News Flash — Allforart Takes Immediate Action to Protect Creative Artist in Copyright Infringement Case

The generosity of Creative Artists is a rather marvelous thing to behold. What is not so marvelous is now others seek to exploit or take advantage of that generosity through various types of chicanery. One of our Creative Artists has recently been told by someone for who he created an original work of art, that he does not own that work and that he “may at some point” get it back.

This is a most serious matter and Allforart is taking immediate action to manage this situation and achieve a satisfactory outcome for all concerned. As things develop we will keep you informed, and while we wish we could say more at the moment, we would prefer a softer approach for a worthy cause. However, if this does not work, then we’ll publish the full story so that other Creative Artists are not burned by similar attempts and can learn from the experience.

US Corporate Censorship of Political Statements by Artists — Pearl Jam

If you monitor the art & entertainment industry closely you’ll see how careers are often destroyed simpy by denying access to broadcast channels and the opportunity to address the public in talk shows and current affairs programs. In America such censorship is emerging in a number of different ways, The Dixie Chicks’ statements about George Bush was but one example. The most recent example is to do with Pearl Jam and AT&T. Read more

There and back again - World Building for Storytellers - The Fargoth World Building Project

Through the miracle of modern technology today, it is now possible for a story to be realized and constructed as a virtual world and this has changed the nature of the marketplace and opened up tremendous opportunities for those writers who embrace the idea of not just telling a story, but realizing entire worlds, multiple cultures and races.

Tolkien captured it best when he wrote the immortal lines of “There and back again” for they capture beautifully and simply what is at the the heart of the reader experience when they fall in love with or become immersed in a story; the desire to go somewhere other than this world, and experience what it would be like to be someone else, live in any time, any place, and under conditions far removed from the real world in which we all live. Time travel? Read more

Pain & Suffering: do we need it to create great art? Part 2

This article is part 2 and follows on from Joel Falconer’s original where he finished off with this…

“So long as the traditional industry (and society) can point to the popularly propagated idea that ‘artists must suffer’ they have a reason to keep us in the dark, abuse us, rape us of our rights and suck us dry of every dollar, every word, every melody and every stroke of the brush that lies within us. Stop this myth now. Artists do not need to suffer to produce great work.

If you really believe “Artists need to suffer for their art” is a true and valid concept worthy of merit then next time you’re at the sex shop or visiting the CIA’s secret torture bases, pick up some whips and other instruments of torture, perhaps a waterboard and a set of fingernail pullers and bring them home to work over your local writers group, the garage band down the road who so obviously need help, and the painter whose delicate hands just beg for some knuckle crushing and thumb screwing and make them suffer, because the resultant works they produce will be guaranteed hits, oh, yeah. Success is just a whipping away. And of course, it’s firmly known by women and children everywhere that emotional and intellectual abuse makes them better people. Read more

Changing the World - A Peaceful Evolution - Changing Our Ideas

Since I was 7 years old I have been aware that the world is not a good place. But what is the world? And what is “changing the world”? Why did “changing the world” lose favor? How did it lose favor? Read more

Pain & Suffering: do we need it to create great art?

Why is enduring pain and suffering considered a prerequisite for forming good artists and producing good art? And why, then, is it not important for a businessman to endure the same for the sake of the spreadsheets? For too long, the myth that enduring the worst life can cook up helps artists become great artists has been propagated through society. It’s just another excuse that makes it alright to treat artists, when working professionally, like subhumans while the rest of humanity goes about life comparatively unscathed.

Read more

The Internet’s effect on publishing models

In 1586, the Swiss painter Josse Amman published a series of plates on the era’s fashions, entitled Gynasceum. Today, it’s regarded as the first fashion magazine. Then in 1731, Englishman Edward Cave first published The Gentleman’s Magazine, a publication that would run for almost 150 years. The Gentleman’s Magazine was the first commercially successful implementation of this kind of periodical, a format that had never been seen before. Read more

Ideas and their value - Support the Tuneback

I think there is such a thing as unconscionable commercial exploitation. It comes about when those who have money and power already act to take away from others the opportunity to exploit their own creations without so much as a “by your leave”.

When I heard about what had happened to the concept of the tuneback that was created and invented by my creative collaborator, friend, and colleague Joel Falconer, well I was immediately aware of the immorality of those that decided to capitalize without so much as a courteous well-mannered contact to the creator of the first tunebacks. This is what passes for “good business” today. And as the world has come to know it’s also what largely passes for the style of business a lot of American companies carry out today. Scandal, corruption, cheating, stealing, lying it’s the American Way today. An honorable person will tell you straight what is what, and when you look at it, they will be right. Not just right in a technical sense, but right in a moral sense. Read more

A Powerful Concept for Creativity - Function determines structure and content

“Function determines structure and content.” This principle has powerful utility in the craft and business of creativity, when I say “powerful utility” I mean: it has broad applications in every field. This is such a powerful concept that it can help one manage and resolve creative blocks. Read more

Foundation Principles — The Declaration of Creative Independence and the Code of a Creative Artist

Allforart, the Free Articulator and other companies and entities in the Allforart Network and all who work in that network hold as vital and important the founding documents that govern what we do and how we operate. These founding documents are:

• The Code of a Creative Artist
• The Creative Artists’ Declaration of Creative Independence

…and those applicable principles and concepts stated in A Creative Artist Enhances Society which will be a free download to Free Articulator subscribers and discounted to subscribers when it is published in hard copy.

But why do we need these things? Read more