Copying is OK

BAM believes that Copying is OK, because copying can only have two results and both results have benefits. In one scenario the copy is not as good as the original. In this case the author or creator of the original is still ‘the best’ product or idea.  There is certainly a sense of pride which comes from copy-cats not being able to best the original. However, in some cases a copy may actually surpass the original. The copy took an idea or a product, and through copying it, improved upon it, and made it better. When this occurs, the author of the copied item or idea does not benefit, but the greater public does. This is how ideas advance in both art and technology. Both outcomes of Copying are essentially good. 

Recently BAM was copied again, this time by ‘design’ firm Z’scape.

只有站在疯狂的资本主义立场上，山寨才被视为坏事儿。这个逻辑是，如果人们知道自己的想法会被窃取，他们就不会去创造或创新。但这似乎从根本上忽视了人类和动物原始竞争的本能。想一想，如果一个人先提出了一个创意，而这个人和公司要永远拥有这个创意，不仅要阻挡和隔离了前进的步伐，而且在获利的同时还要阻止他人使用同样的创意的想法是很荒谬的。

Only through the lens of deranged capitalism is copying perceived as BAD. The logic continues that, people won’t create or innovate if they know their ideas will be stolen. This seems to fundamentally ignore the human and animal impulse to compete. It seems ridiculous to think that if one to were arrive at an idea first, that said individual or company is entitled to the idea indefinitely and not only should be protected and insulated from the march of progress, but financially benefit while keeping others from trying the same idea.

于 BAM 而言，山寨只能是好的。当我们发现被山寨的时候，难免会感到一阵愤怒。但大多数情况下，我们纯粹当成一场喜剧来看。BAM 已经有一些项目被生生山寨了，在这当然是很常见的。山寨品有时候极为劣质，让人不禁质疑这是何必，因此“山寨”这个词常常带有一些诙谐的意味。BAM 第一次被山寨的作品是为太古集团在北京酒仙桥打造的一个“开创性的游乐场”。

For BAM, copying can only be good. When we get copied, there is a unavoidable twinge of anger, but in most cases it is pure comedy.  BAM has had a few project copied HARD. In China this of course is common. The term Shanzhai, has a hint of comedy, in which a copy is somehow hilariously bad, that one would question why even attempt it. The first time BAM was copied was the ‘playground that started it all’ in Beijing for Swire in Jiuxianqiao.

This project was really one of the first internet-famous designed playgrounds in China, starting a new wave a play environments. Almost immediately it was copied elsewhere in Beijing. Many of the details where copied exactly, however, the overall proportions of the project seemed to allude the designers of the copy. This malformed version of BAM’s design only serves to provide us, not only with pride but a hilarious moment of WTF?! In this case a fairly ‘no-name’ local design institute obviously prompted by a fairly ‘no-name’ developer to Copy (but smaller and cheaper) BAM’s design.

Recently BAM was copied again, and yet again the miniaturization and deformation of the proportional system of BAM’s design is akin to the feeling of farting, but then realizing it was more than just air. While BAM still maintains that copying is ok, this time some of the conditions are different. The design firm which has copied BAM’s work, Z’scape, presents itself as an up and coming design firm, with clients like Aranya. Developers show no shame in attempting to copy each other’s ideas a seemingly endless competition of polite-modern, faux-minimal, one-upmanship to garner attention from the conformist trend-hunting sensibilities of a rising middle class.  In this world of constant regurgitation, it is the job of the designer to find was of taking ideas and making them anew. However not here. It is one thing for a local design institute to blatantly copy another’s design at the behest of a developer, yet, its seems to be something entirely different when a company which espouses to be a ‘design firm’ engages in such ridiculous methods. Not only was BAM’s work copied, but it also appears there is a copy of an art installation by artist Yang Tao, the original was in Beijing at the Parkview Green Fangcaodi.

Zhou Liangjun, Founder of Z'Scape often utilized BAM's first office, a siheyaun in Beijing, while helping MSP to establish a presence in China. LJ often liked to start his sentences with “In China” wishing to impart unsolicited advice onto an early BAM about how things work in China. In most cases when people start a sentence with “In China” it is typically a vague justification for why something new should not be tried. Trying something new and not copying takes extra work at greater risk, but with potentially higher reward. BAM has continued to forge a unique path which both resist yet also redefines the “In China” paradigm. Copying is OK and we can only hope that LJ and the Z’Scape team have some more fantastic Copies in the works!

We must thank Z’scape for showing us yet again that “COPYING IS OK!”

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