what i did and said

Earlier I posted an article by Kevin Kelley that, among other things, called out the internet as a big copy machine. He states that, at its core, this trait is an intrinsic part of this newest form of information technology. Case in point: I have now twice posted links to Mr. Kelley's article, one pointing directly to the article, the other pointing at my post pointing directly to the article. How many times can you copy something before you start to get distortions? How can artists use this innate ability to their advantage, and when they do, what will it say about the work they are doing?
Anders Weberg is taking this trait and raising some interesting questions about where online art exists and by extension who owns it (or for that matter, whether or not digital works can really be owned by any one person). In summary, Mr. Weberg is releasing his video/sound pieces via a torrent and allowing their continued existence to be in the hands of the swarm being that is at the core of the internet. As soon as one individual seeds the torrent, he deletes all evidence that the project existed. The "art" only exists in the tubes that are the internet, or on some anonymous torrenter's hard drive.
The thing that gets me excited about what Weberg is doing is that he seems to be approaching the idea of his videos with the internet in mind, and not as an afterthought. By disseminating his work in this manner, he forces you to question the value of it as well as the aesthetics of it. He is allowing anything to happen to it once it enters into the wild. Should someone change it or add to it, or damage it or mislabel it, all goes into the thought process, and ultimately becomes an intrinsic element of the work.
And as if that weren't enough, he is also including the relatively new mobile capabilities of some of the most recent hardware as well. By uploading a series of videos that function as small travel narratives, and making them available in formats that are usable on portable media players, he is creating the ability to "travel" to a place at the same time you are on the move somewhere else.
The thing that Weberg has going for him is that he is working in a format (video) that is very easily disseminated as well as consumed via the net. So from this angle, the engagement of the viewer is limited. However, by combining the possibility of harnessing the collective mind to not only distribute, but also to potentially change or even destroy the works, he is using the net as an extra element in his pieces. The technology is superseding the role of simple vehicle, and becoming an active participant in the piece. And, since the net is made up of billions of people behind the terminals, the opportunities for community consumed, experienced, and created (or destroyed) work is finally an option.