Sunday, May 8, 2011

MAC - Week 1 blog post 4, Personal Choice

this image is copyright from Microsoft Office clipart and used for educational purposes only.
(source: http://officeimg.vo.msecnd.net/en-us/images/MH900440225.jpg)

* Disclaimer: the image above is not the image in question but related to the following blog topic in its visual representation of a similar graphic.

Since we are allowed some freedom on the 4th blog post choice for each week, I thought I would comment on one of the article links from Professor Bustillos Tech and Media Hist link for the MAC class.

(Preface)
Coming from a Graphic Design / Fine Arts background, I continue to read and observe content of the graphic design world. Specifically, the links to Shepard Fairey's work on the Obama Election Poster. Fairey's stylistic approach being very commercial while also crossing over into the realm of fine art for the purposes of connecting with a large audience is somewhat compelling. Any art that provokes people for good or bad is an intriguing concept.

(Topic)
Connecting this to our reading on copyright, the appropriation of Fairey's use of a photo taken of Obama without permission raises the question of validity. While his poster design arguably far out weighs the original source in its cultural significance, it still doesn't excuse the fact that his appropriation was done without consent.

Recently, the lawsuit was dropped by the judge and other claims are being dealt with but ultimately it seems that new and updated legislation needs to be defined involving the repeated use of source material for the purposes of inspiration with the ultimate goal of creating something new.

It seems unclear as to what extent a consensus can be made on just what a noticeable difference is or how far does an artist have to go to be able to create something new from something already created.

This is a topic that will be of great concern to our collective society as long as the internet provides great accessibility to content and so many issues exist with the growing remix culture that will only continue to grow.

No comments:

Post a Comment