HOWTO Handcraft an Achingly Self-Referential Virtual Commodity Fetish Object

A tweet from Quinn Norton reminded me of this very funny parody Instructable by jdibbell. In just seven unneccesarily complicated steps, you too can learn how to transform a "weightless virtual commodity into a lovingly handmade piece of artisanal craftwork fated to collapse into its own meta-indexical core like the semiotic black hole it is."

Materials:

* one literary property (written but not owned by you)
* one arguably enforceable end-user license agreement (can be custom-ordered from an intellectual-property law firm or cribbed from software packaging and/or online terms-of-service agreements)
* one Second Life user account
* one United States Federal Reserve note or other tangible piece of currency (optional)
* basic bookbinding materials (available at most art-supply stores)

How to Handcraft an Achingly Self-Referential Virtual Commodity Fetish Object (For Fun and Profit!) (instructables.com)

[#1 posted by Anonymous, August 13, 2009 12:25 PM]

Which led me to this LED Rat throwie
http://www.instructables.com/id/LED-Throwie-Rat-or-Mouse/

[#2 posted by denkbert, August 13, 2009 2:09 PM]

This is hilarious.

The best part is the book-shaped token enduser license agreement part which prohibits you from actually reading the book.