Use and re-use: use and re-use

Arman Duzel

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#Iconoclasm | #Communities_of_interest | #Delimiting | #Autonomous_Action | #Public_Domain

Copyright in simple terms is the legal right which protects the creative work of a person from being copied, stolen, used or reused and profited from without the agreement or sale of license from the original creator. Eric Schrijver (2019), an ICT designer and artist from Amsterdam, shows that copyright has on not only the original creator, but the artist utilising the works properties to create a piece of art There are two chapters from Copy this book: an artist's guide to copyright. He shares legal advice for artists on how, on the one hand, to avoid breaking copyright and to protect their own work, on the other.

His objective is to make it known and clear that there are many exemptions and allowances in copyright but no matter what is practiced or what is considered, art is not an excuse or permission or free license. Copyright law can vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction but what may not be mentioned is how copyright may also affect curators and exhibitions. As a curator, there must be a knowledge of the work beforehand to assure there is no embarrassment but more importantly to avoid a legal dispute.

Figure 1: Phillip Lorca di Corcia “Heads” series (2000) Head #13

Figure 2: Brandon Stanton photographs a DKNY store front using his images as a background (2013) DKNY Promo

Schrijver (2019) begins by addresses the iconoclasm of plaster statues in the 1960s in art schools to avoid copyright claims, infringement and possibly to send a political message. An example of this is the infamous self destructive painting ‘Girl with balloon’ by Banksy which immediately after selling for over a million pounds, began to shred itself through the frame which Banksy is said to have installed purposefully, quoting Picasso with “the urge to destroy is also a creative urge’.

Regardless of the circumstances, unless a license or permission has been granted by the original creator it is a breach of copyright to use or steal someone's work, even if no profit has been made. Within a courtroom or legal dispute scenario, there is bound to be communities of interest, which will affect the outcome as each individual will more than likely share the common interest or practice. Copyright breaking can affect curatorial practices which in turn may affect the show. A major example of this is the Art Rogers versus Jeff Koons case in 1992. Rogers photographed a couple holding a litter of puppies in 1985 titled ‘puppies’ and sold these photographs for use as postcards and such.

Art Rogers Photographs a couple with a litter of puppies, titled Puppies (1985) & Right Jeff Koons makes a sculpture of Art Rogers photograph without permissions or licence, titled A string of puppies (1988)

Three years later Jeff Koons came across Rodgers’ photograph by chance and appropriated it for an artwork. The sculpture made a huge profit of over three hundred thousand dollars and in 1992 a court found in favour of copyright infringement, throwing out Koons plea on parody, defined in the art world as “a work created to mock, comment on, or poke fun at an original work” (Schroeder, 2015). There was an obvious error with regards to knowledge and research on the curators' part which could have saved Koons the lawsuit had they acted on the decision to show the work before exhibiting. This could also affect the reputation of the gallery and curator by exposing the lack of curatorial practices.

Figure 3: Daniel Morel screenshots his own picture on a website that sold and distributed his image of a woman is helped to safety after being trapped in rubble, Haiti (2013)

The 19th Century novelist Victor Hugo anticipated an issue that is hotly debated today. It was his view that what we understand as copyright should not pass onto the heir or next of kin: 'we should not mistake the descent of blood for the descent of the spirit' (Schriver, 2019). In other words, those that did not make the work should not be able to decide what happens with it. So by delimiting the public domain through the Berne Convention, which introduced copyright after 70 years, the ownership of work was extended. There are only 28 countries that are not signed on this treaty. Fortunately. Ireland is not one of them. Some question the morals and ethical choices of this towards the families of those who created this work. This legislation is very useful for curators or anyone seeking to adopt a curation mindset to the use and re-use of images and extracts reproduced from original artworks. It allows work to continue to be shown as well as allowing profit and resale of the work to continue.

Perez Hilton screenshots and adds watermark over Robert Chaplin’s original photo with watermark (2013)

Citation

Duzel, A. (2020) 'Use and re-use' in Curating Photography: Poolside. TU Dublin: BA Photography [Online]. Available at www.curating.photography/post/arman-duzel

References

Deshpande, P., (2020) Content Curation: Copyright, Ethics & Fair Use - Content Curation Marketing. [online] Content Curation Marketing. Available at: <http://www.contentcurationmarketing.com/content-curation-copyright-ethics-fair-use/> [Accessed 26 March 2020].

Design Observer. (2020) Art Rogers Vs. Jeff Koons. [online] Available at: <https://designobserver.com/feature/art-rogers-vs-jeff-koons/6467> [Accessed 20 April 2020].

Meiselman, J., (2020) How Jeff Koons, 8 Puppies, And A Lawsuit Changed Artists’ Right To Copy. [online] Artsy. Available at: <https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-jeff-koons-8-puppies-lawsuit-changed-artists-copy> [Accessed 19 April 2020].

MICA, E., (2020) Curatorial Practice (MFA). [online] MICA. Available at: <https://www.mica.edu/graduate-programs/curatorial-practice-mfa/> [Accessed 23 March 2020].

Thecdi.net. (2020) Communities Of Interest. [online] Available at: <https://www.thecdi.net/Communities-of-Interest> [Accessed 23 March 2020].

Twiford, K., (2020) 5 Examples Of Image Copyright Battles Between Creators And Brands. [online] Libris Stories. Available at: <https://librisblog.photoshelter.com/5-examples-of-image-copyright-battles-between-creators-and-brands/> [Accessed 23 March 2020].

Pixsy. (2020) The 10 Most Famous Copyright Cases In Photography | Pixsy. [online] Available at: <https://www.pixsy.com/the-10-most-famous-copyright-cases-in-photography/> [Accessed 23 March 2020].

The Verge (2020) One Of Banksy’S Paintings Self-Destructed Just After It Was Auctioned. [online] Available at: <https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/7/17947744/banksy-ballon-girl-artwork-self-destructed-sothbys> [Accessed 19 April 2020].

Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}. (2020) "Curation" Versus Fair Use: How To Keep Your Content Safe. [online] Available at:<https://businessesgrow.com/2015/09/22/fair-use-copyright-content/> [Accessed 26 March 2020].

Schrijver, E., (2020) Eric Schrijver. [online] Ericschrijver.nl. Available at: <https://ericschrijver.nl/\> [Accessed 20 April 2020].

Schrijver, E. (2019) ‘In love with the copy: visual arts’ in Copy this book: an artist's guide to copyright. Eindhoven: Onomatopee.

Schrijver, E. (2019) ‘No known restrictions: the public domain’ in Copy this book: an artist's guide to copyright. Eindhoven: Onomatopee.

Schroeder, (2020) Parody In Art. [online] Slideshare.net. Available at: <https://www.slideshare.net/christopherschroeder549/parody-in-art> [Accessed 20 April 2020].

Exhibition as interface

Hannah Cosgrove

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#User | #Interaction | #Cognitive_experience | #Accessibility | #Digital_curation

Johanna Drucker (2014) claims that we need a theory of the ways interfaces announce themselves to the subjects engaging with them. Brenda Laurel defined interface as a 'surface where the necessary contact between interactors and tasks allowed functions to be performed'. I think the idea of a surface is what begins to give this symbolic space a material aspect and it is important to realise that this idea of the surface being ‘symbolic’ demonstrates that there isn’t that much in interfaces that are tangible.

She states that interface is what we read and how we read combined through engagement. I think this is an important issue to raise as the engagement with the interface is as important as the interface itself and whether it is effective.

Because we are so used to seeing interfaces we don't see them as models rather we see them as cues for actions.

She examines the benefits of a humanistic design, which is subject-oriented rather than user-centered. It is argued that this approach would not just include accommodation to preference, habits of the subjects' thought, taste, and differences of reading. She looks at how we are adaptive to our environments and that the icon model is a way to organize our behaviors rather than representing the world. I think that this creates more than a surface between the interface and the subject, it moves past being symbolic and begins to become something with more depth. It is highlighted that because we are so used to seeing them we don't see them as models rather we see them as cues for actions. I think that this is similar to photographs in that we only see what is in the image, not the photograph itself.

This is engaging the idea is of it being human-centred and not just impersonal and generic.

The display is only there and we can only absorb it, there is not much challenging or interaction going on, user experience being reductively mechanistic. In the image below it begins to play with the idea of an interactive interface being used for curation.

Fig 1

Pijarski, K. (2018) examines that there was extreme but short lived intervention of critical postmodernism, also known as "pervert" modernism due to the presence of the photographic image. This defined art in terms of photography instead of photography in terms of art. This allowed for photography to have a claim for itself which the art world was not used to. Which I do not believe to be true as it still has political appeal today. Jorge Ribalta states that 'photography's triumph as art means its complete defeat as a document'. This relates to photography if it got completely immersed into the art world there would be a rise of an anti-realist discourse about photography, which destroys 'the political potential to link art to transformative radical politics.

In my opinion as well as photography becoming more and more established within art, other uses of photography are happening parallel to this. There are good examples of how online can work as an exhibition space but also as a place to view work whenever you feel like it (fig 2). Ribalta examines the developments within the photography world that have led to the rediscovery of zines and photo books. He states that they promised quick production, instant circulation and to be more accessible which provides a solution to the exclusivity of the gallery community.

Fig 2

But he highlights that the gallery spaces and their ability to absorb images together is still important and the exchange of ideas but they remain exclusive towards the wider public. Marcus Schaden, described by Aperture as a photobook evangelist, has been unenthusiastic about young photographers who he has claimed focus only on style not content. He also argued that "We need to go beyond that." I think there are definitely elements of truth to these statements but young photographers should not be automatically grouped. There are a number of young photographers creating books with very engaging content as well as older photographers. He claims that digital publishing presented a path forward for the publisher because of accessibility at a minimal cost and they allowed further contextual material. In my opinion they do not engage with the viewer the same way exhibitions or photobooks do as it is much harder to create an experience through a screen.

Fig 3

Finally, it could be argued that this type of exhibition would work best online but then it would lose what is really engaging about it. What is effective about it is taking it out of context (an online environment) and putting it somewhere different creating a new reality.

Citation

Cosgrove, H. (2020) 'Exhibition as interface' in Curating Photography: Poolside. TU Dublin: BA Photography [Online]. Available at www.curating.photography/post/hannah-cosgrove

References

Drucker, J. (2014). ‘Interface and interpretation’ in Graphesis: visual forms of knowledge production. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Pijarski, K. (2018). ‘How to deal with liquidity’ in Rastenberger, A.K. and Sikking, I. (eds.) Why Exhibit? Positions on exhibiting photographies. Amsterdam: Fw Books.

Images

Fig 1. Homepage (2020) Cluster ducks. Available at https://anti-materia.org/circumventing-the-white-cube

Fig 2. Zuntz, R. (2013). Saving face installation.

Fig 3. Atkins, E. (2019) VVORK, 2006–2012. Screenshot of 3D index page.

The common world

Jordan Hearns

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#Social_curation | #Communities_of _interest | #Hospitality | #Artistic_research | #Testing_ground

The topic of hospitality comes under strain once the mistreatment of refugees becomes highlighted. Ruth Sonderegger (2016, p.20) ponders “is it anything but cynical to write about hospitality in a geopolitical context where not only hospitality but also basic human rights are trampled?”. The roles these refugees play in highlighting the shortcomings of Western democracies is noted by Sonderegger (2016, p.20), who asks whether this goes “against the grain of hospitality’s universal if not infinite claim?”.

Fig 1 Gholami, R. (2019) Hoping To Survive, Afghanistan, 2019.

Sonderegger wonders would this, in a curatorial context, “imply that respect for the guest in an exhibition entails that all beings inside the respective exhibition be shown the same consideration as the guest?” (Sonderegger, 2016, p.21). The term guest implies a level of respectability. How well are those featured in the photographs treated? What is preventing these able-bodied institutions from inviting those in need into their spaces? “How on earth could one be inclined to think that curatorial hospitality is easier to achieve than hospitality towards refugees?” (Sonderegger, 2016, p.21).

In Ireland. the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealíon claims that through research they have gained significant insight into the essential role diversity and equality plays in releasing the full potential of Ireland’s artistic and cultural talent and engaging people from every background and perspective in the arts' (2020, p.2).

Fig 2 Arias, G. (2018) Aerial view of Honduran migrants heading in a caravan to the U.S., resting in a basketball court in San Pedro Tapanatepec, Oaxaca State, southern Mexico on October 28, 2018.

The lasting impact on the spectator is an aspect that should be at the forefront of every exhibition plan. Intellectual and social engagement within an exhibition space can produce lasting relationships and impact on all involved. It’s also a chance to include and platform those who are repeatedly marginalised within society, in this case, refugees. The last question Sonderegger (2016, p.23) asks in her text is “what if the guests want to stay?”.

How on earth could one be inclined to think that curatorial hospitality is easier to achieve than hospitality towards refugees? - Sonderegger.

Being able to facilitate spectators who want to know more by listening intently and aiming to further their knowledge of what’s shown is a promising factor. The National Gallery of Ireland highlights their public engagement factors, saying “this division is made up of Visitor Experience, Education, Marketing, Communications and Digital Engagement.” In the curation of an exhibition, it’s vital to acknowledge all possible avenues of engagement, looking to other galleries for reference. Similarly, IMMA have a myriad of public policies listed on their site, from customer protection to gender equality. All of these factors should be considered when examining potential visitors to your space, so you can ensure their stay is not only pleasant, but also welcoming and affirming.

Fig 3 UNSEEN 2018 - CO-OP.

The notion of collaboration within art forms is greatly important, with author Lars Willumeit (2018, p.306) stating that collaborative art “defines itself not by style, medium or materiality, but through social processes relationalities between artist, subject, and viewer, and their common world.” The curation of an exhibition relies on collaboration, a contemporary happening. Willumeit references the ‘Unseen CO-OP’, a contemporary exhibit featuring thirteen collectives presenting their retrospective works in the form of a “meta-collective”. This is intended to aid and foster social relations and platform contemporary issues facing those involved. This is a contemporary curatorial practice, including content curators and contemporary topics/concerns.

Fig. 4 Interior of “Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects”, MoMA, 2011.

The compilation of collectives can be understood in a number of ways. In terms of photography, Willumeit (2018, p.308) contests that it’s “a fertile testing ground for these relationships”. Similarly, MoMA hosted an exhibition in 2011 called “Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects”. The show focused on “objects that involve a direct interaction, such as interfaces, information systems, visualization design, and communication devices, and on projects that establish an emotional, sensual, or intellectual connection with their users.” Photography being a tool for creating communities is a contemporary topic, inherently relevant to curatorial practices in the current moment. Taking heed from MoMA, the dynamics of communication between people and objects, in this case photographs, is something that should be addressed in the curation of an exhibition.

There have been paradigmatic changes in the past and it seems there are more to come ahead - Willumeit, 2018.

The essence of collaboration is also inherent to the dissemination of photographs. To understand this, a historical perspective must be considered, “as there have been paradigmatic changes in the past and it seems there are more to come ahead” (Willumeit, 2018, p. 310). The furthering of reproduction technology meant that photography had increased versatility and reach, only achievable through collaboration. In terms of curation, the role of the viewer should be a primary focus, so it is not under-appreciated and forgotten.

Citation

Hearns, J. (2020) 'Being human-centred' in Curating Photography: Poolside. TU Dublin: BA Photography [Online]. Available at www.curating.photography/post/jordan-hearns

References

Arts Council: Equality, Human Rights & Diversity Policy & Strategy. (2020) Available at: http://www.artscouncil.ie/uploadedFiles/EHRD%20Policy%20English%20version%20Final.pdf (Viewed

Blum, A. (2017) The Role of Art in a World Overrun by Refugee Crises. Available at: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-role-of-art-in-a-world-overrun-by-refugees-crises (Accessed April 4th, 2020).

Farago, J. (2019) The Museum Is the Refugee’s Home. Available at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/13/arts/design/the-museum-is-the-refugees-home.html (Accessed March 20th, 2020.)

Feuerhelm, B. (2019) Why Exhibit? An Interview with Anna-Kaisa Rastenberger & Iris Sikking. Available at: https://americansuburbx.com/2019/04/why-exhibit-an-interview-with-anna-kaisa-rastenberger-iris-sikking.html (accessed March 25th, 2020)

Groys, B. (2018) Curating in the Post-Internet Age. Available at:

https://www.e-flux.com/journal/94/219462/curating-in-the-post-internet-age/ (Accessed March 31st, 2020)

Scheller, J. (2016) It’s Complicated. Available at: https://frieze.com/article/its-complicated (Accessed April 4th, 2020)

Sonderegger, R. (2016) ‘Curatorial Hospitality?” in Bismarl, VB and Meyer-Krahmer, B (2016) Cultures of the curatorial 3 : hospitality - hosting relations in exhibitions. Berlin, Sternberg Press. Pp. 19-23.

'We never chose this': refugees use art to imagine a better world – in pictures. (2019) Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/gallery/2019/dec/25/we-never-chose-this-refugees-use-art-to-imagine-a-better-world-in-pictures (Viewed March 29th, 2020)

Willumeit, L. (2018) ‘Why not…gather together?!— Imagineering the (Un-)becomings of Photography as Arenas and Communities of Collective Meaning-Making and Collaborative Agency’ in Rastenberger, A.K and Sikking, I (2018) ‘Why Exhibit? Positions On Exhibiting Photographies’. Amsterdam, FW Books, pp.301-311.

Images

Fig 1 Gholami, R. (2019) Hoping To Survive, Afghanistan, 2019. Digital image, Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/gallery/2019/dec/25/we-never-chose-this-refugees-use-art-to-imagine-a-better-world-in-pictures (Viewed March 30th, 2020)

Fig 2 Arias, G. (2018) Aerial view of Honduran migrants heading in a caravan to the U.S., resting in a basketball court in San Pedro Tapanatepec, Oaxaca State, southern Mexico on October 28, 2018. Digital image, Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/gallery/2019/dec/25/we-never-chose-this-refugees-use-art-to-imagine-a-better-world-in-pictures (Viewed March 20th, 2020)

Fig 3 Unseen 2018 - CO-OP. (2018) Available at:

https://phroommagazine.com/unseen-2018-co-op/ (Viewed 31/03/20)

Fig 4 Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects (2011). Available at: https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1071 (Viewed April 14th, 2020)