Ownership, Authorship, Morality.
We had learned, in earlier lessons, that questions had been raised about the concept of ownership. We had been introduced to Roland Barthes’ famous Manifesto written in 1967 in our Critical Studies lessons last year. In this Barthes explained the idea, that everything we create is as a result of all of our previous life experiences and influences. This means that nothing we create is truly original and therefore, we cannot claim it entirely belongs to us.
In creative practice it is generally believed, that the right thing to do morally, is to always credit our influences (whenever we can identify them). This would obviously include photographers, writers, artists and teachers but may also include other less obvious or conventional influences.
Art Term – Appropriation
Appropriation in art and art history refers to the practice of artists using pre-existing objects or images in their art with little transformation of the original.
(https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/a/appropriation) accessed 26/12/19)
So, in summary ‘Appropriation’ is acceptable (and moral) so long as we make it clear that we have appropriated something and that we remember to credit our influences.
In some of my digital work at the start of these lessons I ‘appropriated’ images from the internet. The first of these was the two pictures I used to create ‘The Goddess Weeps’. This was before I knew how to check if the owners of these images were happy to share them. If I were to create something like this again, I would of course, check.
There is nothing further I would do to develop this piece as I am happy that it gets my message across and I consider it fully ‘resolved’.
The second piece of work used an image from a newspaper which had been posted online of the amazon rain forest burning (2019) and also an image of the two sides of a dollar bill. If I were to create something like this again I would check with the newspaper that they were happy for me to use the image or I would find a similar photograph that the photographer agreed to share online. I would find an image of a dollar bill also and would be less concerned about this image because I know other artists have used dollar bills in their work.
The American artist Mark Wagner (b.1975) has used dollar bills for example.
Selling Digital art Online and Viewing It.
(https:www.seditionart.com/how-it-works)
This website represents an online community of artists who create digital art. website enables users to share their work, buy digital art, sell it or rent it. On the home page there’s a short introductory video which explains the concepts of its owners. They compare art with the other things you can access digitally, like having films on your phone, laptop or TV. This is the basic idea, to enable people to have access to collections of art, so they can enjoy it in a new way. An example would be; if you were to have a dinner party with a particular theme, you could add to the experience by having digital art on show that is appropriate to your chosen theme.
I thought how this facility could also be an interesting way of giving children access to a wide range of art too.
For some artists this website will be a good way of selling their digital art or becoming recognised as digital artists. I am not interested in that but I would recommend the site to others.
Analysis and Evaluation of my Creative Outcomes:
Overall, I have found this course very interesting and it has opened my mind to lots of new possibilities which I have found exciting.
In the past many photographers put me off Photoshop (when I was modelling) because they complained about it being very difficult to use. However now that I’ve done this course I would feel confident to have a go. I know that digital tools like Photoshop and other programmes take time to learn. But with patience I have learned a lot in a short period of time.
I also know you can just learn what you need to for each situation. So each task is manageable and doesn’t have to be overwhelming.
As a result of these lessons I am incorporating digital art into my Fine Art practice, particularly animation.
I will continue to use and develop my skills with Photoshop and other digital tools in the future.
I am particularly pleased to have discovered the work of Nina Paley whilst researching digital artists. Her work has greatly influenced and inspired me. https://blog.ninapaley.com/
I will be including some GIFs she created (with her permission) which I have further edited, in my final Fine Art assessment on 9th January 2019. I will be projecting this short video onto the traditionally created triptych which features three moon phases. They represent the Triple Goddess and the little film I have edited is also about the Goddess, specifically the early representations of the Goddess in Art.
I am also very pleased to have created my ‘Goddess Website’ which showcases my artwork around this theme and includes digital artworks.
Combining my original physical ‘Triple Goddess’ artwork with the 2 minute video made up of individual dancing Goddesses (created by Nina Paley). Appropriated by me to create non physical representations of dancing Palaeolithic Goddesses using the full moon as the ‘screen’ (which is a symbolic representation of the Goddess).
‘Screenshot’
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