Free Berlin Culture

FREE-CULTURE -- One of the things that hits most visitors to Berlin is how much of the visual culture borrows from that which has gone before. Innovative things are reshaped and spun out in ways that delight the original authors. That fact would resonate well with Larry Lessig and prove the point he hammers away in his new book. Lessig explains the evolution of Disney's animation and how "Disney's great genuis, his spark of creativity, was built upon the work of others." Walk through the 3rd Berlin Beinnial for Contemporary Art and this lesson of creativity repeats itself. The key to some of the most successful artisitic exhibitions in Berlin today rests on the work of others. That is not heresy--it's tantamount to best practise in visual art.

As Lessig puts it, the catalog of Disney work drawing upon the work of others is astonishing when set together.

Snow White (1937), Fantasia (1940 and 2001), Pinocchio (1940), Dumbo (1941), Bambi (1942), Song of the South (1946), Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951), Robin Hood (1952), Peter Pan (1953), Lady and the Tramp (1955), Sleeping Beauty (1959), 101 Dalmations (1961), The Sword in the Stone (1963), and The Jungle Book (1967). In all of these cases, Disney ripped creativity from the culture around him, mixed that creativity with his own extraordinary talent, and then burned that mix into the soul of his culture.

For the sake of enhancing the Visuelle Kunst, we need to carve out space in our public domain for public use of past work. We need to permit the next Walt Disney to emerge from places like East Berlin or from one of the ten new accesssion countries. We don't need a Walt Disney monopoly on creativity. No one benefits from that.

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Lawrence Lessig -- Free Culture. "Ours was a free culture. It is becoming much less so."
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Comments

[Volker E. Luedecke]

Thank you for your article: Free Berlin Culture! I will go on visiting your site!
For me, living and working in Berlin as a writer, it is interesting to understand the way culture is reflected from another point of view. Here we have a change now. Berlin is attraktive to many visitors, free culture cannot be all of high quality. But take it easy, this fun is for free!
If you are interested in Berlin literature, visit my site! Volker Luedecke