Soy Meets Gull: Monsanto, Donald Duck, and The Future of Art

Premodern: Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl, Mayan, c. 600-1000

 

Modern: Donald Duck, 1934

Postmodern: Uncle Dolan, 2010

          On February 19th, the Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on case 11-796, Vernon Hugh Bowman, Petitioner v. Monsanto Company, etal. Vernon Bowman is a farmer from Indiana. According to an article in the Washington Post, Bowman "purchased Roundup Ready seeds for his first planting of soybeans and abided by Monsanto’s restrictions. But like some farmers, he also plants a second crop later in the growing season; such crops are highly dependent on the weather, which makes them more hit-or-miss.
           It is too risky to pay the high price of Monsanto’s Roundup-resistant seeds for the second crop of the season, Bowman said, so instead he purchased cheaper commodity grain from the local elevator, which is usually used for feed. He planted it, and when he sprayed the crop with the herbicide, almost all survived. That wasn’t surprising, because 94 percent of Indiana soybean farmers grow Roundup Ready beans."
         Monsanto sued Bowman for patent infringement and won an $85,000 dollar judgement in a lower court. The case raises interesting questions of copyright and authorship in the postmodern era. The answers to these questions are vitally important to contemporary artists. I believe that even if Monsanto wins the case, it will have lost on the ground. There was nothing in the technology that prevented Bowman from doing what he did, and there is nothing in the technology that could prevent anyone else around the world from doing it.
         We can perhaps use Bowman to create analogies for art production in the postmodern era. The analogies will be in three parts following the model:
premodern:modern:postmodern
The analogy from the Bowman case could be:
heirloom seed:Monsanto patented seed:Bowmanized seed
         In the premodern era, distinct seed varieties were spread by natural action and directed human activity. There were no patents and the idea of one inventor or author of a seed variety was somewhat absurd. Seeds were selected and distributed on an intuitive basis rather than a strictly empirical one. This system was quite effective, with specialized breeds of crops suitable to unique microclimates and resistant to the specific pests of each region. A specific example would be the varieties of potato developed in the pre-columbian Andes. In this essay, this system of distribution will be called dissemination.
        According to Monsanto's own website, the modern era of seed development begins in 1873 "when Monsieur Louis Pasteur was awarded US Patent #141,072 with a claim to 'yeast, free of organic germs of disease, as a living organism.' Pasteur was using the yeast to make beer." The passage of the Plant Patent Act of 1930 extended patent protection to plants, allowing for the patenting of seed varieties. Under this system, seeds are selected on an empirical basis by specialists in expensive private facilities. The seeds are sold by the patent holder only. A specific example would be Monsanto's Genuity Roundup Ready 2 soybean seeds. In this essay this system of distribution will be called transmission.
     Rather than acquire seeds from the patent holder, Mr. Bowman acquired his seeds from the local grain elevator. The grain elevator is the terminus for the production of all of the farmers in the surrounding area. At the grain elevator the seeds are no longer patented technologies, but commodities. Mr. Bowman does not have access to the technology needed to create pesticide-resistant seeds. However, he does have the technology required (his farm and equipment) to repurpose the transmissions of Monsanto to his own ends (making a living). This system of distribution is related to Lévi-Strauss's concept of bricolage. In this essay, this system of distribution will be called infection, from the Latin infectionem, which can be literally translated as putting into or dipping into. This gives us
dissemination:transmission:infection  
This doesn't help us that much, since these words are basically synonyms. However, we can use this triple analogy to examine intellectual modes of production throughout history. For example, we can make the analogy
manuscript:printed book:wiki
        In the premodern era of the West, manuscripts were reproduced by hand copying. The copyist, usually a monk, would read the information as he copied and would often comment in the margins. This is perhaps analogous in some way to sexual reproduction (dissemination). There was a nominal author, but this was more of cognomen for a accumulated body of knowledge rather than an individual. There was no question of copyright. The technology required to copy a document was possessed by anyone who could read and write and had the spare time to do it. A specific example would be a medieval European manuscript of Averroes' commentaries on Aristotle. Averroes did not enjoy a copyright on his work. Even if he had, it would not have been enforcable in Christendom. Furthermore, when we say Averroes in this example we do not really mean the historical individual Ibn Rashd, but rather the accumulation of copyists' versions of his work and their commentaries; and also the pseudo-Averroes of other philosophers' critiques and imagined dialogues. In this sense, the term "modern painting" becomes somewhat oxymoronic.
        In the modern era of the West, books were reproduced by machines. The wage workers in an industrialized printing facility cannot read the works as they run rapidly through the machine. It is not necessary for them to the read the book in order to reproduce it. Each copy is identical, without the errors, commentary, and addenda of the premodern copyists. This is perhaps analogous to a radio or television broadcast (transmission). The authorship of the work is clearly defined, and the publisher holds a copyright. Most importantly, the technology required to reproduce the book is large and expensive. An industrial printing press is a massive piece of machinery that requires a large amount of capital to purchase, operate and maintain. A television prouduction facility is similarly large and expensive. The reader can comment in the margins of his own copy of a printed book or otherwise physical alter it, but those changes do not sympathetically appear in the template at the publishing house. Similarly, a television set cannot edit or produce a television show, it can only display one. A specific example would Carl Sagan's Cosmos, which was simultaneously a printed book and a television show. When we say Carl Sagan, we mean the historical individual Carl Sagan who was published by Random House and died in 1996 and who cannot be used as an avatar by other television personalities. In this sense, the term "postmodern novel" becomes somewhat oxymoronic. 
        In the postmodern era wikis (the term wiki in this essay includes memes, blogs, vlogs, message boards, comment threads, computer viruses, hacks, etc.) replicate across a dynamic system of spontaneously interconnecting computers, aka the Internet. The network of contributors can but do not need to read or comprehend the wiki in order to edit or comment on it. This is perhaps analogous to the replication cycle of viruses (infection), but it should be noted that author received a very generous "gentlemen's C" in Biology at his alma mater. The authorship of the work is collective and mainly anonymous. There is no copyright and it would not be easily enforcable. The technology required to replicate the wiki is getting smaller and cheaper at a rapid rate, and has been for several decades. Each computer can receive, edit, and produce content easily and immediately. A specific example would be the Wikipedia article on quantum mechanics. The contributors are legion and anonymous, and they constantly overwrite one another. Wikipedia does not maintain a copyright on the article.
     The implications of the dissemination:transmission:infection analogy for the visual arts can be explored through the analogy
Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl:Donald Duck:Uncle Dolan
In the images above, we can see a small ceramic figurine whistle in the form of Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl on the left. Moving clockwise, we can see the Disney character Donald Duck, and then at the bottom right we have the meme Uncle Dolan. In each of these images, we have an anthropomorphized duck. Each of the three images corresponds to a term of our three part analogy.
       The figurine whistle of the Mesoamerican wind god Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl was discovered on the island of Jaina in Mexico. The artist is unknown. It can be reasonably assumed that he or she did not have a copyright on Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl. The conventions for depicting Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl developed over centuries. This tradition would have been passed down orally and through artwork. The idea of an indvidual human creator or author of Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl may have even been sacrilegious to a Mayan artist. There would be no serious technological barrier to disseminating this visual tradition, anyone with access to a supply of clay and a kiln could make their own Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl. The amount of ceramics that survive from pre-Columbian civilizations can support the assumption that this technology was widely available.
          The cartoon character Donald Duck was created by Walt Disney in 1934. The Disney corporation maintains a copyright on the image of Donald Duck. We can go back to Donald's first appearance in "The Wise Little Hen" to see who animated him and who provided his voice. The appearance of Donald Duck is regulated by company standards. The facilities required to create an animated short are large and expensive. The viewer in the movie theater or the televison viewer at  home cannot edit or change the film strip or transmission. Any comments they make are known only to the other audience members and are lost immediately.
          The meme "Dolan" has been traced back to a Finnish webcomic from 2010. There is no copyright on the Dolan meme. The creators of the meme are legion and anonymous. The depiction of Dolan is constantly cannibalizing itself and shifting across message boards and blogs, perhaps similarly to horizontal gene transfer in infectious viruses. The technology required to propagate the meme is available to anyone with a computer and an internet connection. Any viewer of any of the Dolan variations can edit or comment on the meme instantaneously.
        From these analogies we can conclude that the modern concept of the heroic artist may yield to a more anonymous and aggregate mode of artistic production with drastically reduced accolades and rewards for individual artists. Furthermore, we can conclude that this postmodern mode of artistic production has much in common with premodern modes. Therefore, it may be stated that copyright, patent, and modern concepts of an artist's relation to his or her work are not a given or a constant.  These concepts may have a brief and finite presence on the spectrum of human experience. Although Disney or Monsanto may hold copy rights and patents de jure, they no longer hold them de facto as they once did.