by Carlos Cuevas

While reading Art in the Age of Digital Distribution, one artist that caught my attention was Natalie Bookchin. Bookchin creatively utilizes the strategy of appropriation, borrowing elements to create something new, in her work. Upon researching some of Bookchin’s work, I came across Zorns Lemma2. Zorns Lemma2 is a 12 minute remake of Hollis Frampton’s structuralist film in 1970 that organizes signs recorded on webcams in alphabetical order and replays them in 1 second intervals. This piece intrigued me because it is exclusively composed of footage from surveillance cameras. What makes it unique is that this 12 minute silent film consists of clips that were not filmed directly by Natalie.

Another new media artist that intrigued my curiosity was Michael Mandiberg. He, too, was skilled at the art of appropriation. However, the work that I found most intriguing was the series Burned Books. In this series, Mandiberg laser cut words and short lines into books. Below is an example of the word “GOOGLE” laser cut, all the way through, into a pair of Yellow Pages. I found that throughout the various books that were burned, each and every burn was completely symmetrical and had an ironic or cheeky comment and that’s what made them so unique.