Charting Chatter
The Wall St. Journal reports that Zeta Interactive is data-mining blogs, news articles, and social media, and is able to judge whether the chatter on brands, designers and specific designs is favorable/unfavorable. Some of the results are obvious, like 93% positive feedback on the Duchess of Cambridge’s Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen wedding dress. Other results, like the association of words like “tired” and old” with designers Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, are more exciting because the data provides a concrete basis for something that is ‘in the air’... Read The Rest →
H&M’s “Dragon Tattoo” Brings Up Some Very Tired Stereotypes
When did rape survivors become people women shouldn’t admire? When did this style of dress become intractably associated with trauma? I am dismayed that women are perpetuating tired old stereotypes about dress and sexual availability. I don’t think these clothes directly suggest trauma, and I don’t think it is fair to tell women and girls who love punk, goth, rock, emo, and metal fashion that happy women dress in a traditionally feminine style. Natalie Karneef believes that H&M’s Girl with the Dragon Tattoo collection glamorizes the emotional trauma suffered by... Read The Rest →
“In Defense of H&M’s Fembots”
From Coilhouse: “Imagine an online shop where your preferred weight/height/measurements are used to generate 3D models of the bodies that you want to see. Imagine if there was an API for this that could be used across all online clothing stores you visit, so that no matter what site you were looking at, the models appeared the way that you wanted them to. Standardized beauty ideals would become less relevant, because people would have greater control over their exposure to them. In the short term, it may seem like computer-generated... Read The Rest →
Plagiarism or Copyright Infringement?
DISCLAIMER: This is not legal advice. If you have a copyright issue, speak to your attorney. I hadn’t intended for my blog to turn into a series of intellectual property PSAs, but my husband sent me this, and I thought I could help clear up a confusing point of law. Glory Szabo is a writer. She has a Tumblr site called I Read Into Things where she posts her work. Szabo has protected her work under a Creative Commons license. (More on that soon.) One of Szabo’s poems has been... Read The Rest →
Great Artists Steal?
Last night, I gave a talk on art markets and the history of intellectual property regulations. The talk covered Cariou v. Prince, Rihanna’s alleged rip-off of David LaChapelle’s works, the relationship between copyright and censorship, economic incentive theories, moral rights, and about 500 years of history. Rihanna’s music video for “S&M,” which prompted a great discussion, can be viewed here. Want the PowerPoint? It is linked below. Art & Markets Lecture Questions or thoughts? Please leave a comment.
“Policing The Sacred”
I sat in on a great panel on censorship earlier this month. Happily, the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) has made the entire discussion available online, and you can watch it below! At 3:45 in Part I, Svetlana Mintcheva draws attention to Enrique Chagoya’s experience with the Loveland Museum, which has received far too little attention. If you don’t have time for the whole thing, dip in for the Chagoya story. For NCAC’s post on the event, see here.
Duke Law Magazine
I was featured in the Winter 2010 issue of Duke Law Magazine. Duke Law JD/MA Student Profile Duke Law Magazine (PDF)
