After reading the chapter “Stitch Bitch” from Shelley Jackson’s book “Rethinking Media Change” my head literally hurt. Jackson cover’s several different ideas regarding hypertext in new media. I found the read a little confusing which required me to constantly go back and make sure I was understanding the entire idea. As confusing as it was at times, I was still able to find points that I could truly connect with.
I have worked in web for years and one statement Jackson made reminded me of those years of work. Jackson says, “Go write your own text. Go paint a mural. You must change your life. I want piratical readers, plagiarist and opportunists, who take what they want from my ideas and knot it into their own arguments. Or even their own novels. From which, possibly, I’ll steal it back.” Now by no means do I think Jackson thinks we should be stealing information from others and reproducing it as our own, but I do understand where she is coming from in terms of collaboration.
Speaking from experience as a web programmer I will always be the first to admit I do not have all the answers. I learned early on to admit when you don’t know something, never say you can do it and then never follow through. One of my biggest take-aways from that job was learning how to research and find the answers, then take what I found, re-develop it and mesh it into the end result I needed. Pick a litte bit from here, throw in a little bit of code from there, base your design off a concept from here and then before you know it you have created a whole new product. I enjoyed the section where Jackson says, “After all, we are all collage artists.” This speaks directly to what we do as designers and developers. We are all creative in our own ways; we all have a strength and a weakness. To come together and take others ideas and concepts but then add our own twists to it is what makes this industry so exciting and always changing. We are constantly pushing ourselves and our boundaries by creating, designing, developing and working to make something new, unique and interesting.
Many might say this is considered a type of plagiarism. However, I argue that unless you are stealing code piece for piece, or a design exactly as it is you are free to take, create and make your own version. So often I am inspired by someone’s work, but after I put my twist on it the end result is completely different. Personally, I enjoy knowing someone was inspired by something I created, took part of it and put their own twist on it. To me this is what keeps this industry in a state of constant growth and change. It will be interesting to see where this concept goes in the next few years in terms of what you can and cannot do as well as just how much we can collaborate in the future.