Creativity, originality and the remix in art and culture A conflict between tradition and innovation 4 TTO - CKV Creativity, originality and the remix in art and culture Let’s start with something not too difficult ….. Suppose, on a dark, winter night in the middle of November you spent three hours writing a long ckv report about a theatre show that you had seen. After much thought and a great deal of typing the report is finished and you print it out and carefully put it in to a folder, ready to be handed in the next day. However, during break time the following morning you leave your bag unattended and a fellow ckv pupil notices the report and ‘borrows’ it for a few minutes. They run off to the copy machine and quickly make a copy and then return it to the bag. Having got the copy the pupil then takes it home with them that evening, types their own short introduction and final paragraph, but for the middle 90% of the report they simply copy everything that you have written. The following day they too hand ‘their’ report in. A week later your alert and conscientious ckv teacher has spotted the problem. You (both) are told to stay behind after the lesson. You of course know nothing of the problem, but your teacher soon fills you in on the problem. This situation raises a number of questions: • How does this make you feel? • What do you think of your fellow pupil? • Has the pupil actually broken any school rules? • Has the pupil actually broken the law? Creativity, originality and the remix- key terminology Before we get too far with our investigation into these very complex issues it is perhaps important to get to grips with some of the key terms and terminology that will come up. You will be needing to understand and be able to use these words in order to complete the CKV assignments in this booklet. Below are eleven words, working with the person sitting next to you, try and work out which one belongs with which definition. Write your answers down in pencil so that you can correct them if you are wrong. Homage Citation Fair use Copy Remix Sample Transcription Copyright Quotation Pastiche Intellectual rights 1. _______________________ : produce a different version of (a musical recording) by altering the balance of the separate tracks 2. _______________________ : the exclusive and assignable legal right, given to the originator for a fixed number of years, to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material 3. _______________________ : record or extract (a small piece of music or sound) digitally for reuse as part of a composition or song 4. _______________________ : a thing made to be similar or identical to another 5. _______________________ : an arrangement of a piece of music for a different instrument, voice, or group of these. Also in visual art, a new version of an existing work 6. _______________________ : a short text, musical passage or visual image taken from one piece of music or work of art and used in another 7. _______________________ : a quotation from or reference to a book, paper, or author, especially in a scholarly work 8. _______________________ : a right that is had by a person or by a company to have exclusive rights to use its own plans, ideas, or other intangible assets without the worry of competition, at least for a specific period of time 9. _______________________ : the idea that brief excerpts of copyright material may, under certain circumstances, be quoted for purposes such as criticism, news reporting, teaching, and research, without the need for permission from or payment to the copyright holder 10. _______________________ : generally used to mean any public show of respect to someone to whom one feels indebted. In this sense, a reference within a creative work to someone who greatly influenced the artist 11. _______________________ : an artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work, artist, or period An example of creativity and originality in conflict First of all you have to know a couple of things. The picture on the left is of an artwork by the British artist Damien Hirst. In the picture on the right you see the artist with his artwork. The BBC news website explains a little more detail: Hirst unveils £50m diamond skull Artist Damien Hirst has unveiled a diamond-encrusted human skull worth £50m - said to be the most expensive piece of contemporary art. The 18th Century skull is entirely covered in 8,601 jewels, while new teeth were made for the artwork at a cost of £14m. The centrepiece of the 41-year-old's creation is a pear-shaped pink diamond, set in the skull's forehead. The skull, which was bought from a shop in Islington, north London, is thought to belong to a 35-year-old European who lived between 1720 and 1810. Flawless The £12m-worth of diamonds are said to be ethically sourced. Hirst said his piece, called For the Love of God, is "uplifting, takes your breath away". "It works much better than I imagined. I was slightly worried that we'd end up with an Ali G ring," he added. "You just want it to be flawless, like a diamond is a flawless. We wanted to put them everywhere," Hirst said of the skull. "They go underneath, inside the nose. Anywhere you can put diamonds, we've put diamonds. "I wouldn't mind if it happened to my skull after my death," he added. The artist said that he was inspired by an Aztec turquoise skull at the British Museum, and hopes that his work will eventually be displayed at the institution. Art expert Charles Dupplin from specialist insurer Hiscox called the skull "another bold move" from Hirst. However that was very definitely not the end of the story as an article from The Independent newspaper shows ….. Hirst demands share of artist's £65 copies By Arifa Akbar, Arts correspondent, Saturday, 6 December 2008 Schoolboy Cartain's skull collages, made him £200, and he has now handed over the works to Damien Hirst One is an entrepreneurial 16-year-old who takes time off from his schoolwork to create urban stencil designs of cultural icons such as Mickey Mouse and Clint Eastwood, which he sells for £65 on the internet. The other is the Turner prize-winning father of Britart whose diamond-encrusted skull and pickled sharks have brought him a £200m fortune. Ordinarily, the two figures at opposite ends of the art spectrum should never have cause to meet. But Cartain, the moniker for the teenage artist, has earned the ire of Damien Hirst for incorporating photographic images of his platinum cast of a human skull, For the Love of God, into his graffiti prints. The two artists have become locked in an unlikely art clash that has led Hirst to demand recompense from the teenager for selling £200 worth of images of his skull without permission, says Private Eye magazine. In spite of his tender years, Cartrain's graffiti can be seen on the backstreets of east London's Brick Lane and Old Street, and his stencils and collages containing recognisable figures such as George Bush and the Queen are sold alongside other emerging artists. He made a series of collages using photographs of Hirst's skull, some of which imposed the bejeweled sculpture over the faces of figures taken from other photographs. One showed the skull in a shopping basket alongside some carrots. The images were displayed in the online gallery, 100artworks.com, where Cartrain's collages sell for £65, on average. He was surprised to learn Hirst had not only seen the work but also contacted the Design and Artists Copyright Society (Dacs), who apparently informed the young artist he had infringed Hirst's copyright. The older man has reportedly demanded that Cartrain not only remove the works from sale but "deliver up" originals, along with any profit made on those sold, or face legal action. Cartrain said: "I made a few collages and my gallery put them up for sale online. After two weeks, the gallery received an email from Dacs stating I had infringed Damien Hirst's copyright on the title of the work (For the Love of God) and that I was to forfeit £200 in fees and the artworks. I handed over the artworks to Dacs on the advice of my gallery. I met Christian Zimmermann [from Dacs] who told me Hirst personally ordered action on the matter." On his internet forum, Cartrain commended those buyers who managed to secure one of his collages featuring the skull. "Well done to everyone that purchased one before Hirst got involved," he wrote. Dacs refused to comment. But Hirst's complaint was seen as ironic by some in the art world, given the controversy surrounding the provenance of his skull. Three weeks after the artist unveiled the £50m sculpture, another artist, John LeKay, claimed he had been producing similar jewel-encrusted skulls since 1993. LeKay, who said he had been a friend of Hirst's between 1992 and 1994, said: "When I heard he was doing it, I felt like I was being punched in the gut. When I saw the image online, I felt that a part of me was in the piece. I was a bit shocked." The 46-year-old London-born artist used crystal to make his skulls glisten. He was quoted as saying: "When the light hits it, it looks as if it is covered in diamonds." And then there was still another development…… Artists flout copyright law to attack Damien Hirst Damien Hirst's work has been being 'ripped off' by a group of artists who want to make a point about the multimillionaire's stringent use of copyright law.