September 26, 2022
It was nice to take a couple weeks off.
Everyone needs a break now and again. The
weather is getting cooler and soon it will be
Halloween. So with that aside…
Finding Treasures in the...
PUBLIC DOMAIN
Thanks for the question from guitblender41 about this website and what I
mean when I say “knowledge, art, and music for all”. There are all kinds of
free items that are considered public domain. For this discussion I will stick to
the public domain variety in the United States – your country may have
different laws and regulations. The free-to-use stuff is not considered public
domain; it is owned by someone else but it is available for free use, usually
with a thank-you or a tip of the hat or acknowledgment. But this is another
topic for another time. However, when something is public domain it is yours
to download, use, morph, stir, blend, bake, deep fry, or frappe as you wish
because the copyright has either expired or the item is old enough that it
doesn’t come under the heading of copyright law protections any more. And
every year more knowledge, art, and music enters the public domain. So
public domain stuff is completely legal and free for you to use in any way for
any reason. This general overall theme I write here is not meant to be all
encompassing because there are many gray areas to public domain, so do
your due diligence and make sure it’s genuinely public domain. And I’m just
scratching the surface here, but there are many ways to utilize these public
domain treasures in your own works and artistic endeavors. So seek them
out. Before you turn up your nose and say that it’s just old junk, here are
some ideas that may be of some help to get those creative juices flowing.
Knowledge
Some of the world’s greatest literature is in the public domain. A well known
so-called street preacher in California changed and used the entire book of
Darwin’s Origin of Species to help him (erroneously) prove that evolution is
somehow incorrect. It was legal for him to do this, because afterall, Darwin’s
book is in the public domain. On the other hand, it just shows how far some
ignorant people will go to promote their idiotic snake-oil blood-magic cult.
If you have ever considered writing your own poetry, book, or short story there
is a wealth of stuff free for the taking. Steal their writing style, some of their
plot, basic story ideas, or simply use it a springboard for a story continuation
of your own material. The list of available free books to download goes on
and on. The same goes for poetry. There are thousands of poems available
in the public domain. There are even collections of them available from
authors whose names I never heard of before. Here’s a way to come up with
your own poetry in a particular style. Read lots of their stuff until it becomes
easy to predict the banter and then try it yourself. It’s fun to see what drips off
the end. My favorite place for getting free books is from Project Gutenburg
because it’s so easy, but there are others available like Europeana or try
Open Library. No matter what your interest -- fantasy, science fiction, love,
horror, adventure, or poetry -- there’s something for everyone. Here’s an
example of two public domain poets -- Emily Dickinson and Ben King --
combined into my own work of literature.
The Traveler
A parting path, strong hiking stick --
morning sun calls the soul to quick’.
Nature’s whisper stirs able feet –
travelers lured by sweet retreat.
Gentle breezes kissed with lost perfumes
and honey bees dancing on eager blooms.
Early mist parts – dew’s last glow
reveals secrets only travelers can know.
Ambling trail beckons the way
for leaving forgotten yesterday.
A delicate hint of trespassed ground;
one traveler’s foot print is all that’s found.
© F. Kissell 2022
Art
Visual art found in the public domain covers a wide area including paintings,
drawings, photographs, home videos, full-length movies, cartoons, and
television shows. Use the paintings and stills as composites for your new
album cover or your living room wall, use them as website pictures (see the
header above), a humorous video about public domain (see the header
above), or use them as page backgrounds (see the website background that
surrounds this page). Some creative types make and post old fashion drive-
in movie videos including the cartoons, advertisements, and two feature films
(see short drive-in example below or search and download the Double
Feature Drive-in The 9th Guest -26 The Vampire Bat). I would give the link
but it goes against the Zystrix website model. Anyway, I’ve watched a couple
compilations like this and they are well done. Cut out sections of old art and
put them into a humorous re-make (see cell phone wallpaper below of
Socrates). There are many places to download public domain visual and
animated art like Gifs, cartoons, or movies. One of my favorite sites for
paintings and old art is the Art Institute of Chicago and also The Cleveland
Museum of Art. If you prefer movies and cartoons there are many to be had
at the always popular Public Domain Torrents and some of my favorites are
also found at the Internet Moving Images Archive. This same website
(Archive dot org) has lots of other public domain stuff like images, drawings,
old family videos, and so on. It’s fun to seach around the site for lots of
worthwhile tidbits. For more examples I have posted three re-touched extras
below.
Cell Phone
Old Drive-in Advertisement Old Drawing Wallpaper
Music
When it comes to music there are thousands of free sound effects, free
samples, free pads, free synthesizers for your DAW, free DAWs, free music
writing stuff including tablature, free MIDI files of the guitar and keyboard
classics including Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Sor, and Carcassi. And when
used judiciously all this free stuff will make your next project shine. There are
hundreds of great musical ideas heavily sprinkled in music written from 100 to
400 years ago. If you think you have an original musical idea there’s
probably someone’s work in the public domain who had a very similar idea
and published it long ago. It can be very humbling. There’s no reason to re-
invent the wheel, simply use theirs as a starting point. For the example
included below I combined ideas from Mozart and Sor, added some free-to-
use sound effects, and in about 30 minutes I produced this very short original
organ tune. Click here to hear the music. Enjoy. And you can also design
your own by using theirs as a jumping off point. Where does a person find
public domain music treasures? Musopen has some great stuff as does
Open Music Archive. Midi World has some cool MIDI downloads as does
M Files. If you need sound effects you can try Sound Bible and Pixabay
can be pretty cool. Zystrix has many free-to-use samples -- click on the
animated movie projector at the top of the page. If you need a free DAW try
Waveform Free or Cakewalk -- both are very good but for just a little money I
would highly recommend Reaper. For a smaller free open source multi-track
recorder that sounds great download Audacity. Need a free synth? There
are many really good free organs and synths out there but if you choose
nothing else download the Surge VST -- it’s a surprisingly good synth and I
used it on my organ music heard above. It is available from many free VST
websites.
CONCLUSION
I have only skimmed the surface here for free and public domain stuff. Think
of them as tools in your creative arsenal. I have used something from all of
these artistic disciplines as examples for your enjoyment and I still do for my
own creations. I hope this has helped spark the creative juices for your next
work, be it based on knowledge, art, or music -- or maybe all three.
The parting path begins here -- ahhh, sweet retreat.
Maybe I’ll see you later.
Knowledge, art, and music for all…
Fred
Zystrix = a source, shaman, or library disseminating secret or lost knowledge, art, or music.
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