks in art. But darling please, MAKE ART. A bowl of what appears to be several different, individually coloured rocks in a glass dish falls far short of that mark if you’re not 6. Just because you did something unusual to achieve that, doesn’t automatically make it artistic.

Art is not about what you do, how you do it, nor what you use to do it. The idea of “Art with Anything” is that you don’t have to buy the expensive stuff that all the cool kids are using, you can still make art. Taking every pencil from a 64 pack of Prismacolors and coloring a square on a piece of TerraSkin paper will give you the same exact result as taking  every crayon in a 64 pack of Crayola crayons and scribble in a square of white lined paper. It’s just a big brown square. Using cool materials doesn’t make it art, nor does going through some sort of process. Whatever you do, no matter how you do it or what you do it with, in the end, please make some art.

Category: Art, Garbage, Pinterest / Tags: , , , , ,

Oh My.

January 13, 2012 / Sunny / No comments

Category: Pinterest, Upcycling / Tags: , ,

Pop Culture

January 11, 2012 / Sunny / 7 comments

So a reader sent me this pin…

And here’s what she said about it:

Okay, I found a new one for you – it’s a Soda Tab Prom Dress – yes, you read that correctly! Sadly, from a distance it doesn’t look that terrible, but come on…go to the actual link and see the “close up” version of how it’s put together. I mean, if you can afford to drink that many damn cokes to make the dress, then you certainly could have purchased an actual prom dress! Get real!

Here’s the thing though…and I hate to say this, I really do…but I think our dear reader has missed the point. This dress was made by a teenager and because of the nature of the item, we’re dealing with haute couture here, not arts & crafts. The dress wasn’t made (I would assume) out of the necessity of poverty but of creative expression. I think the pop tab dress is pretty amazing, personally, although I’m not so much a fan of the dress she made last year, which was made of Doritos bags. I just don’t like food type stuff as art, especially something as stinky as Doritos. But that’s just me.

Pop Tab Girl, you keep on keepin’ on. Your dress is awesome and so are you.

So with all that said, here’s my issue here with this pin. It was pinned under “DIY” and “Feeling Craftsy” by two people. This is art, this is not a DIY project! I mean, I suppose there’s no law saying you can’t do it yourself and recreate the dress but sometimes it just kills me that people have the audacity to blatantly say, by way of pinning, that they’re going to copy another artist’s work! As if they COULD! It just annoys the shit out of me and I know a number of artists, my mother included, who have had this happen and who were upset by it.

Does this photo look familiar? It got pinned under the “DIY/Crafts” section like CRAZY.

This piece of art should NOT be in that category AT ALL. This is what I mean by “as if you COULD!” because people were pinning this under “DIY”, “Crafts”, “I can make this!” and shit like that and I would see it pinned under those types of categories hourly for DAYS! You cannot and should not make this! This is a person’s original art, this is how that person makes their living. You are supposed to go buy one of his pieces, not make your own! I totally understand thinking it’s cool and wanting a version for your own home. I understand that art is often expensive (and his/hers probably is), but there are usually ways to accommodate any price range. I’m almost positive that if you really wanted this piece for your living room but couldn’t afford it, that there would be prints available.  Or a smaller version. But you don’t just go and make your own, you just don’t.

Or at least you shouldn’t.

I mean, my favourite artist is Mark Ryden (how predictable, I know…). I could never afford a Mark Ryden painting, the smaller ones are like, ten or twenty fucking thousand dollars, it’s just not possible. But Mark Ryden wants his art to be accessible to everyone so he releases giclee prints (which are pretty pricey but not unreasonable), mini portfolios, art books, postcards, small prints, etc. and it fits with all price ranges. I have a whole bunch of his stuff sitting in envelopes in my room, waiting to be framed and hung. That’s what you do, that’s how you do it. I’m not gonna go buy a canvas and try to make a Mark Ryden painting. I mean, like I said, as if I COULD!

People, don’t just blindly pin things! Actually go to the link you’re pinning and see what it is before you pin it to your “DIY” board! And if it’s an artist’s hard work? Make a “Creative Inspiration” board and pin it there because the original artist is probably going to see your pin. Trust me, it’s the right thing to do.

Category: Art, Clothing, Etiquette, Fashion, Pinterest, Upcycling / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Lost

January 8, 2012 / Martha_Stupid / No comments

Hanging something on your wall does not make it art. I know that Duchamp challenged what we had traditionally accepted as art with his Readymades and Warhol worked to remove all traces of the artist from the subject, but Dada and Pop Art were movements, whereas Pop Craft just just lazy and ugly.

This is not creative or even interesting. This is just a waste of space. If you want to hang geographically related art, great, put something of yourself into it and throw it up on the wall. If that’s too much, sure, use a real map, but add something relevant to it. Paint in all the places you’ve had sex on the hood of your car in a rest stop parking lot at dawn. Throw in some colour. Do SOMETHING. Do ANYTHING. Least of all make good decisions on how you’re going to decorate your home (I’m doing my best not to mention the chalkboard paint globe on this same website).

EDITOR’S NOTE:
Here are some cool examples of geographic art. I own this. I want this. – Sunny

Category: Art, Chagrinterest, Miscellaneous Fug, Recycling / Tags: ,

Judge & Jury

January 8, 2012 / Sunny / 2 comments

Kim writes:

“I like the tshirt scarf idea but this looks like someone tied a bunch of rags around the kid’s neck.”

I have a couple of thoughts about this pin.

Firstly, I’m not a huge fan of scarves on little little kids, particularly flowing ones, because I just see them as a strangulation waiting to happen. When Madison was itty bitty, I had for her a short, polar fleece scarf that went around the back of her neck and crossed in the front under a snowsuit and it was only long enough to basically meet itself and cross at the chest. It was function over fashion. A flowing scarf like this one could easily get caught on play equipment and it would just make me really nervous, so I’d never put something like this on a kid unless it was for a picture.

Secondly, I really do like the look, ruffles are very romantic – I just think I’d like it better on an adult. It reminds me of something they’d sell on Free People for a million dollars but would be virtually free to make.

Pinners, what do you think?

Category: Clothing, Kids, Miscellaneous Fug, Pinterest, Upcycling / Tags: , ,

The Chagrinterest Philosophy

January 7, 2012 / Sunny / No comments

Category: Chagrinterest, Quotes /

*GROAN*

January 6, 2012 / Sunny / 4 comments

Category: Hats, Kids / Tags: , , , , ,
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