I am not ill prepared for events such as this theft, although it is another thing that my tight schedule cannot well compensate for.
Who could have done this, why, and for what purpose? Have I provoked somebody so far as to steal at least $50 dollars or more worth of my materials, labor, and (most importantly) customer spending? Should I have made a more theft-proof poster? Should I have not implemented a series of provocative countdown images to Love Is MADness? Why me and why at such a time that Is so close to the actual event? Should I have not put so much effort into the large poster?
How do other companies deal with such passive aggressive acts of violence? I am infuriated at whoever stole it, but also frustrated at my predicament. What now? Should I put up my duplicate Love Is MADness poster? Will it also be stolen? What then? Do I have to get a pair of security guards around my artwork? I was planning on auctioning the large poster off...that more money that could have been in my pocket.
I feel as if the success of Love Is MADness is compromised from this one setback. Does that forebode my expectations for the actual event? I am speaking out of rage, in a way it does, but I also have faith (that is what it mostly comes down to...studies identify nothing) that there will be enough publicity in other ways to keep up talk.
I want to get back at those who did this to me...through aggressive advertising. Make them suffer for the theft they might have thought to be insignificant. Guess what? Karma's coming to get you, whoever you are, in the form of public humiliation.
3 comments:
Ian, I think the progression of your projects is very ambitious and so far seems to be fairly effective. I have been seeing information for your project from a variety of sources and it seems that others are also interested in what you are doing or at least curious about your table event. I don't think you have to worry that much about this affecting your event's success. It does suck that someone would steal your artwork and it is stupid to think that this happens more frequently than we would like to think about. However, I think that if you did incite such a strong action, it is probably an indication that you have been making yourself known and have disturbed whoever took the poster with your ads. Perhaps, no recourse is needed and you will be sufficiently gratified by simply continuing as planned in spite of this person.
I've been having the similar issue of people stealing works from me as well, for example, I went to a trip to Chicago last term and took some photographs, one of my friends who went together asked for those photos and then he uploaded them on the internet without my permission, I understand that he just came to America 6 months ago from China and maybe he had no idea about giving the credit thing, so I asked him to take down those photos but he became really furious and said he didn't understand why he had to do that...
Get press coverage of the crime as part of your promotional strategy. One of our artist friends once said that theft is the highest compliment for an artist. Someone wanted your work so bad, they committed a crime! Make sure the custodial staff didn't take it!
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