If I were cheeky enough I would right this response entirely from quotes from the two articles. Though I am cheeky I am also under a time constraint and that would take a lot of effort. It would take a lot of effort because as The Ectasy of Influence implies (great segway) true appropriation comes from a filtering of material through one’s life and vision. I am now appropriating from EVERYTHING I’ve ever read/seen/heard/experienced automatically.
The Ecstasy article spelled out clearly something I’ve been struggling with for a while. What are the limits of influence? Is it okay to be inspired by someone else? Of course it is, but to what extent? I didn’t know that Lolita was based in some part, perhaps accidentally, perhaps not, on a book of the same name. The article tackles the issue of plagiarism and emphasises that what we love about cultural blessings are not the things they steal, but the way they contextualize influences in new ways.
The author seemed to answer my questions as they arrived in my head. The article explained the political implications of copyright. Much respect for Tdawg Jefferson, but it would have liked a bit more breadth in the citing of founding fathers. I predicted the article would end with a blessing to steal/pirate/appropriate the author’s work, but the author stood by only allowing appropriation and recontextualization. Jefferson was again cited.
The Molotov Man article presented copyright in a way that I had never seen before- from both sides! Basically Joy recontextualized a painting of a man not wanting to know its back story and the original artist sued. The original artist, Susan, felt that context is key to understanding humanity and argued for the perpetuation of Molotov Man’s story (his real name is Pablo Arauz- look it up- so there Susan).
The article demonstrated the hive mind mentality of the internet. Users placed the Molotov Man everywhere when they heard of the lawsuit. Some mistaken participants thought the campaign was against Pepsi and acted accordingly. This misinformation is an example of the recontextualization of a recontextualization. Susan told her story and it was not the first time her image was appropriated- proving that this is not a new issue or idea. Artistic heist is required.
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