Course Description

In 1928, Oswald de Andrade published the “Cannibal Manifesto” (Manifesto Antropófago) that identified the principle of cultural appropriation as key to Brazilian culture. He wasn't the only one. Throughout the 20th century, numerous artistic movements – cubism and dada, music concrete and found-footage film, situationism, pop art, and appropriation art to name but a few - have worked with pre-existing cultural materials as an avant-garde practice. With the spread of digital media, we have surrounded ourselves with a near-infinite amount of cultural materials, easy to access, easy to manipulate, easy to distribute. Now, appropriation is the new normal in artistic practice, and new cultural genres are emerging from it, from popular meme culture to sampling in music, collaborative films, performative reenactments, and works of art for the white cube. In recent years, debates about the limits of ‘cultural appropriation have come to the forefront, questioning the power relationships inherent in acts of appropriation and sharply criticizing certain practices as racist or colonial. In this module, we will look at the history of appropriation as an artistic technique, focus on the practice of appropriation in the networked culture of the present and address the controversies around contemporary practices.

Course Requirements

Presence and active participation in the joint and break-out sessions

Contribution to shared note-taking

Short Essay (1-3 pages) consisting of, roughly, one-third own material, one-third material from Wikipedia, and one-third from shared notes.

Shared Notes

Joint Sessions (https://pad.vmk.zhdk.ch/appropriation_art-joint)

Break-out Sessions (https://pad.vmk.zhdk.ch/appropriation_art-breakout)

Monday: Imitation, Stealing, Digesting

“Good artists borrow, great artists steal.” Steve Jobs

“Lesser artists borrow; great artists steal.” Pablo Picasso or Igor Stravinsky

“Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.” TS Eliot, 1921

Anthrophagia, Tropicalismo, Open Culture

Oswald de Andrade, 1928. Manifesto Antropofago Cannibalist Manifesto transl. Leslie Bary. Latin American Literary Review, Vol. 19, No. 38 (Jul. - Dec. 1991), pp. 38-47

Dunn, Christopher 1996. The Tropicalista Rebellion. Interview with Caetano Veloso. Transition(70): 116. (read 121-126) (local copy)

Caetano Veloso, Tropicalia, Lyrics, 1968 (live Performance 2012)

A Guide to Tropicália in 20 Albums, 6:38

Hélio Oiticica. Tropicália, 1966/67 ( Original Installation View, Whitney Museum 2017)

Democracy Now! From Political Prisoner to Cabinet Minister: Legendary Brazilian Musician Gilberto Gil on His Life, His Music and the Digital Divide. JUNE 25, 2008 (openness in the digital domain: 35:08 - )

Digitofagia Sao Paolo, October 2004

Afternoon

Peter Bürger. Theory of the Avant-Garde, trans. Michael Shaw, University of Minnesota Press, 1984, 134 pp. (read p. 73-82, Chapter Montage)

Alfred Döblin: Berlin Alexanderplatz. Die Geschichte vom Franz Biberkopf. 1929 (read S. 13-21) Walter Ruttmann: Symphonie einer Grosstadt, 1927, 664 min (watch at least first 15 minutes)

William Burroughs. The Invisible Generation. 1962 (original layout) William Burroughs. The Cut-Up. Method of Brion Gysin

Tuesday: Swimming in the sea of analogue media

Music Concrete

Luigi Russolo. The Art of Noise. (futurist manifesto, 1913), translated by Robert Filliou. 1967 (Modern reconstruction of the machines)

Arseny Avraamov. Symphony of factory sirens. Baku 1922, Moscow 1923

Halim El-Dabh (1921-2017). The Expression of Zaar/The Wire Piece. 1944

Pierre Schaeffer: Etude aux chemins de fer, 1948

Pierre Schaeffer, Pierre Henry: Symphonie pour un Homme Seul, 1949

John Cage. William's Mix. 1952 (full-length version, 5:44)

Holmes, Thom. 2008. Electronic and Experimental Music: Technology, Music, and Culture. 3rd ed. New York: Routledge.

Found Footage Film

Charles A. Ridley. Lambeth Walk: Nazi Style, 1941, 2:18 Min.

Burce Conner: A Movie, 1958, 12 Min (a video essay about “A Movie”)

Dara Birnbaum. Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman, 1978. 5 Min

Martin Arnold. Piece Touchée, 1989, 15 Min.

Rick Prelinger: This is Prelinger Archive. 2001

Christian Marclay. Telephones, 1995 7:15 The Clock, 2010, 24:00:00

Hausheer, Celilia und Christoph Settele (1992): Found footage film, Luzern: VIPER/Zyklop-Verlag.

Sebastian Lütgert: Get in the car, get out of the car, 2019

Afternoon

Crimp, Douglas. 1977 Pictures, New York: Artists Space, 1977, 30 pp

Jack Goldstein The Jump, 1979, 00:52

Joan Jonas Disturbances, 1974, 11:00

Crimp, Douglas. 1980. “The Photographic Activity of Postmodernism.” October 15: 91–101.

Edward Westen. Neil. 1923

Crimp, Douglas. 1982/1993 "Appropriating Appropriation", in Image Scavengers: Photography, ed. Paula Marincola, Institute of Contemporary Art/University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982, pp 27-34; repr. in Crimp, On the Museum's Ruins, 1993, pp 126-137.

Michael Graves, Portland Municipal Services Building, 1982

Frank Gehry Residence, 1978

Robert Mapplethorpe

Wednesday: Postmodernism & Apporpriation Art

Re-Photography

Sherry Levine

Art Works. The Art Story

After Walter Evans, Metro Pictures Gallery, 1981

Buskirk, Martha. 1994. “Interviews with Sherrie Levine, Louise Lawler, and Fred Wilson.” October 70(Autumn): 98–112 buskirk1994.pdf

Michael Mandiberg. AfterSherryLevine.com 2001

Richard Prince

Cowboys, 1989 ,Untitled (Cowboy): Behind Richard Prince's Photographs & Appropriation, Time Magazine, 2016, 14 Min

"Canal Zone." Gagosian Galery, 2014

Prince vs. Carriou, The question of fair use The ‘Transformation’ of Fair Use After Prince v. Cariou 2014

“New Portraits.” Prince & Instagram Suicide Girls' reaction reselling re-appropriation

Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Pictures Generation, 1974–1984, 2009

Jerry Saltz Great Artists Steal, ArtNet, 2009

Evans, David, ed. 2009. Appropriation. Documents of Contemporary Art. London : Cambridge, Mass: Whitechapel ; MIT Press. Read Introduction. p.12-23

Afternoon

Kenneth Goldsmith “The Body of Michael Brown” 2015

Context: Shooting of Michael Brown. Wikipedia

Racial controversy over poem ends conference event earlyThe Brown University school newspaper’s account of the reading and response

What Happened When A White Male Poet Read Michael Brown’s Autopsy As Poetry, Huffington Post, March 17

Much ado about Kenneth Goldsmith. eflux, March - Sept. 2015

P.E. Garcia “The Body of Kenneth Goldsmith”

Adam Jordan “Kenneth Goldsmith’s Formalized Injustice”

Goldsmith First Response on Facebook, Second Response

Death Threat For Michael Brown Autopsy Poem -- Kenneth Goldsmith Responds, 2017

Dana Schutz “Open Casket”, 2016

The Body Of Emmett Till | 100 Photos | TIME

Dana Schutz’s Painting of Emmett Till at Whitney Biennial Sparks Protest Artnet News, March 21, 2017

Dana Schutz Responds to the Uproar Over Her Emmett Till Painting at the Whitney Biennial Artnet News, March 23, 2017

Speidel, Klaus. 2017. “ Dana Schutz’s ‘Open Casket’: A Controversy around a Painting as a Symptom of an Art World Malady.” Spike Art Magazine. March 24, 2017.

Michaels, Walter Benn. 2018. “Who Gets Ownership of Pain and Victimhood?” Le Monde Diplomatique, May 2018. https://mondediplo.com/2018/05/14race-class.

Choose your own case

Thursday: Limits of (Cultural) Appropriation

i-D. What’s the Difference Between Appropriation and Appreciation? 2019 3:28 (mostly refers to fashion).

Afternoon

Referentiality & Remix

Felix Stalder. 2018. Digital Condition. Polity Press. (read chapter"Referentiality" p. 59-79)

Meme Culture

Patrick Davison, 2012 The Language of Internet Memes. from The Social Media Reader edited by Michael Mandiberg, 2012

Richard Dawkins Foundation. What’s In A Meme? 2014

Black Meme Culture

Jackson, Laur M., 2016 The Blackness of Meme Movement modelviewculture.com

Aria Dean Poor Meme, Rich Meme Real Life Mag, July 25, 2016

Friday: Remix & Memes

Preview of student texts

Nate Harrison Can I Get An Amen?, 2004

Kirbey Furgeson. Everything is a remix. 2015, 38 min. (in particular: part 3: the Sources of Creativity)

Copyright Reform: Recht auf Remix

Feels Good Man. Documentary on Pepe the Frog, 2020, 90 min.

Afternoon

Writing Essay