Monday, November 14, 2011

Appropriate Appropriation

          From the beginning, I had a clear concept of what social issue I wanted to critique in my video. I chose body image in women. However, as soon as I knew what I wanted to do, I realized all of the problems I would face. How do I appropriate without stealing? Is that under five seconds of that song? What if someone already remixed this, do I need to remix it further? It seemed a daunting task to make such a short video. A question I found myself pondering often during my process was how changed and broken up do sound clips need to be to no longer be considered the originals, as I did not want to infringe on the many copyright laws that exist in this day and age. As Lawrence Lessig states, "We thus live in an era of "illegal art"-not because of the political message of the art, not because of its morality, but because to use and reuse without permission is deemed a crime." I focused a large amount of effort into making sure I stayed within legalities during my process, but I learned you have to be very mindful and always paying attention. I agree copyright should protect artists and people, but then again if the material is changed sufficiently, I think artists should be able to use more than a measly five seconds. Lawrence Lessig also wrote, "The mix produces the new creative work-the "remix."" My question as an artist is still the same: how do we properly remix media to create art if there are laws at preventing this every step of the way?
          Copyright issues aside, I also wasn't sure I would be able to completely avoid the PSA feeling while making a video about a social issue. My art does not normally focus on issues like this, so I really had to push myself to create an artistic video using found footage without stepping on any legal toes. I feel as though I was successful, but my video may still be a bit too linear for my liking.

4 comments:

  1. Only being allowed 5 seconds of a video clip does create difficulties and annoyances. It can seem a bit ridiculous if you are in fact completely transforming it. Your critique on body image was quite jarring. It was especially strong with the comparison of a person with an eating disorder to a skeleton. It is very tragic and shattering.

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  2. I really enjoyed your video because it didn't seem like a PSA at all. It seemed like the preview for a 20/20 special. I think that was because you picked a topic that seemed to have a lot of press and were able to find so many good clips that fit your theme.

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  3. I was similarly worried about the whole "PSA" feeling of videos regarding a social issue, but I think you were very successful in creating a more dramatically layered film than a very blunt and in your face video that PSA's tend to be. Both however, can be highly effective in getting the artist's point across, which yours also did very well.

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  4. TV and PSA structure saturates our brains and reverting to that structure in this medium feels natural. Alternately, the artist could forge forward wrapping the mind around ways to create experimental unfamiliar structures that still express a feeling or opinion on an issue.

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