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CULTURAL COMMONS

Program 10-10-24-A

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Is there such a thing as true, original creativity? Or "Are we just seeing further by standing on the shoulders of giants?", to paraphrase Sir Isaac Newton. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we'll explore the question of where good ideas come from. Steven Johnson will tell us about the natural history of innovation. And Lewis Hyde offers a way to look beyond today's narrow debates over cultural ownership.

SEGMENT 1:

Lewis Hyde, MacArthur Fellow, Creative Writing Professor and author of "Common as Air: Revolution, Art and Ownership" tells Steve Paulson that he is skeptical of the entertainment industry's insistence that intellectual property is just like physical property. He invokes the cultural commons – that vast store of art and ideas from the past that enrich everybody's present. Also, Adam Sinnreich teaches journalism and media studies at Rutgers. He's also the author of "Mashed Up: Music, Technology, and the Rise of Configurable Culture." He talks with Anne Strainchamps about what he means by configurable culture.

SEGMENT 2:

Steven Johnson is the author of several books including "Mind Wide Open" and "The Invention of Air." His new one is "Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation." Johnson tells Jim Fleming how he uses the coral reef as a metaphor for a creative environment throughout the book.

SEGMENT 3:

Ricardo Pitts-Wiley is the co-founder of the Mixed Magic Theatre Company. He also contributed to an essay called "Multiculturalism, Appropriation, and the New Media Literacies: Remixing Moby Dick." The essay appears in a book by Henry Jenkins called "Mashup Cultures" and focuses on the contemporary re-staging of Melville's classic novel. Ricardo Pitts-Wiley tells Anne Strainchamps about his project and how it emerged from work he did with incarcerated youth at the Rhode Island Training Facility. And we hear a bit of the production.

CD copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 10-10-24-A.

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Books & CDs:

Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation (Riverhead Books)
Lewis Hyde, Common As Air: Revolution, Art, and Ownership (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Aram Sinnreich, Mashed Up: Music, Technology, and the Rise of Configurable Culture (University of Massachusetts Press)
Stefan Sonvilla-Weiss (Editor), Mashup Cultures (Springer)

Websites:

• -- Lewis Hyde
  http://www.lewishyde.com/
  
• -- Aram Sinnreich
  http://aramsinnreich.typepad.com/
  
• -- Steven Johnson
  http://www.stevenberlinjohnson.com/
  
• -- Ricardo Pitts-Wiley's Mixed Magic Theatre
  http://mixedmagicri.com/
  
• -- "Moby Dick: Then and Now" video
  http://techtv.mit.edu/collections/dlui
  
• -- Project New Media Literacies Teacher's Strategy Guide
  Featuring: "Moby-Dick" by Herman Melville and Mixed Magic Theatre's "Moby Dick: Then and Now"
  http://newmedialiteracies.org/Introduction.pdf

Music:

• -- Excerpt from "Orson Whales" (Moby Dick mashup) http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/archives/2007/05/moby_welles.html
  
• -- Music heard after Lewis Hyde interview:
  "The Artifact & Living"/Michael Andrews
  from the CD, "Donnie Darko: Music from the Original Motion Picture Score" (Enjoy Records)
  
• -- Music heard during Aram Sinnreich interview:
  -- "Pass the Mic"/Beastie Boys
  from the CD, "Check Your Head" (Capitol)
  -- "Get Off Your Ass and Jam"/Funkadelic from the CD, "Let's Take It to the Stage" (Westbound Records)
  -- "100 Miles And Runnin'"/N.W.A.
  from the CD, "The Best of N.W.A.: The Strength of Street Knowledge" (Priority Records)
  
• -- Music heard after Aram Sinnreich interview:
  -- "Green Peppers"/Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass (Remix Produced by Anthony Marinelli) from the CD, "Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass/Whipped Cream & Other Delights Re-Whipped" (Shout! Factory) http://www.shoutfactorystore.com/prod.aspx?pfid=210
  
• -- Music heard after Steven Johnson interview:
  -- "Whipped Cream"/Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass (Remixed by Anthony Marinelli featuring Ozomatli from the CD, "Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass/Whipped Cream & Other Delights Re-Whipped" (Shout! Factory) http://www.shoutfactorystore.com/prod.aspx?pfid=210
  
• -- Music heard after Ricardo Pitts-Wiley interview:
  -- "Porcelain"/Moby
  from the CD, "Play" (V2)

Distribution dates: week of 10/24/2010 - hour 1 click HERE for timings and cues

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