Come one, come all...

Do I Make Bar Art?

What is Bar Art?
If art could talk (and maybe someday it will), Bar Art might say, "You better leave my mother outa this you cocksucker! (beer bottle smashes over bar; best friend runs over and apologizes for Bar Art; Bar Art throws-up and begins to sob; The object of Bar Arts aggression and Bar Art hug each other and continue the conversation with all misunderstandings of the past forgotten; Bar Art and the object of his former aggression appear as brothers in arms as if out of a Vietnam War movie; Other bar patrons who were admiring Bar Arts chiaroscuro effects earlier have now lost all respect for his petty tricks and leave the bar in disgust, denying the bartender of a tip; Bartender senses things have gone awry and attempts to kick out Bar Art and the former object of his aggression; Bar Art and the former object of his aggression impulsively assume the role of soldiers in a strange enemy land hemmed in by enemy forces and begin fighting their way out of the bar; Bar Art is hit in the head by a flying stool while the object of his former aggression is mercilessly beaten near the entrance by a bouncer itching for an opportunity to demonstrate his ability to disable slow, intoxicated people; Bar Art wakes up the next morning vowing to be gallery art for now on; Bar Art changes his tune by about 6p.m. that day and by 9p.m. is smashing a beer bottle over the bar calling the object of his aggression a cocksucker....)"

Sunday Jan. 8, 4-7p.m.
@Dirty Franks, 13th & Pine St.

KATHY BUTTERLY

Kathy Butterly: Slide lecture and Dinner! Friday, February 10, 2006: Beginning at 6:30pm * Sought after ceramic artist and grad of Moore College of Art & Design / UC Davis will speak at The University of Pennsylvania Chemistry Building, 231 S. 34th Street in Philadelphia. The lecture will be followed by dinner in a private home in the area at 8pm. Contact Christina Edleman at The Clay Studio, 215-925-3453 x.13 or www.theclaystudio.org. for more information. Seating for both events is limited. 

I Want to Hear About Your Crits!

Because of the brevity of the winter crit, I didn't get a chance to speak to many of you (they're not even over and I know I'm not going to get the chance, so I'm posting now...), but I really want to know how your crits and thesis reviews went. Please post here!

Arts Journal Changes

It looks like changes are afoot over at ArtsJournal.com, one of my perennial favorite news sources for arts-related gab and info. I encourage everyone to bookmark the site and look at it daily, but I'm especially keen to see that they are going to be doing some topic-driven group blogging in the weeks ahead, in which invited guests will comment on aspects of a specific subject (it begins with dance).

I like this idea and I think it would be great if you adapted for this blog, appointing a certain week to address a certain topic of interest to all MFA students. I'm sure the faculty would be willing to participate if we were invited. Give it some thought.

Should you exhibit while still in school?

This summer, Topics students talked a little about whether or not it was a good idea for artists to begin exhibiting while they are still in grad school. The panel at the beginning of the summer - and the article in the New York Times about "hot" grad programs had no doubt gotten a few people thinking, but when I saw an interview with Chuck Close (whose self-portrait appears at right - see, we're getting all artblog with the images!) in the current CAA News, I thought I should post a little bit for everyone to consider.

What do you think of students exhibiting their work before they graduate?

Part of the problem is that schools require students to make consistent work instead of encouraging them to bash around and try a lot of different ideas and different styles. Young artists should resist zeroing in on their vision so early…
I absolutely believe and always have believed that artists shouldn't go public with work until they are ready to lay their necks on the line - which means that anything an artist did before going public is nobody's business. But the minute you decide to go public, an artist sets a specific trajectory and seems to truncate other options. I think it is really good to bang around for a while and really be sure you can love with the work that you make for a long time before you decide to show it.

Politicality

One of my brighter Art Center students came up to me today and seemed distraught. She told me she'd had a "discussion" with a friend in which they disagreed about the nature of art. Her friend suggested she go out and ask a few more people's opinions. The issue? They were debating whether or not all art is political.

Fortunately, my student was smart enough to know that the answer partly depends on what your definition of political is, but she seemed more than a little disappointed by the rapidity with which I said I thought, sure, art is political. (I guess I know what side of the argument she was making...). We talked about how, in Western art before modernism, all art was political in the sense that it reinforced the power of the church and state. In The Invisible Dragon, Dave Hickey convincingly talks about the art of the Baroque, for example, as a form of religious propaganda.

Things obviously get muddier the closer you come to the present. After all, what is political about a Pollock? Turns out that there may be plenty. Not too long ago, Louis Menand contributed an article to the New Yorker in which he addressed the oft-made claim that Abstract Expressionism was a tool of the CIA. I've been interested in this idea for a while - one of art my heroes, the poet Frank O'Hara, was involved in the development of international touring exhibitions of the art some have called political propaganda for American-style democracy. I'm fairly sure, based on my research, that he was as apolitical as they come (which I consider a fault, but that's another story).

What I realized (too late) that I should have said is that I don't think anything is inherently anything - things become meaningful based on how they are used. Art may not be intended to serve some political agenda, but once it leaves the artist's studio and belongs to the world, it gets put to use in ways the artist never imagined. Many people like to say they hate political art, but I think what is often meant by that statement is that they hate art which is overtly political - art that insists on being used in a certain way, like some craft objects insist on being used in certain ways by their use of certain forms and participation in certain traditions. It makes sense to hate art that is dictatorial as much as it makes sense to hate governments that are dictatorial.

Of course, this raises a whole slew of issues – how do we make sure the objects we make are put to uses we don’t find deplorable? Should we care? If we don’t care, are we immoral? I’d greatly appreciate your comments so I can pass them on to my student…

Alibis?

Hope everyone has an alibi to shield them from investigation of the theft of a Warhol and Pollock from the Everhart Museum in Scranton. According to the Times Leader ("Northeastern Pennsylvania's Homepage"), the pieces were stolen in the middle of the night and police responded to an alarm. The works are valuable - the Warhol is estimated at $15,000 and the Pollock is comparable to one that sold for $11.6 million, according to sources quoted by the paper.
Me? I hope they don't come calling, because if they do...I'm going to say Mike Reenock did it.

Gaetano Pesce at the PMA

Hi All, Gaetano Pesce is lecturing this Friday, November 18th at 6pm. 10$ w/ student ID, 25$ members, 35$ non-members. Check out www.philamuseum.org. for more info about his career and works. Best, Terri

This is for you, Lee...

I thought you'd appreciate this, Lee. The image, under the headline "Touchdown Jesus" ran on the New York Times website this afternoon, accompanying a story about the sculpture's presense on a rural Ohio highway. It made me think of your attempts to bridge the gap between urban and rural art audiences. Hope all are well, gb.

Looking at Drawing

If you're still scratching your head about drawing, you might want to look at this show:

This Friday, November 18th, SPECTOR presents  Drawing For It 2, a diverse collection of pieces by artists who draw as a means to an end along side artists whose medium is drawing. The show is a survey of pencil, pen and ink works within which you can feel each artist's hand.

Artists are Huston Ripley, Matthew Fisher, Caitlin Perkins, Willie Condry, JT Waldman, Hiro Sakaguchi, Randall Sellers, Elizabeth Haidle and Amanda Miller.
The show opens November 18th from 6-9PM and runs through December 9th.

SPECTOR
510 Bainbridge Street
Philadelphia, PA 19147
www.spectorspector.com
215-238-0840

Gallery hours
Thursday, Friday and Saturday 2–6 PM
Or by appointment

On appropriation - from Jane

I went to the conference Ursinus College had Tuesday on "Artistic Appropriation in the Age of Litigation"
Before I got there, I had onsidered a few places where I had witnessed appropriation in what I think are good and bad ways. There is always so much debate about how much, and in what use is this acceptable. The conversations there opened my eyes to how much appropriating goes on. Fair use lawyers there demanded that appropraiting is fine if the intent of the artist is to comment directly on the appropriated image, but if it used simply as a device to simplify one's own artistic efforts, it is fraudulent. Any thoughts on this one?

research

I've been asked to teach a class next semester at Art Center and I'm fishing for ideas. The class is called The Art of Research and it is a studio course that aims to close the gap between students' interest making and their familiarity with the context of their practice. It's not a history class, but a class that should give them some research methodologies they might take with them into their practice. Trouble is, how do you teach research without researching something?
I've been polling artists about the way they do research and what place it has in their practice, and I'll eventually share the findings with y'all, but if you've got a moment, could you tell me a little about the roll of research in your studio practice and how you go about it? This is all off the record - I'm not looking to hear so much about Independant Writing class as about if it has been helpful in the studio at all, and if so how, and if not, how might it be more so?
Thanks - gb

Online Virtual Graffiti?!?!?!?!

Promoted and represented by Sprite and MSN is a site where you can do your own "stencil graffiti." It's called Refreshing Wall (I know, how bad is that name). I'm not promoting it, I just want to expose the stupidity and utter ridiculousness of it. How far should corporations go with their advertising campaigns? The answer is a double-edged sword. Then you have to ask yourself: How far should artists go with their art? It's obvious that we are biased to one of those. just thought I'd throw out those thoughts.

215 Festival

Hi Folks, Philadelphia's 215 Festival begins today, Oct. 5 and runs through Oct.10th. Check out the site for event schedules. www.215festival.com. Of particular interest, John Hodgeman presents his important COMPLETE WORLD KNOWLEDGE, Friday, Oct. 7th at the PMA, 5-8:15pm. Encouraging all to catch a bit if you can!

Philadelphia Lectures

The next two months hold promising information. 1. Rain Harris : Gallery Talk, Sunday, 9/25 @ 4pm, Nexus Gallery. 2. David Lynch : University of Pennsylvania, Wed. 9/28@ 7pm, Harrison Auditorium. 3.Paula Winokour : The Phila. Art Alliance, Wed. 10/26@ 7pm. 4. Kathy Butterly : University of Pennsylvania, 2/17/06...more info to follow.

Parasite Projector

Hi Y'all! I was checking out Woostercollective.com tonight. If you don't know what it is, it's a site about street art... really cool stuff. Anyways, there's a quictime movie about some Europeans who placed a projector inside a suitcase, attached it to a subway train and projected images in the tunnels. Check it out– it's under "guerilla subway projections" on the main page.

Hope everyone is well.

New lunchboxes and school clothes...

Hope everyone UArts had a pleasant first day of school yeasterday. Art Center doesn't start classes for another two weeks (poor me, I have to prolong my vacation...). I'm sure you all picked out great first day of school outfits and have shiny new notebooks. Have a great semester and see you in December.

Review alert

Friday's New York Times included a review of Nato Thompson's most recent show at MassMOCA. "Becoming Animal" is the title, and I thought it might interest you to know what he's up to. Hope all are well, gb.

Thank heaven - a place to start...

So, wonder if anyone actually wants art in the first place? An encouraging blip appeared in the New York Times the other day. In a Q&A section on interior decorating, Stephen Treffinger offered some (rather weak) suggestions about what to hang on the walls of one's first home. Personally, I lave articles like this. They remind me that we're not making stuff to fill endless rows of shelves like the authors of novels or essays, but things that compete for space and attention in social settings. Perhaps too often, we in academe value art for its commentary or historical value at the expense of its potential place in the fabric of daily life (a funny sidebar on this can be seen in the British press, where a recent list of "greatest paintings" has columnists all a-twitter about how one can "rank" art). Now, more than ever, art has the chance to assume a valuable place getting around mass communication and into our ordinary lives. Perhaps we should think about whether there is "starter art" and where our own products stand in relation to such a thing.

Drag

Still getting over the summer, we took my son to Hollywood for a movie the other day. It was curiously seedy there; everything seemed bleached by a supernaturally bright sun. But what was most striking was the flagrant open-air theft going on in front of some exceedingly posh mall. We first noticed it while looking for parking when Gabriel began chanting “Spiderman! Spiderman!” from his car seat. And, indeed, across the street was a not especially athletic man in red and blue tights with red Converse sneakers mugging for pictures with tourists. After we found place to leave the car, we ran into a Jedi Mickey Mouse, several characters from Shrek 2, Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin, and handful of others. Gabriel really wanted to see Batman, but a musketeer cat with a thick Spanish accent told us that it was too hot for him that day (rubber hood and all that, you know).

On the way out of town after the movie, we saw a couple of Johnny Depps (one from Pirates of the Caribbean and another from Willy Wonka). When I remarked on this, my wife casually reminded me that we frequently saw two different Ben Franklins on any given day strolling through Old City. And she’s right. I imagine nearly everyone walking those streets recognized nearly everyone in movie drag that afternoon, but I wonder how many people recognize the guy who thinks he’s Thomas Jefferson in the courtyard of Ben Franklin’s house?

Gee, it’s great to back in L.A.

Berwick, PA – Home, Sweet Home

For those of y'all who don't know where Berwick or Bloomsburg are, they're about 2.5hrs. north of Philly. For those who have never been here and would like to read and outsider's perspective of where I live, here's a link to this blogger's post (Specifically the second and third paragraphs) You can get a better understanding of my work as well.

P.S. Lisa works at Bandit's.

Sonic Outlaws and goodbyes

I'd like to say what a great and productive summer it has been. Now, it's time to shove off and digest all this delicious material we've collected over the last eight weeks. Thanks to everyone for making another summer enjoyable! I also wanted to mention a film by culture jammer Craig Baldwin that might be of interest to you, especially if you were in Gerard's class. The film is called Sonic Outlaws, and it was recently released on DVD. It talks about the group Negativeland and their suit with U2 (the Casey Kasem audio is gut-busting), amongst other topics like parody and copyright. I have yet to get through it all. Baldwin also has a unique directing and editying style. Enjoy!

On a last note, I encourage all students to keep lines of communication open during the independent times. Till next time, rock on and rock hard!

Missing Painting

Okay okay - so somehow someone has gotten access to the MFA Programs inner sactum, ie., the director's ofice, and run off with a painting - a small transportable work (hah hah! couldn't manage the large ones)

the director- ms moore - has begun searching every nook and cranny after receiving clues which have alas have kept her from being totaly clueless in her search for her precious painting, a work of significant value given her by a former MFA Painting student.

ms moore regards this incident as one that is not singular, but infact one existing within an historical context having discovered similar numerous incidents where paintings have gone missing and is now regarded as an international phenomenon -

ms moore suspects that this recent episode has been perpetrated by a member of gerard brown's topics class, a student not ordinarily known for criminla tendencies, but apparently led astray by some heinous assignment.

It is not yet certain whether ms moore will offer a reward for the painting's return or whether she will continue to hope that the painting will be returned through an act of mercy on behalf of the perpetrator.

(For further information, see on-line reports on Missing Paintings ms moore will direct to mr brown for his class' enlightenment on the subject.)

"Money hasn't crushed the humanity out of everything"

...or so says Bansky in a piece from Wired.com that appeared on today's postings at ArtsJournal.com. Is he great or what?

Getting up to speed...

Because of my unexpected travel plans, I missed the last two Wednesday lectures. Can anyone fill me in?

...And a little more absurdity on the copyright front

Just in case you were wondering how obscenely valuable mere words are, a story in today's Minneapolis Star Tribune reports on the trials of the rock band the Olympic Hopefuls, who've evidently been garnering some attention from the kids lately. According to the article, it seems that the US Olympic Committee fears that a moron in a hurry might confuse the band's gigs for real sporting events and has thrown a little litigious weight around to get the name changed.
We can only assume that the JC Whitney Company paid a hefty licensing fee to use the O word on its Extreme Brush Guards for Winch Bumpers, and that the big O committee's coffers were filled with money by the folks at the Hampton Fitness Bulldog Collar company. These are just two of the commerical uses of the word that appear on the first page if you Google "Olympic". Does it bother anyone else that artists and musicians are the ones fom whom engagement in vocabulary is barred by law, while corporatations enjoy full lexical priviledges?

Reading about schools

Having a lot of time to catch up on magazine literature in the various airports and rental car outlets of this great nation, I'm in the pleasant positon of recommending an essay by Rick Moody in the Summer Fiction issue of The Atlantic Monthly (an appetizer sized portion is available online here, but the whole thing is worth reading...)
Moody reflects on his undergraduate and graduate studies in writing, paying special attention to the role of some mentors he worked with at brown and criticizing (in depth) the workshop system of writing he worked under while getting his MFA at Columbia. Not to spoil it, but Moody's gripe with the workshop system (which resembles the critique mode used in studio MFA practice) is that it excludes and normalizes interesting work into a "corporate" product. He draws an interesting comparison to Hollywood test screenings in which audiences tell film makers how they can "fix" their work (another onerous part of too many crits...). In lieu of the standard, shop-talk workshop crit questions, Moody suggests a handful of alternatives ("What music would this story listen to?" "Will this story save any lives?") that put the risk back in reading and writing.
I mention this becuase it's always good to stick one's head up and realize the limits of one's discourse, especially when it is fiercely intense and concentrated as it tends to be here. Asking whether the work you bring to class might save any lives may seem a bizarre and high-bar for evaluating it, but it also sounds like a potentially useful way of recapturing relevance.

Allez Cuisine!

I've been watching one heck of a lot of Iron Chef this summer (okay, I always watch one heck of a lot of Iron Chef...) and I think the Chairman has yet another lesson for us. Lately I've been seeing in some work a greater interest in finding out how far one can push the assignments you're given rather than seeing how far they can push you. In drawing (and that's what I'm mainly talking about here), I feel there's been a great interest in advancing rhetorical arguments through drawing rather than exploring what drawing means in your studio.

Okay..so what's this got to do with Iron Chef? No one ever won a victory (and the admiration of the people) in Kitchen Stadium by disregarding the Secret Ingedient. The assignment - low bar of measuring success that it is - is not something to fight against but something to use as a way of getting to a new place in your work.

The other day, there was more than a little irritation in the way people asked why this class was called "drawing" and not something (spectacularly vague) like "interdisciplinary contemporary art practices" or something. Y'all should know I've got an answer (Carol has one, too), but I'm curious about why you think this class is a drawingclass (or not...).

Mine! Mine! Mine!

While you're surfing, you might as well look up the latest art industry (oops, I meant community) catfight between Vanessa Beecroft and Maurizio Cattelan. Seems Beecroft told the italian edition of vanity Fair (you really have to look for art news these days...) that she and Cattelan had a brief romance before they became art heavyweights and now every little remark she makes turns up as a sculpture. Hmmm. get the skinny by visiting The Guardian's website.

But really now. Plagiarism is using another's words, not his or her ideas, which cannot be patented or copyrighted becuase ideas have no physical propoerties to protect. Still, I'm sure there's sympathy for Beecroft out there someplace, right? Let's hear it.

Get ready for the amateurs

In an article that will make some quiver with glee and others throw up theiur hands and wonder what use it is to become an artist, Lawrence Lessig writes about the birth of an amateur age on the BBC's website today.

Observing that putting cteative tools in the hands of ordinary Joe Powerbook has led to an erupt of production, Lessig makes it sound as though Walter Benjamin's dream of a work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction has finally (and gloriously) arrived (need to freshen up on the Benjamin? Go here.

And you, ye who have decided to shell out some big bucks to be creative workers? What think you of this? Does a world of television shows derived from video game characters enchant or annoy you? Are you ready to go to your neighbor's house and look at his new work assembled with the help of products like GarageBand, iMovie, Photoshop (or, I mean how far down the pike can it really be) iCanvas or iSculpt? Is there a place for expertise in your mind, or has the word become one giant kindergarten with everyone getting creative?

Negativland and other artists' writings

I wanted to be sure to post the link to Negativland's Tenets of Free Appropriation for those were interested in their take on borrowing. It would be interesting to consider this an artist's statement, or better yet, a manifesto in the line of the Futurist and Surrealist manifesti. Or even the Stuckist manifesto. Or maybe not. But anyway, enjoy....

Oh and...there is a link to RTMark.com on the sidebar now so everyone can invest in the mutual funds you wish to support.

More FYI

Some people were interested in Zoe Leonard's story after we talked about the PMA's acquistion of Strange Fruit last week. I happened to turn up this biography on her at Eyestorm, an interesting resource for contemporary art. I hope it answers some of the questions you may have had.

Reserved...

I wanted to let people know that a few things are on reserve now in the library. The catalog for Nato Thompson's show, "The Interventionists" is on reserve along with another catalog, called "The Scene of the Crime" from a show organized by Ralph Rugoff. Both should be of interest to Topics students.
I also put a copy of James Elkins' book "Why Art Cannot be Taught" on reserve, as it has an interesting chapter on critiques and how they might be improved.
Enjoy...

Homegrown galleries

This morning's New York Times includes a review of a summer show at Cinders, a tiny space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, that critic Holland Cotter calls "as light as lemonade." Reading through the reivew, one notes that several of the artists are also gallerists who run exhibit spaces in their apartments.
I'm very interested in the conversion of studio space into exhibition space (which has happened a few times at SUMFA in one way or another over the last couple of years), and curious how seriously students regard artist-initiated exhibits. A casual conversation I had with one student suggested it was like "playing house", but I'm interested in hearing from others as well.

Some links I promised to post

Now recovering from Allan McCollum's fascinating talk yesterday (comments? anyone?), I wanted to post a few links to things I mentioned in class the other day.
First, PublicKnowledge.org has an interesting paper called Why the Public Domain Matters available for download. In it, author David Bollier argues for a conception of the public domain not as a heap of leftovers negatively defined as what no one any longer owns, but as a positively defined space with an active role in a democratic society. A pretty straightforward read, and an interesting notion.
Also, we talked a little about the issue of media consolidation and how it affects artists and other creatives. Mediatank.org has a good overview of the issues, as well as other concerns. They are an outstanding resource for Philadelphians, and I would encourage you to get involved with them by attending screenings and programs.

Yeah, but is it sculpture?

Please take a minute to read Randy Kennedy's pieces in the July 3 New York Times called "The Artist in the Hazmat Suit" (the audio slide show gives you lots of pictures and descriptions of the work) . In it, he discusses the work of the Critical Art Ensemble and others, noting how it blurs the line between art and science (a comment someone made about Dove Bradshaw) and how it maybe aesthetically and politically provocative but it may as well be dangerous.

Opportunity...knocking

Call for submissions Deadline: July 19th
The Contemporary Artists Center in North Adams, MA is seeking art for exhibition in the 2005 JURIED SHOW which runs from August 20th -September 18, 2005. We are looking for artwork in all 2-D, 3-D and 4-D media, including installation, performance, music, film etc. The best submissions will correspond with the CAC's mission to foster the advancement of contemporary artmaking practices.
Jurors: Mark Dion and J. Morgan Puett

Mark Dion was the recipient of the Larry Aldrich Foundation Award in 2003. His drawings, sculptures and installation have exhibited internationally including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro; New Museum of Contemporary Art; the Tate Gallery, London; the Nordic Pavilion at the 1997 Venice Biennale; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Museum of Modern Art, New York and has an upcoming project at MASS MoCA summer 2005.
J. Morgan Puett is an installation artist, fashion designer, and social sculptor. Her elaborate installations blend existent social formations, such as business models, with historical interpretations. Her work has been exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Wave Hill in New York, the Spoletto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, the Fabric Workshop in Philadelphia, and her recent project, That Word Which Means Smuggling Across Border, Ltd, was featured at MASS MoCA in 2004.

Submission Guidelines
Please include:
1. Maximum 4 labeled images (slides, digital CD or DVD, or cued video) of submissions.
2. An artist statement, if available
3. Submission form
4. $20 application fee (check or money order made payable to "CAC")
5.  S.A.S.E. for return of images
Restrictions:
1. Open to all residents of the U.S. and abroad.
2.  All artwork must be able to fit through  a 7'6''x 4' door
3.  No entry may be withdrawn from the exhibition once it has been accepted.

There will be a Jurors' award for best in show.  The award winner will receive a solo exhibition and a full fellowship for a two week artist residency at the CAC during the 2006 season.
 
Event Schedule:
July 19: Submission deadline.
July 27: Notifications mailed/posted on the CAC website.
August 14: artwork must be RECEIVED by gallery
August 14 - 18: Installation.
August 20: Opening reception, [7-10 PM].
September 18: Exhibition closes.
September 24, 25: Work returned to artists.  Pickup for hand-delivered work from 11AM - 5PM.

News on the copyright front

This week's news that the Supreme Court had decided that filesharing networks were potentially liable for the copyright infringing behavior of their users was, of course eclipsed by today's news that Sandra Day O'Connor has decided to retire. But if we can suppress our collective panic at the impending reorganization of the court, it may be wise to check out some of the implications of this week's rulings.

There was some side discussion on Friday's trip to the Eastern State about Alex Hoyer's piece, I Always Wanted to Go to Paris, France in which three televisions play short segments from prison movies set in the locations in which viewers watch the clips. Sean Kelley, asked about the copyright implications of the piece, reported that the Prison had consulted legal council, who advised that since the clips did not exceed twenty seconds and that they were being transformed by their use in an art context, the worst probable consequence the organization could expect was that one of the copyright holders would issue a cease and desist notice. Such an action, Sean said, would result in the removal of the work.

Artsjournal.com follows this issue very closely and contains a link to a piece by law professor and copyright activist Lawrence Lessig, which can be accessed here. In it Lessig says:

"Too much of the attention on these issues has been focused on the "piracy" question. Instead, we've got to focus people on really much easier questions that the law is just as grotesque about. I'm more concerned about getting people to see how copyright generally is imposing such a burden on innovation and creativity in lots of areas that we ought to simplify it.
I want people to think about, for example, Wal-Mart refusing to print images [if the chain decides the digital photographs a customer submits could be copyrighted]. When people see examples like that, they're much more likely to be on the side of reform."

Artists are increasingly talked about as "innovators" in contemporary culture, and our ideas (as Melinda pointed out in the first class meeting) are often succesfully adopted by larger entertainment outlets. I’m curious if anyone has any comments on the "chill" Lessig talks about, or on the Prison's position with regard to Hoyer's work.

Vantage points

Thinking about this afternoon's lecture I was struck by Joe Fyfe's self-descriptive use of the term "flaneur."While it was, on the one hand, refreshing to hear that traditional role of the artist updated to the global era, it was, on the other hand,a stark contrast to the activist mode suggested by Nato at last week's lecture. While the combination of images collected from travel and those generated by "the daily practice of painting" in the solitude of the studio was rich (and arguably inbued the non-objective work with a kind of content it would have had difficulty accessing in the absence of such images), when we breezed past an image of a homeless person's bedroll in Hanoi, I hope one might be excused for feeling not-quite-up-to-the-task of aesthetic appreciation (at least, for this viewer, abstract contemplation became a little trickier after that point...)

For some artists, the studio is a refuge, for others a lab, for others...what? I'm curious if anyone else had thoughts on this...

Dove Bradshaw

"Topics" students who visited Larry Becker Gallery this afternoon might be interested in learning more about the work of sculptor Dove Bradshaw. I've posted a link to Larry Becker Contemporary Art's homepage on the sidebar. Addtional images of the works in the sh can be found there. Artcyclopedia has a link to the DeCordova Museum's website, where there's an image of one of the pyrite-and-stone pieces Heidi was talking about.

If you want to bone up before Friday's trip to Eastern State Pennetentiary, you might look here for details on the prison and its art program (along with a cool audio sample of the Pandemonium project. Remember, bring materials to sketch and/or take photographs or video. You don't know what you'll need.

Welcome

This site will collect student comments and feedback from discussions in the Universtiy of the Arts Summer MFA program during the 2005 Summer session. Comments from all students are welcome.

If you have a website you would like us to link to, please send a message to gerard and I'll post the link here so everyone can check it out.