Lizette: Lessig & Bansy Response

Lessig said, "in the digital world, the one fact we can't escape is that every single use of culture produces a copy." When I watched Exit Through the Gift Shop, this line came to mind often. I was, I have to say, a little annoyed by Thierry. I think that the street art shown in the film is art. In fact, I think it is a terribly interesting form of art because it challenges the most mundane things. These artists have a purpose and a message that inspires their work, even though their form of expression is illicit. Thierry was certainly inspired by these artists. He seemed to have an obsession with their work, but didn't quite understand it, as he sometimes asked the artists common sense questions. 

I could handle Thierry for most of the film, though. But when I saw his show, I was rolling my eyes in almost every scene. His exhibition seemed like a regurgitation, a race to produce the largest amount of work for the sake of being big and known. He even priced his art highly without, as Shepard Fairey pointed out, being fully formed as an artist. Thierry's work was not art to me; it was uninspired copies or reinterpretation of authentic art that had no purpose or made no statement.