Lethem, in this essay, is particularly looking at the way artists take in, and reconfigure, the work of artists who have preceded them. He makes an argument that art is necessarily a process of quotation, and that modern culture can't move forward without a healthy dose of re-mixing and re-purposing what has come before. He sees this as an essential part of postmodernism, but traces examples before postmodernism (at one point asking "what exactly is postmodernism, except modernism without the anxiety?").
As we move forward in this class , one thing I'll highlight is the importance of being vocal and articulate about our influences. And I'm partially using this essay as a springboard for you to talk about your own personal influences, and your history of quotation and transformation in your own practice.
THE ECSTASY OF INFLUENCE is mainly situated within the practice of literary criticism, though the principles are applicable to all disciplines, and Lethem touches on music, film and painting (the article can be tagged as genuinely "interdisciplinary" in that regard). Lethem himself is both an artist and critic – he has written both novels and critical essays, and we think he brings the useful perspective of being a “working artist” to his voice as a critic. Here he is working as a collage artist – as the end-notes to the article reveal, this essay on creative "plagiarism" is in fact assembled, cut-and-paste style, from other sources. So the work of criticism here is also a work of art.
Here are links to two differently-formatted version of the article – the first is a PDF version, with illustrations:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/g9e7e5rd4yug6k8/HarpersMagazine-2007-02-0081387.pdf?dl=0
And here is a text version (with no illustrations), which might be useful if you want to copy and paste elements from it for the questions:
http://harpers.org/archive/2007/02/the-ecstasy-of-influence/?single=1
As a supplement to the essay, please look at the following short video. It's from the documentary RIP! A REMIX MANIFESTO, directed by Brett Gaylor. That film is a critique of current US copyright law, and in the section below it illustrates the conversation between Muddy Waters and Alan Lomax about the song "Country Blues," which Lethem also addresses in the essay. It's nice to actually hear their voices. And if anyone is interested, the entire film is available for free streaming online – you can just google the title.
For a week from today (Tuesday, 2/05), please write the answers to the following questions on the reading, and print the answers out (include your name at the top of the paper). We'll discuss the article in class.
READING RESPONSE QUESTIONS: THE ECSTASY OF INFLUENCE
Lethem writes (or quotes):
Most artists are brought to their vocation when their own nascent gifts are awakened by the work of a master. That is to say, most artists are converted to art by art itself. Finding one’s voice isn’t just an emptying and purifying oneself of the words of others but an adopting and embracing of filiations, communities, and discourses. Inspiration could be called inhaling the memory of an act never experienced.
QUESTION 1. What art “converted” you to your art? What fragments or reverberations of that inspiration/dialogue show up in your work? Where was the "quotation" from, and how did you alter its meaning by putting it in a new context?
Again, from the essay:
We’re surrounded by signs; our imperative is to ignore none of them.
QUESTION 2. What is Lethem driving at here? What is he suggesting the artists' “imperative “ is? What "signs" do you particularly attend to? How do you interpret, translate or illuminate those signs?
From the essay:
Thinking clearly sometimes requires unbraiding our language. The word “copyright” may eventually seem as dubious in its embedded purposes as “family values,” “globalization,” and, sure, “intellectual property.” Copyright is a “right” in no absolute sense; it is a government-granted monopoly on the use of creative results. So let’s try calling it that — not a right but a monopoly on use, a “usemonopoly” — and then consider how the rapacious expansion of monopoly rights has always been counter to the public interest, no matter if it is Andrew Carnegie controlling the price of steel or Walt Disney managing the fate of his mouse.
QUESTION 3. What would a healthy public domain look like? What would happen if artistic achievement was seen as a “cultural achievement” and not an singular individual expression?
QUESTION 4. This loops back, to a degree, on the first question, but broadens it from the instance of a "work of art" to artists themselves - please write at least one short paragraph about an artist who has influenced you - talk about what attracted you to them, and how you’ve adopted some approach, insight, process, or outlook they’ve expressed, while putting your own “spin” on it.
Question 1: I suppose my conversion to art was early in life, due to some learning hurdles I began having reading assignments early on that were supposedly corrective in nature, so when given the chance to explore other readings for pleasure I dove into things like Shel Silverstein's Where the sidewalk ends, and I had a special love for Bill Waterson's Calvin and Hobbes comic strips. I remember thinking these are grown people getting paid to draw and crack jokes, how awesome is this?
ReplyDeleteQuestion 2: I believe that his understanding that we are surrounded constantly by influential art holds sway here, from the catchy logos on your food products to the labels on clothes we live in a world where visual representation is the basis for a large part of our information assimilation. All this art is designed to get our attention and leave a small part of their info with us mentally, regardless of conscious acknowledgement. The crime is not knowing that we are standing on the shoulders of those that came before us, and holding our creativity hostage from future generations.
As for myself I find signs in the inspiration I receive from research and observation of the framework of many things and then wondering if I were to create the object what it would look like, or if I told the story how would I change it. Not to say that everything I do is purposefully derived from another existing source just that I am often inspired as well by the work of others.
Question 3: A healthy public domain may be represented by the open exchange of free thought and ideas without the worry of persecution of legal, financial , or mortal reprisal, not to put too utopian of a point on the response. We seem only to view art as cultural achievement when we view the pieces in hindsight of a few hundred years to put the achievement in perspective. I do wonder if viewing art as a cultural achievement would not pigeonhole artist's into themes and materials from their own cultures and stifle expression more than an artist who is to be influenced by other's cultural, which is where I am assuming acknowledgment of the previously mentioned signs comes in.
Question 4: I would have to say one of the most influential artist's for me is Shel Silverstein, poet and Illustrator. I have always ben amazed at the way he achieves texture and depth to his illustrations with only black ink, and spent countless hours reading the poetry and stories he crafted. He was the king of seeing things through a comic lens all the while keeping the information light and thought provoking in the same vane.
ReplyDelete1. I feel that the things that inspired me to do the work that I do now are Pixar movies and the Lord of the Rings movies. Before these realizations I did mostly arts and crafts but now I know that film making and animation is where want to focus my artistic energy.
Most of what reverberates in my work so far is the quality and scale of the work. I work to make my projects look as professional as possible. I was also influenced by Pixar’s WallE and the plot line and main themes. Much of my work reflects those themes.
2. We try to find meaning in everything.
The Imperative is that we must not ignore inspiration when we find it.
The signs are signs to make art. They are things around us that inspire us to respond to them.
We interpret those signs as best we can, starting with the parts that are the most clear to us and working from there to fill in the blanks.
3. I feel that if art was not only seen as artistic achievements but as cultural achievements that then they would be taken more seriously by many people. Now when an artists shows work I feel that people see it and think “oh good point” but it does no inspire them to change or make a difference anywhere. But if art was seen as more than one person creating something that shows their opinion people would be able to use it as a tool…
4. I have been influenced by the WPA National Park posters. They fall within a topic that I am passionate about and are in a style that I admire. I first found these pieces when I had to do a presentation on the WPA project for a history class in high school, I fell in love with the pieces and began to collect the post cards at every national park that I went to. Most of my work reflects on environmental issues and the WPA posters document these vast natural landscapes in all their beauty. I have taken some of my graphic design style from these, trying to keep my working looking realistic but with an added simplicity.
ReplyDeleteRip a Remix Manifesto Response
Ok so it’s a known that led zeppelin had taken a lot of its rifts and lyrics from African American blues artists. Not just in a whole lotta love but one of my favorites The lemon song which is a near rip off of Howlin’ wolf’s “Killing Floor”. I love led zeppelin but I feel a sort of guilt for listening to them because they basically took black blues and gave it a white face. I don’t believe they did this with bad intentions, the band members often discus their love and admiration for the original blues artists. In this case its more of a moral dilemma then a law infringing one. It just sucks that at the time I took white English men to make people listen to black music.
The Ecstasy of Influence Questions
Question 1: I’m not honestly sure what art did that for me. I think more than anything film and animation have inspired me. I imagen that it was a combination of all sorts of imagery. As well as the people and experiences in my life.
Question2: He’s saying that copyright isn’t a right, its government law that help the rich get richer. The Imperative is to make this a bigger deal then it is. Speak up about the unfair tactics of the monopoly instead of treating it like its helping anyone who actually needs help..
Question 3: I think a healthy Public domain to me would allow creators to profit off their creations for their lifetimes. If it’s a company they get 70 years before it goes tin the public domain. Seeing art as Culture achievement, would definitely help keep art from the Vault. I’m not one to believe in most circumstances that copyright laws are a good thing. What Disney did is so hypocritical considering everything he had taken from the public domain.
Questions 4: I think that the artist that has, maybe not inspired visually but inspired me to work hard and keep going with my art is Frida Kahlo and her story. That may not be completely true, Kahlo painted her country, her friends, her dreams, really her life and I try to do that with my own art. But I can relate with her struggle to be taken seriously as an artist and as a woman. The Frida Kahlo movie is really what started my obsession with her, watching that movie in high school really got me inspired to go to school for art. Her surrealist outlook and the way all of her things had been altered by her. Her cloths and pots and pans everything she owned was her art.