visiting writer :: mckenzie wark

I have always been aware of the new breed of parasites on society, those that do not create or produce anything but buy intellectual property as a commodity and then extort it exhaustively, stifling innovation. In his book "The Hacker Manifesto," McKenzie Wark calls them the vectoralist class. SCO "The Linux Killer" is a good example of a vectoralist company.

Wark recently visited our nophoto class and presented ideas from his book as well as engaged in discussion of contemporary hacking culture. At one point the topic was when other artists steal your work without manipulating, changing or hacking anything and presenting it as their own in an art show. Wark stated that the Surrealists would have trashed the show, the Situationalists would have beaten them up, he then offered that a better solution would be to put the show on your CV and claim it as your own.

Brilliant.

In a world of objects, commodities and properties it is almost beautiful when an author practices what he preaches and gives the whole text of his book to you for free in digital form. He told me I could give it to my friends but to please do not make it available on the internet. So of course it is available here.