re: the steiner phenomena

the inspiration for my own benshii project came from a youtube clip i'd seen of carla harryman performing her project,  "La Notte". I had run into it last semester while looking up some of her work, and never really looked into the form, i just assumed it was a creative phenomenon and i wanted to get my fingers on it. Learning that it has a name, a form and an expectation (never mind an archive of brilliance for comparison!), i feel like i've done it no justice, but i'll try again sometime. I watched steiner's "A Nightcap" and was immediately drawn to the ventrilloquist effect. Also the comedy! can i say that i find relief in humor within creativity? how i love hearing a laugh, a silly line. He uses the words coming right out of each character's mouth in a funny way, a way that they weren't intended to be speaking originally. It juxtaposes with the physical actions of the characters on screen, their movement and even their physical qualities -hey one has the voice of a woman! what interests me is the idea of taking one artists idea and injecting my own voice (not always literally) to claim it as my own. Should we, then, cut out the hunting dogs from a kinkade painting, adhere them to sticks and use them against a new and entirely different background? electronic musicians use "mash ups" of pop songs to create a new beat. writers refer to other authors and pieces of literature. what is this? have we run out of creative design to create new pieces, or is it just more fun to use pieces that already exist? and when does it become plagiarism?