It’s similar with code. The moment you choose to release an algorithm, a technique, an idea, it’s no longer completely yours. It’s out there, free for everyone to do as they like. And chances are that in the end only a few people’ll know that that is the clever algorithm that Bruce came up with. Not because of malignant thievery, but because of Tumblr-like careless attribution.

Anyway, most of us don’t have to worry about this, I gladly share it all, because real innovation that’s truly worthy of attribution is rare. If someone’s uses hemesh, it’d be fun to be credited for the hard work that went into it. But I don’t need credit for the things that are created with it. Many other tools exist and in any case, it’s an implementation of an existing data structure. The thing is: anyone could’ve coded it…

There is however an idea, an algorithm out there that was shared by its creator Jonathan McCabe that is worthy of true attribution, that falls outside the realm of “anyone could’ve done it”. It’s been more than two years since I came across his multi-scale Turing patterns. They instantly intrigued me. And although I could recreate the gist of his images, I could never overcome the practical problems. In fact, the code proved hazardous to the elderly, infants and pregnant women. I thought my lack of numerical skill in tackling the huge equations I ran into was the problem. It was ponderously slow and I suspected Jonathan had a secret lair packed with supercomputers.

Turns out I was being silly. An almost incidental post on Flickr revealed that Jonathan has a paper on his cyclic symmetric multi-scale Turing patt.., what the hell, on his McCabeisms. And it’s full of DTC lines (A rarely needed acronym for “damn that’s clever”). Seems I wasn’t barking up the wrong tree, I was in the wrong forest, on the wrong continent, on the wrong planet… As if that wasn’t enough, Jason Rampe provides a blog post with useful pointers in implementing Jonathan’s idea. I say pointers, it’s actually more of a very elaborate pseudocode than a blog post. So the McCabeism is out there, ready to be implemented by anyone.

So I did, in Processing and thanks to Jason, it only took a few hours. This sketch is my small contribution to the free distribution of Jonathan’s very, very clever idea. It contains the basics as explained in the Softology blog post. I’ve added no explanations of my own. Jonathan’s paper and Jason’s post are very clear and definitely worth reading.

Feel free to use it in your own exploration of McCabeism. There’s plenty of room for experimentation. Capture it, dissect it, change it, mutate it, (now that’s a wildlife show I’d like to see) and above all attribute it to Jonathan McCabe…

“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery—celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to.”

- Jim Jarmusch

Ideas of plagarism and sharing are not what they once were. The modern economics of digital goods, where one cannot escape the fact that reproduction and redistribution of one’s work is ridiculously easy, make attempting to commoditise and monetise any form of digital art an uphill struggle. It’s not a matter of favouring less proprietary ideas of digital ownership, we no longer have a choice.

This new economics is not unusual though, any peculiarity is with the old way. Copyright, a 20th Century concept, was designed to protect the ability for an artist to profit from their work, which obviously (if one only ever thinks in terms of the market) is the sole reason any artist gets up in the morning. This idea of stamping ownership on an idea for legal purposes has always stood counter to the very nature of our post-(post-post-)modernist era, where it is so difficult to find any idea that is truly original, standing, as we do, upon the shoulders of so many giants.

It is impossible to be entirely devoid of influence, it is in our nature to imitate. This is how children learn to speak, form a sense of moral responsibility, and develop their interpretations of societal norms; by copying their elders. Litigating against imitation shares the futility of attempts to outlaw sex.

Copyright laws have never stopped copying, they’ve just distorted our culture to favour that which can be legally reproduced. For example, while Oasis did not infringe the copyright of the The Beatles, they copied just about everything that was legally copyable about them, with healthy profits. Yet if they had sampled even a brief section of any one of their songs, they would have needed to clear it and pay large royalties. I would argue with anyone who claimed the insipid dirge of Oasis was more relevant to nineties music than the inventiveness of hip-hop (a genre built on sampling), yet we have a system that levies financial penalties against the latter rather than the former.

John Lennon is on record as saying the majority of Beatles songs started out with them trying to “do” another artist, mimicking their style. They would then develop these ideas and take them far beyond their root. Picasso too, apocryphally, said, “Good artists borrow. Great artists steal”. The message is: it’s not plagiarism as long as you make it your own. Stealing is wrong, yes, by any moral framework, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t recognise the value of intelligent theft.

Warning:this entire post is a convoluted joke.

Design by: Jorge Ayala | [Ay]A Studio Paris
Year of Design: 2010
Client: Private Philanthropy
Link: www.jorge-ayala.com

Tactile Gallery will accommodate Bird — an installation design by Ay_A Studio based in Paris. The installation stretches out a 22 meter long loft partially occupying the floor enhanced by a labyrinth effect. Visitors and flaneurs will experience a folded subtle high tech effect embracing both the spatial sensation and the interactive aspect of the installation. The three-dimensional mesh is built with bamboo and structural steel connectors while the flowing-like movement is due to the parallel condition operating on its wire-linear organisation offering a fragile and intriguing angular design. Tactile Gallery is one of the most upcoming and finest galleries in Mexico. http://www.tactilegallery.com/

Bio: Jorge is the founder of [Ay]A Studio. [Ay]A is an international studio operating from Paris committed with cutting edge research and experimentation, across scales. [Ay]A engages the field of design, architecture and landscape urbanism in both academic and professional praxis.