WRT: Writer Response Theory

A recurrent theme on WRT has been remediated paper interfaces like virtual books and virtual catalogs. Another has been hypermedia comics such as interactive comics with animated panels or comics generators producing comics mashups.

Bound By Law is both a mashup comic and a paper remediation. The comic is on copyright as it applies to documentary film making, and it is available through a Flash-based remediated paper interface. The art draws partly on the comics treatise style of Scott McCloud (exploring an infographical landscape) and partly on zineinfluenced mashup techniques, including photographs and newspaper clippings. Bound By Law was written by James Boyle and Jennifer Jenkins, and drawn by Keith Aoki. It is distributed by Duke Law in HTML, PDF, and jpeg versions which are free for download under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license. Print copies are also available for purchase - they come in a large format with a nice cover, and are quite well done.

The subject matter is fascinating - I don’t think you can really follow contemporary art without being drawn into the intricacies of copyright law. Still, it is a testamony to the creators that I finished Bound By Law wishing for a sequel, or series of sequels. In particular, it would be interesting to see a more self-referential work that took on the unique intellectual property challenges of, for example, web comics and blogging - image sampling and remixing, screen captures, quotation, linking, the act of publication, the nested rights restrictions of host, domain, and content management system, etc. etc. etc….