“The central, universal characteristic of derivatives,” according to Dick Bryan and Michael Rafferty, “is their capacity to ‘dismantle’ or ‘unbundle’ any asset into constituent attributes and trade those attributes without trading the asset itself.” Neither possession nor ownership of the underlying asset is required to configure its attributes into universally recognizable and thus tradable elements. The derivative dismantles or unbundles any asset into individual attributes and trades them without trading the asset itself; this operating logic finds its way into the cultural text when the fluid conversion between assets is exploited by conglomerates with holdings in a variety of intellectual property. To think of textual reference in such a manner would be to price the constitutive elements of a “mosaic of quotations,” to dismantle and unbundle its textual assets.

XREF: Connects to financialization of culture and how conglomerates treat intellectual property as liquid assets convertible into other forms.

Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, loc. 169