Reading and Film Group
Monday, 31st October; 7 pm, Appleton Tower, Lecture Theatre 3 (Map)
Film: Derrida (2002) – Dir. Kirby Dick, Amy Ziering (IMDb)
(Next week’s reading: The Laugh of the Medusa, H. Cixous)
Discussion Group
Tuesday, 1st November; 7 pm, The New Amphion, Teviot (Map) [NOTE: NOT IN USHER’S!]
Topic: Language and Representation
Academic Support Office Hours – General
Thursday, 3rd November; 2 pm until 4 pm, Dugald Stewart Building (DSB), Room 5.01.
Guest Lecture
Thursday, 3rd November, 6.15 pm, David Hume Tower, Lecture Theatre B.
Speaker: Dr Lisa Jones, University of St Andrews
Title: ‘The Ethics and Aesthetics of Art Appropriation’
Abstract:
Artworks have always been copied. Why they are copied – to what ends, and with what intentions – often makes all the difference as to whether we deem their copying legitimate or illegitimate. Forgery is bad, but appropriation isn’t – at least, the prevalence of Appropriation Art since the mid-20th century seems to suggest that it is a legitimate art activity.In this talk, I want to consider whether and when it might be aesthetically wrong to appropriate artworks in the creation of other artworks. This concern has not been much at the forefront of contemporary discussions of appropriation, which to date have taken place mostly in the Law literature. Focused mainly on famous copyright infringement cases provoked by some instances of Appropriation Art, those discussions tend to reflect the idea that the appropriation of art is sometimes akin to theft. This, of course, is a moral matter. But theft and ownership are not the only kinds of concerns we might have about appropriations, and there is much more to be said about appropriation than is addressed in the legal discussions. I will argue that, outside of the legal arena and its concerns with copyright infringement, outside of concerns about ownership and theft, we should also consider that appropriation can occasionally be aesthetically destructive, and that this can count towards it being aesthetically illegitimate.