I find it fascinating what we think belongs to us.
And on Tumblr especially, we have new and odd notions of ownership, especially when it comes to art, because every single one of us is curating our own little space over here. And once we put something on it, no matter who created it, or where it came from, we feel that it’s ours. At least a little.
Maybe it’s simply a thing we want to share, or maybe a thing we want to show off. Maybe we created it originally (although I suspect a very small % of tumblr posts are ‘original’), but whatever it is or where it came from it’s in our space and we have some tiny bit of need to control it. To curate it. To stamp it with our presence. I uploaded the thing, so it’s mine! It’s my bloody upload!
What a beautifully messy concept!
And, of course, it works the other way around too. This story I wrote is mine and that picture I took is mine, but what happens when I share something I’ve made with the world? And what happens when I post something I’ve made to a platform whose main feature is the ability to share things as quickly and effortlessly as possible without regard to its origin?
As a writer, it’s pretty clear that once I put a thing out into the world whatever ownership I once had of it vanishes. There may be some legal rights, but let’s face it, when it comes to tumblr at least, that’s rarely what we’re talking about. Someone else will read into my story things I never intended and it will change and be something else and there’s not a fucking thing I can do about it.
And since it’s tumblr, someone will download my photo and make it black and white and blow up my ass until it’s four times the size, and there is also nothing I can do about that either other than ask people not to. Which is perfectly fine, although I feel like it’s something of an uphill battle.
If you want to make art that belongs only to you, you can’t share it at all. I’d suggest making it and then burning it before anyone else sees it. Wash your face in the ashes and let it soak into your skin: a lone poem that only you have read and can hardly remember.
But I do like the mess and the confusion. What does it mean to curate on a blog platform that moves faster than most of us can follow? And what does it mean to share art on a platform where attribution is both a last minute thought and a simple feature?
If the web was designed to share information with as few barriers as possible, then Tumblr is the web on crack, throwing our thoughts, our images, and our words out into the swirling mass of people all around the globe, each one who will latch on, wrap their arms around it, and hold it gently as they smile and say, “this is mine.”
I suspect that this conundrum (if we can even call it that) will soon vanish as it becomes easier and easier to find the source of a thing. As google image search gets better we’ll know within seconds who created a photo, a painting, a building, or a poem. Attribution will be nearly irrelevant since anyone can find out where it came from with a small effort.
But until then, we get to keep on being weird.
Look at these things I made from the ashes of your life and the glory of your existence?
(On a side note, I don’t even know what the terms of service are for tumblr. What rights do I retain about my original content? I’m clearly allowing it to be shared, but as for everything else, I don’t know, and I don’t especially care to look.)
