Urban Collective is a monthly submission site dedicated to showcasing the creative talents of designers from all points of the globe. Original works are submitted and displayed on the Urban Collective website and this inturn leads to worldwide exposure to fellow designers.  Urban Collective is a place where you can find ideas and be inspired by the diversity of work that is on show. There's a different theme every month so the work and designers are always changing. Please take the time to explore and see the variety of work that is on display and see what Urban Collective is all about.

Better known as the Philadelphia Fringe Festival!

Landes, William M. "Copyright Protection and Appropriation Art." The Arts and Humanities in Public Life. Http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/conf1999/landes.html.

The author begins by bringing up many issues that surround appropriation art. These problems include when art is based on renowned copyrights images, when images are borrowed without appropriate art intent, and when images are used for educational purposes. Instead of lamenting that the grey area of copyright can never be solved, this author takes a different approach. Landes proposes a solution to all these problems. Not necessarily a solution, but a belief that current copyright law can decide these matters.

The article delves into the economics of copyright. Landes discusses how without copyright protection artists would never be able to recoup losses to create art and therefore would be working without incentive. This would lead to a culture devoid of meaningful expression. He argues that there needs to be an appropriate balance between too little and too much protection. This balance would ensure that efficiency and creativity are promoted.

This piece brings up many questions about how appropriation art exists among law, society, and culture. It makes us question the benefits and downfalls of copyright protection. Like many copyright articles, it discusses the Koons v Rogers case. From its analysis, we gather that not all appropriation art should be protected under fair use. Additionally, we see that if it was, courts would be put in the unsuitable position of judging what art is and what is not.

Patry, William. "Appropriation Art and Copies." Http://williampatry.blogspot.com/2005/10/appropriation-art-and-copies.html. 20 Oct. 2005. 1 Apr. 2009.

This blog begins by giving a definition of appropriation from London's Tate Gallery: "Appropriation art raises questions of originality, authenticity, and authorship, and belongs to the long modernist tradition of art that questions the nature or definition of art itself." Among artists the author names as descendants of the appropriation tradition are Picasso, Braque, Duchamp, Fountain, Dali, Johns, Rauschenberg, Koons, and Levine. The author argues that even though the practice of appropriation is quite old, courts have not been "receptive to fair use appropriation art claims." He cites Rogers V. Koons as an example of this. The article finds two problems in this case: First, a failure to understand that a judgment of "unfair" use does not mean that the court is an art critic; second, the presupposition that just because the art community believes something is art, it can't break copyright law. The author ends the article by noting a divide in the artistic community: those who support appropriation and those who fight against it. Patry finds the divide most fascinating because of the fact that artists who have always been supportive of moral rights undermine themselves with appropriation art (in that, it denies a special connection between originality and the author).

The blog entry proves most valuable to my thesis. It fuels the questions I started off with by giving perspective to the whole appropriation controversy inside and outside the spectrum of copyright. When discussing the existence of appropriation in the art world, it will be important to cite past artists of the tradition and current artists' opinions of ownership.

Goldsmith, Kenneth. "UbuWeb Wants to be Free"  EPC- Kenneth Goldsmith.

      Goldsmith begins by preaching the benefits of poetry, which is according to him the "perfect space to practice utopian politics," meaning that information can be free so long as one is not worrying about making a profit. This is UbuWeb. Everything on the site is free, and it is constantly being updated every Monday with new submissions. The point is that nothing on the site ever goes "out of print". Ubuweb doesn't need sponsors; the ISP is provided free by those sympathetic to the goal of UbuWeb. It is able to remain free from institutions as well and the "academic bureaucracy and its attendent infighting". Most importantly, UbuWeb posts its content without permission from copyright owners. They have never been issued a cease and desist order. In fact, most artists are glad to find their works out there and offer more to the website, which happily accepts because the web provides almost infinite space. And it's no hidden site. UbuWeb has one many prestigious internet awards and become the "definitive source for Visual, Concrete + Sound Poetry" that even schools now use. 

       The article is actually the About UbuWeb page on the site itself, as well as an article on Goldsmith's own page. This is obviously a model that does not embrace Creative Commons (let alone copyright laws, though they will take things down if asked). It's important to remember that what UbuWeb hosts are works that lack a market value and those creating them do so for the love of it and not with the intention of making a profit. But it's a model that obviously works, and one completely counter to what copyright and CC represent. The difference here is that most works are strictly being copied onto the web, not changed like CC licenses allow, but nonetheless it's a clear violation of copyright law. CC was designed as a way to help alleviate problems with that law, yet there are obviously other just as successful ways of dealing with some of the problems copyright presents- that is, basically ignoring it. So while CC is important, other models such as this are also important to examine when looking at the commons.

This article from a Toronto Newspaper announces the 1979 recreation of a scene from Fantasia using puppets.  The Toronto-based group, The Famous Players, is comprised of severally mentally handicapped members who have been trained as puppeteers.  The Famous Players' shows often use puppets to impersonate celebrities and politicians, and this upcoming interpretive performance of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" represents the group's tribute to Walt Disney.  In attendance will be Jimmie Edwards, the recently retired Disney representative who worked on the original Fantasia film vocals and later went on to handle Mickey Mouse's vocals in other Disney endeavors.  In addition to the group's interpretation of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," The Famous Players will also be performing other acts including a rendition of a sequence from the Puccini opera Madame Butterfly.

This brief article is important because it provides a glimpse into the treatment of Fantasia in the intermediate years between its original release and contemporary times (significantly, in between the film's original release and the release of Fantasia 2000).  This adaptation using puppets is significant because it demonstrates the treatment of Fantasia as a cultural production that enables artistic interpretation.  While the method of interpretation is certainly unconventional, this creative adaptation reflects onto the artistic possibilities of the film itself for creating the possibility for such interpretation.  It is also significant that the group's Fantasia performance is nestled next to their interpretation of a piece as classically artistic as Madame Butterfly.  This juxtaposition further substantiates an aura of art around the film.  The temporal position of this group's performance reflects my thesis because it represents an intermediate view of the film as art.  While the group's adaptation recognizes the film as art (and functions as a tribute to Disney), it also takes the liberty of creatively interpreting the film.  Thus Fantasia was not merely viewed as an antiquated form of art but something that could still be reworked in the current time.

Johnson, Bryan. "Puppets bring a slice of Fantasia to life." The Globe and Mail 22 June 1979.

The article opens with the note that it is easy to forget that Walt Disney "was once celebrated as a great artist" for his innovations in the field of animation as well as his creative abilities.  However, by the late 1940s the filmmaker's critical acclaim began to wane.  Critics began to see Disney as having sold out his talent to pander to popular tastes.  The author argues that Walt Disney's aesthetic evolved to reflect the contradictory intersection of Victorian sentimentalism and modernism, creating a hybrid style that helped mediate an important cultural shift in the United States during the 20th Century.  The author goes as far as referring to Disney as "a kind of popular Picasso" to reflect his hybrid style that combined commercial entertainment and elements of surrealism (such as fantastic imaginary settings).  In response to Disney's early modernist aesthetic, Sergei Eisenstein is quoted as having said in the early 1940s that the animator's work constituted "the greatest contribution of the American people to art."  However, as Disney's efforts grew increasingly dedicated to enhancing realism in animation, his style onscreen became firmly rooted in a sunny aesthetic that reflected the sentimental idealism of the Victorian tradition.  Disney was working at a time when other cartoonists had already developed a modernist aesthetic (often dark and surreal), and he curbed their style with his own anthropomorphic, fantastic-yet-optimistc idealism.  The author argues that Fantasia represents the embodiment of this hybrid agenda.  Abstract shapes and bizarre images set to classical music form the modernist component (especially through the juxtaposition of "high" and "low" images), while the idealistic nature scenes that form the imagery for several sequences form the  counterpoint of Victorian sentimentalism.  Many critics of the early 1940s likened Disney's appeals to the unconscious to the trickery and even drugging of audiences.

This article provides a retrospective analysis of Walt Disney's unique artistic style at the time leading up to and including the creation of Fantasia.  It is important to note the temporal distance between the realm of the article's subject (the 1930s and 1940s) and that of its author (1995).  The hindsight of this 60-year lapse enables the author to draw clear distinctions between different artistic movements in history, namely Victorian sentimentalism and modernism.  While Disney's work was criticized at the time for being too "cutesy" and commercially exploitative, this modern author re-defines Disney's style as an innovative hybrid of two conflicting artistic movements.  Thus it is in the context of these historical paradigm shifts that the author resurrects Disney as an artist.  This article relates to my thesis because the author uses historical/retrospective insight to read Fantasia as the prime example of Disney's hybrid artistic style.  While many music critics of the time condemned Fantasia for destroying the classical music at the film's center, this author uses the more than 50 years since the film was made to develop an analysis that sees the "bigger picture" of how the film fit into various definitions of art.

Watts, Steven. "Walt Disney: Art and Politics in the American Century." The Journal of American History june 82 (1995): 84-96. JSTOR. University of Pennsylvania Library, Philadelphia. 24 Nov. 2008 .

This article, written in 1946 by a professor of theater arts at the University of California at Los Angeles, weighs the merits and drawbacks of the animated cartoon as an art form.  The author notes that the beauty of the form is that, at its best, individual cartoons can be watched repeatedly and still hold the viewer's interest.  The article describes Walt Disney as the master of the animated cartoon, a man who brings infinite imagination to his work to produce rich details that warrant repeated viewings of his short films.  However, the author does not respond as favorably to Disney's feature films, arguing that they progress only in terms of technical skill.  The article mentions the shortcomings of many of Disney's early feature films, specifically describing Fantasia as an "ambitious experiment lacking over-all perfection," but still recognizes Walt Disney as a man working within the constraints of a larger industrial system that limits his art through economics.  The author argues that Disney, himself, is a genius but is unable to bring true artistic innovation to his feature films because they represent "an expensive medium for far too large a public."  The article closes by announcing two new Disney shorts to be released in the coming months, predicting that these cartoons will be able to "comment on life and society and still be entertainment" because they do not suffer the same burden of economic popularity as Disney's feature films.

Written just six years after the original release of Fantasia, this article is an example of negative critical reception of the film based on criteria that do not revolve around the film's "destruction" of classical music.  Here the author situates his disappointment in Fantasia's execution within an overall critique of Disney's feature length films.  The author's main criticism of the Disney feature length format is that it tries to cater to too large an audience and is bound by expectations of economic performance, a fact that strengthens my thesis that art is often seen as being in opposition to mass entertainment/commodities.

Macgowan, Kenneth. "Make Mine Disney: A Review." Hollywood Quarterly july 1 (1946): 376-77. JSTOR. University of Pennsylvania Library, Philadelphia. 27 Nov. 2008 .

 

What is art? This question has taken on many different forms and functions over time, changing in regard to social and historical circumstances. Can a piece of work that achieves commercial success still be considered art? Can true art be produced with a massive audience in mind? This project examines how the answers to these questions change over time in relation to a particular cultural production, Walt Disney's Fantasia (1940). Drawing upon sources from different points in history, I aim to demonstrate that as time passes since the original release of Fantasia, the critical discourse surrounding the film becomes increasingly mounted in artistic terms. This would indicate that the definition of art becomes more inclusive as time elapses since the production of a specific work. The socio-historical perspective that is gained through temporal distance allows a richer reading of a cultural production, beyond its classification as either high art or popular commodity, and it is from this vantage point that qualifications as art are more likely to spring.

Clague, Mark. “Playing in ‘Toon: Walt Disney’s ‘Fantasia’ (1940) and the Imagineering of Classical Music.” American Music 22.1 (2004): 91-109. University of Illinois. JSTOR. Van Pelt Library Philadelphia, PA. 26 Nov 2008.

Clague opens with “Fantasia’s” style. A “new kind of art,” “Fantasia” creates meaning out of music and images through audiovisual alignment. Such meaning should expose the public, presumably having no musical knowledge, to a wider understanding of classical music. Disney achieved this goal with “Fantasia” by creating a series of shorts, each of which was associated with a particular piece of classical music (such as Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor of the opening vignette). With the help of Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Disney attempts to teach viewers how to listen to such music. The animation acts as a visual aid to suggest information about listening to the music. More specifically, “Fantasia” is an early example of Disney’s “Imagineering,” exemplifying the combination of science and creativity, engineering and imagination. Certain critics suggest that such a composition may have damaged the music; inevitably, image always dominates sound. However, the Disney Studio used that implication to its advantage in “Fantasia” by introducing a number of associations, ideas, and references to the music. Appealing to middlebrow culture and an uneducated middle-class, “Fantasia” provided easy access to the high-end classical music. Abstractions of sound were connected with imagery of commonplace experiences to allow the public to better relate to the pieces. Themes expressed by the film are faith in scientific research and progress; Darwin’s theory on evolution in The Rite of Spring segment; racism (though more obvious passages were self-censored in the 60’s and do not appear on the modern editions of the film), mainly in depictions of black picaninnies; sexism; homophobia and gluttony (Bacchus, who is over weight, and the donkey kissing); as well as family, parenting, love, youth, etc. Though many of these ideologies are rejected by today’s society, Americans in the 1940’s more readily embraced them. In effect, “Fantasia” reflects the ideological viewpoints of its time, serving today as an important reminder of where America has been and what is aspired to be.

Clague exemplifies, in this article, Disney’s goal to make “Fantasia” an educative production. The film therefore has a clear message in mind and does not leave much room for personalized interpretation. More harmful still are the commonplace associations with the music. Such banalities associate the corresponding music to lack of musical innovation and of individuality. This visual imposition therefore truly taints the musical pieces of great composers whose work has been subject to Disney’s distortions. The Disney Studio effectively changes the nature of the music by limiting the listener’s creativity. As such, “Fantasia” is the opposite of art because it introduces only one correct idea and expresses as true, perhaps resembling propaganda. Though there is the unresolved debate of propaganda’s artistic nature, “Fantasia” is not even propagandistic art because it was not created as such. “Fantasia,” an entertaining animated film and not a political advertisement, confines the viewer to one clear interpretation, rather than implying a message through abstraction. This film is therefore fundamentally not a work of art. It is simply the middleclass entertainment that it depicts.

English, Horace B. “’Fantasia’ and the Psychology of Music.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 2.7 (Winter, 1942-1943): 27-31. Blackwell. JSTOR. Van Pelt Library Philadelphia, PA. 30 Nov 2008.

English reminds the reader that the combining music and dramatic production is an old technique. Therefore, there has always been music that was written to accompany drama. Such music is composed around the story in order to enhance it. Some of the pieces in “Fantasia” were written as such, and therefore Disney’s visual accompaniment does not destroy the music. On the other hand, most of the sequences in “Fantasia” use the music as the base and write the story around the music, ignoring the inherent differences between visual forms and musical forms. He explains this by describing man’s relationship to sound. Sounds have become abstractions and carry an infinite variety of plastic meanings. There is no fixed meaning of a musical sound. On the other hand, the eye is an organ of reality meaning that what is seen—painted, written, pictured, etc.—holds far more acceptability than what is heard. “Seeing, not hearing, is believing,” he asserts. He says that when we are really responding to music, we are creating something unique and individual; and at the moment of such creation, anyone else’s response, be it ever so beautiful, is only a distraction and an annoyance.

This article exemplifies one of the biggest critiques of “Fantasia:” mixing two forms of art inappropriately. According to English’s view on music, Disney ends up annoying the viewer with this combination rather than impressing him. In the context of “Fantasia’s” purpose, English seems to take the repercussions of the sound-image relationship too far. Disney wanted to expose lower-class audiences to the mysteries of classical music while demonstrating his talent in animation. However, with an intellectual mindset, the viewer sees the images as “a distraction and an annoyance.” Disney thus succeeded in entertaining his uneducated viewer, but he could not gain approval of intellectuals. English describes music, which is not written around a story, is an art form of its own. As such, artistic music provokes individual emotions that should not be normalized as they are in “Fantasia.” Unfortunately, Disney’s attempt failed to consider the musical characteristics that were the cause of much critique. As an entertainer, Disney seems to be doing the job with this film. On the other hand, as an artist, Disney overlooks fundamental aspects of art. Disney’s lack of basic artistic comprehension contributes to “Fantasia’s” failure as a work of art.

Disney's "Fantasia" (1940) is an innovative masterpiece combining classical music and images to form an animated concert to educate those not fortunate enough to experience classical music and all its beauty. The film represents a magical form of entertainment reinforced by Disney's technological advancements. However, the producers of the film, especially Walt Disney and Leopold Stokowski, regarded the film as more than entertainment. They saw "Fantasia" as the creation of a new artistic form combining music and sound to convey ideas. Unfortunately for Disney, many musical critics disagreed with the film's use of classical music accusing the company of having forever ruined the pieces. From this disagreement arises the debate of "Fantasia's" functionality: is the film simply entertainment or does it possess a more significant artistic characteristic?

This bulletin from 1939 reviews an exhibition of Walt Disney's art held at Harvard University's William Hayes Fogg Art Museum.  The month-long event included the displaying of Disney's sketches, storyboards, drawings, color experiemnts, and final images on celluloid.  The article describes the different departments of the Disney studio and notes that materials were collected from each one to represent a different phase of the animation process.  It is also noted that this division of labor is no mere assembly line, and the work is never routine due to the changing nature of the techniques involved; thus the production process for each film is unique.  The presentation of the materials was accompanied by a series of lectures given by Harvard Professor Robert D. Feild, a curriculum that distinguished the exhibition from other Disney art showcases of the time.  Professor Feild focused on the creation of animated films as a prcoess, and materials were selected to reflect the specific stages of production ("Story, Lay-out, Animation, and Screen").  This "workshop" approach to Disney's art provided a departure from other similar events of the time that focused mainly on aesthetics.

While it is short in length, this document provides a primary source that demonstrates the view of Disney's work as art in the late 1930s.  It is especially significant that this validation comes from a source as esteemed as Harvard University.  This treatment of Disney's work as art would seemingly contradict my thesis.  However, it is significant that this institution chose to take the animation production process as its primary focus (as opposed to the intrinsic aesthetic value of the pieces, themselves) while still classifying the presentation as an art exhibit and containing it within the university's art museum.  This subtle detail actually supports my thesis because it shows that even when nominally considered as "art" by a prestigious university, Disney's work was treated differently than other forms of art by critics of the time.  In this instance it was the spectacle of the technological prcoess that was the main subject of the exhibition, rather than the images themselves.  The materials were included as an enhancement of the lectures regarding the production process.  Fantasia was thus released one year later into an atmosphere in which the major appeal of Disney's work was really its technical rather than its artistic merit.

"The Art of Walt Disney, Exhibition and Lectures." Bulletin of the Fogg Art Museum mar. 8 (1939): 58-58. JSTOR. University of Pennsylvania Library, Philadelphia. 29 Nov. 2008 <http://http://proxy.library.upenn.edu:2097/stable/4301055?&search=yes&term=animation&term=form&term=art&term=disney&list=hide&searchuri=%2faction%2fdoadvancedsearch%3fq0%3ddisney;f0%3dti;c0%3dand;q1%3dart%2bform;f1%3dall;c1%3dand;q2%3danimation;f2%3dall;c>.

 

This New York Times article was written in response to the announcement of Disney's recent (2006) strategy to reintroduce animated shorts to its lineup of cinematic productions.  These short programs will appear before Disney feature films in theaters.  The author mentions that nearly half a century has passed since the company regularly produced short cartoons, a hiatus initially brought on by soaring production costs after World War II.  According to the article, the short format is making a comeback not with the hopes of turning a profit in the short run but instead as a long-term investment.  These shorts represent a relatively low-risk way of "trying out" new talent (directors, animators, especially women).  A key distinction is made between the recent animated shorts that Disney has made as a "purely artistic exercise" and the new cartoons that will be more commercial in nature.  The author notes that Warner Brothers tried a similar resurrection of an old commercial form (Looney Toons shorts), but they did not succeed in their attempt.  According to leaders within the Disney company, this new endeavor is meant to grow the studio in the same way the shorts program grew Walt's original studio more than 70 years ago.

The article is important because it highlights the resurgence of an older form of entertainment/cultural production in modern times first as art form, then as commercial product/commodity.  When the "artistic" animated shorts (''Destino,'' ''Lorenzo'' and ''The Little Match Girl'') were introduced, they utilized an antiquated format (short cartoon) to experiment with new artistic and methodological techniques.  This "new wave" of shorts provided a space for the introduction of new art forms, as opposed to the upcoming variety of short cartoons that are meant to be exercises in proficiency at conventional techniques for "new talent."  While the first wave of new shorts was intended to be an artistic experiment, some of the films even winning Oscars, the newer variety of shorts is designed purely as a cost-effective training ground for Disney animators.  This vocational transformation supports the idea that nostalgia for old commercial formats lends them an aura of art, while the familiarity of a form in current use (even one that has recently been resurrected from an older time) makes it a prime candidate for mass commercial use.  The notion that old=art and current=commodity is supported by the distinction made between the commercial plan for these two types of recent Disney shorts.

Solomon, Charles. "For Disney, Something Old (and Short) Is New Again." The New York Times 3 Dec. 2006: 22-22.

Antonin Artaud: Surrealist Theory and "The Seashell and the Clergyman" Germaine Dulac's 1928 film "The Seashell and the Clergyman" was the only one of several of Antonin Artaud's scenarios for Surrealist films to be produced (and the only for which he would write a screenplay.) Despite Artaud's own misgivings about the film (perhaps due to Dulac's refusal to include him in the artistic direction), "The Seashell and the Clergyman" fulfilled much of Artaud's theories about Surrealist film and would influence many future Surrealist films in their techniques and goals. An examination of theories (including Artaud's) of Surrealist film, the film itself, arguments in favor of other films, and the influence of "The Seashell and the Clergyman" on future films reveals that Dulac's film should be considered the first Surrealist film.

            Linda William's article reviews Steven Kovàcs's book From Enchantment to Rage: The Story of Surrealist Cinema and offers a method of examining the history of Surrealist cinema, namely “a return to the history of Surrealism proper: how the Surrealist poets and artists in the main phase of the movement (1923-1930) turned their talent and energy to film; how their painting, photography, and poetry found new forms of expression in this emerging art; the development of this new aesthetics of film from the 'enchantment' of the early twenties to the 'rage' typified by the 1930 L'Age d'or" (Williams 41).  William's chastises Kovàcs's lack of significant analysis of the role of dreams in Surrealist film, an element she views as extremely important to understanding the goals of the movement.  To illustrate this point, she takes the example of Kovàcs's examination of Dalí and Buñuel: "the issue points out a problem in the book's general approach: an assessment of Surrealist cinema is not a question of sorting out individual personalities and their contributions.  If Surrealism deserves its 'ism' then there is something more to Buñuel and Dalí's collaboration than the fortuitous encounter of two individual psychic obsessions.  To my mind that something is to be found in the formal procedures of the unconscious which Buñuel and Dalí so brilliantly adapted to the creation of their films" (Williams 42).
            Williams's review offers two important tools for the examination of The Seashell and the Clergyman: first, she argues that an examination of the history of Surrealist film should focus on how Surrealist artists turned their ideas into film and how film enabled a method of expression unavailable in other art forms; and second, she highlights the importance of dreams, their structure, and their natural functioning and the role they played in the making of Surrealist films.  The first tool lends more analysis to Flitterman-Lewis's examination of Artaud's paradoxical claim that The Seashell and the Clergyman was the first surrealist film despite his insistence that Dulac failed to recreate more than the material appearance of construction of dreams, without expressing an experience of dreaming.  William's method of analysis would factor in the exclusion of Artaud from the artistic direction of the film, separating Artaud from the ability to express through film and leaving it entirely up to Dulac.  To resolve this seeming paradox, the only logical conclusion must be that Artaud found the film to be an adequate Surrealist expression of the dream, though it was not an interpretation true to his understanding and visualization of the scenario.  Williams places the “main phase” of the movement within the period 1923-30, ending just after The Seashell and the Clergyman and Un chien andalou were made, thus reinforcing Flitterman-Lewis's agument that Dulac and Artaud's film was the first Surrealist film due to the amount in terms of technique and means of expression that later movies would borrow from it.

 

Williams, Linda. "From Enchantment to Rage: The Story of Surrealist Cinema." Film Quarterly 34 (1981): 41-42.

Here, Chicago Law School lays out the problems and relationship between "copyright law, borrowed images, and appropriation art".  Appropriation art borrows images from the mass media and elsewhere and incorporates them in new ways into art.  The motive is to change the way we look at that object.  There are various problems to the theory including: "A constructs several identical sculptural works based on B's copyrighted photograph or comic book character." which applies directly to Koons, and his work, String of Puppies.  Apart from not being that transformed from the original, Koons' version of the photograph most likely did not take away from the financial market of the original, as the intent of this artistic work is entirely different - it is intended for display in a gallery, or in someone's home.  However, Koons argued that it was fair use on the grounds that he was making satirical comment on mass culture in society.  The court did not buy this defense, as his work did not apply to directly to the appropriated work.  This tag is useful in making us question what exactly constitutes appropriation art, and the relationships between the borrowed images and how they are used.  The fact that appropriation art is part of the history of art acknowledges it as a valid genre or term.  However, Koons it testing those boundaries to the point that he is criticized that he is making a mockery of art.  Appropriation art has other drawbacks in that it goes both ways in promoting new art but at the same time limiting it.  Artists are less likely to come up with their own original images.  The article also underlines that we cannot merely label something as 'art' and therefore expect it to be exempt from copyright.  This would leave judges in a extremely subjective and difficult position of deciding what is art.

This article from Art Law department at Harvard explains that artists have certain rights within the creation of their works.  One-way is through appropriation art: the quoting of work from other artists.  Artists borrows elements from the original that may stay completely unchanged, however, the new work uses the original to create something new.  Appropriation art took place as far back as Raphael’s Judgment of Paris c.1515, which was since lost but one of the artist’s employees, Raimondi, made an etching of it, which proceeded to be copied over and over.  Three centuries later, Manet took part of this image and inserted it into his painting, Le Dejeuner Sur L’Herbe.  A century later, Picasso translated Manet’s work in a series of paintings.   Thus, artists’ have always relied on being inspired and influenced by earlier works.

The Roger v. Koons (1992) case, wherein Jeff Koons commissioned a sculpture of Art Roger's photograph postcard, and in so doing, violated Rogers’ copyright of his original work, is regarded as the primary modern day case of appropriation art.  Koons’ work copies the original exactly, although the puppies are painted a vivid blue, have bulbous noses, and the two figures are decorated with three flowers, which does not occur in the original.

Koons has been in a number of cases in which he has tried to argue for parody or satire, for example, in order to deem his work transformative enough from the original, and thus fair use.  Appropriation art is a major get-out-of-jail free card, that gives artists the ‘artistic license’ that is arguably essential in creating great works, as exemplified by the fact that the most well recognized artists have been doing this for centuries.

This has a chapter on the Silly Symphonies.  I should go read it.

 

Fleisher Art Memorial has reasonably priced classes in a wide variety of arts.

From the website:

"The unique approach of Market East is to feature rare and limited edition works by underground artists alongside pieces by more established artists. The result is an eclectic mix of slick, professional pieces with those that are more raw and handmade. We sell books, zines, screenprints, posters, t-shirts, postcards, and music.

It's more than just a store, though, it's also an online gallery. That's why things that sell out often remain on the site for a few months. This way visitors can still enjoy the images and be inspired by the piece. For many of the artists on the site, this is their only significant presence on the web."

GET LOST is a collective portrait of downtown New York. Twenty-one international artists were invited to create a personal view of the city and draw a map of downtown New York, uncovering a territory that is both real and imaginary.

GET LOST brings together fictional landscapes, utopian visions, private memories, and obsessive instructions to explore Manhattan, its past, present, and future.

An exercise in emotional geography, GET LOST sketches the coordinates for an endless drift across the streets and myths of downtown New York.

GET LOST is the city as seen through the eyes of: 16beaver group; Francis Alÿs; Cory Arcangel; Jennifer Bornstein; Beth Campbell; Marcel Dzama; Isa Genzken; Inaba and Associates; Dorothy Iannone; Chris Johanson; Christopher Knowles; Terence Koh; Julie Mehretu; Jonas Mekas; Aleksandra Mir; Thurston Moore; Dave Muller; William Pope.L; Lordy Rodriguez; Rirkrit Tiravanija; Lawrence Weiner.

GET LOST is a New Museum production, edited by Massimiliano Gioni.

Beginning Wednesday, June 6, 2007, free copies of GET LOST will be available to the public at the following markers of the downtown scene and cultural organizations around the city: Opening Ceremony (35 Howard Street), Babeland (43 Mercer Street), Bowery Poetry Club (308 Bowery), The Bowery Hotel (340 Bowery), Congee Village (100 Allen Street), Lost City Arts (18 Cooper Square), Freemans Restaurant (Freeman Alley at Rivington Street), Two Boots (155 East 3rd Street), Patricia Field (302 Bowery), Screaming Mimi's (382 Lafayette Street), Joe's Pub (425 Lafayette Street), Artist's Space (38 Greene Street, 3rd Floor), The Kitchen (512 West 19th Street), Sculpture Center (44-19 Purves Street, Long Island City), The Rotunda Gallery (33 Clinton Street, Brooklyn), Bronx Museum (1040 Grand Concourse at 165th Street, Bronx), and the Bedford Cheese Shop (229 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn). GET LOST can also be found at the New Museum Store at 556 West 22nd Street and at the galleries of participating artists.

 

Creators Series Gallery -- A showcase for the innovative work being presented throughout the Creators Series weekend. Free, with no ticket required, the gallery exhibition will showcase art, media, designs, installations, and other relevant work from each of the Creators Series participants. A number of informal demonstrations and chats will also take place in the gallery throughout the weekend, free of charge. The gallery is designed as a casual social space, where creative thinkers can come together and exchange ideas. Come on by whenever we’re open!

New York Gallery Hours
June 9, 12 p.m. – 6 p.m.
June 10, 12 p.m. – 5 p.m.
The Altman Building, 135 West 18th Street

Los Angeles Gallery Hours
June 15, 12 p.m. – 7 p.m.
June 16, 12 p.m. – 8 p.m.
June 17, 12 p.m. – 7 p.m.
The Rec Center, 1161 Logan Street

Exhibition Includes:

• Jonathan Harris’ Web projects Universe, an interactive examination of modern mythology using constellations of words pulled from the Web, and We Feel Fine, a large-scale blog analysis of human emotions online
• A demonstration of Graffiti Research Lab’s L.A.S.E.R. Tag, a system for projecting tags onto tall buildings
• A special display of Le Perversionisme, the enigmatic art movement concocted by French-Colombian mystery man Nieto
• A demonstration of British artist Paul “Moose” Curtis’ one-of-a-kind “clean-tagging” technique
• Two interactive installations by Theo Watson, including Vinyl Workout and a brand-new version of Daisies
• Interactive video from Martin Percy, including a demonstration of The Digital Debate
• Selected video work from Chris Doyle’s multi-author video project, 50,000 Beds
• Collaborative screen work from Matt Hanson’s A Swarm of Angels
• ReacTable, an innovative new music-making device recently adopted by Björk (New York only)
• Never-before-seen video from fashion designer Gareth Pugh (New York only)

POSTOPOLIS!
An exhibition at the Storefront for Art and Architecture, NYC
May 29 2007 - Jun 2 2007

Featuring

BLDGBLOG, City of Sound, Inhabitat, and Subtopia

Postopolis! is a five-day event of near-continuous conversation about architecture, urbanism, landscape, and design. Four bloggers, from four different cities, will host a series of live discussions, interviews, slideshows, panels, talks, and other presentations, and fuse the informal energy and interdisciplinary approach of the architectural blogosphere with the immediacy of face to face interaction.

BLDGBLOG (Los Angeles), City of Sound (London),Inhabitat (New York City), and Subtopia (San Francisco) will meet in person to orchestrate the event, inviting everyone from practicing architects, city planners, and urban theorists to military historians, game developers, and materials scientists to give their take on both the built and natural environments. For the past five years, blogging has helped to expand the bounds of architectural discussion; its influence now spreads far beyond the internet to affect museums, institutions, and even higher education. Postopolis! is an historic opportunity to look back at what architecture blogs have achieved - both to celebrate their strengths and to think about their future.

March 1, 2007
Defacer With Mystery Agenda Is Attacking Street Art
By COLIN MOYNIHAN

Someone out there has a problem with art. Or at least a certain kind of art and artist.

The evidence is the bright green and purple splashes of paint that began appearing on walls in Brooklyn and Manhattan more than a month ago. The carefully aimed blobs obscured or disfigured dozens of pieces of street art created by people who may not be household names, but who have achieved the esteem of peers and some recognition from the mainstream art world. The targets of the paint attacks have included posters, paper cutouts pasted on walls, and images stenciled on the sides of buildings.

Many of the paint splatters were accompanied by messages printed on plain white sheets of paper and pasted near the splatters. Those communiqués appeared to condemn the commodification of art, but it is difficult to be sure what the messages really mean. One reads, in part, "Destroy the museums, in the streets and everywhere." The author has kept his or her identity a secret.

Word of the covert actions spread quickly through the street art community. Web logs began documenting the splatters. Soon the unknown protagonist was named the Splasher.

Moves into lofts, studios and galleries for intimate scenes of artists at work in New York City. I. They discuss inspiration, aesthetic issues, the meaning of success, and how they overcame hardship to pursue a lifetime in art.

photographs by mikhael subotzky of south africa.  many of the photos are of/in/about prisons/prinsoners.

As I am getting older, my affinity for shoes and bags is growing with my years. It is not necessarily the name, but the style and the feel, the look of bags and shoes that draw me to spend more and more on fashion. I spend time flipping through catalogues and websites, walking through stores, just appreciating the things I will never own for the financial burden of a shoe and bag obsession has caused a dip in my credit at a young age. However, the abundance of knock-off's for name brands, being sold at much more affordable prices, pose an obvious threat to the fashion aesthete. Just because they look the same, are they same? Who would know? Is the quality the same? The color? Because one brand creates a cute patent leather pump with a rounded toe, and soon after another is selling a shockingly similar shoe, has there been an instance of fashion fraud? Where are the fashion police, the crusaders of all things good and just? Who says what can be determined as having artistic integrity and or intellectual creativity? The moment an idea comes to one's mind, should they file for some sort of protection? The thought process and intellectual property law forever obscure the lines for all concerned about legal protection. Regardless of the medium, intellectual property law is a dynamic field and asks its noble followers to help untangle the messy web of ambiguity. Where do our thoughts and individual creativity meet at the crossroads of copyright and protection? In the fashion industry, one of the world's fastest growing entities as well as large supplier of creative material, intellectual property law and copyright are a new development in the protection of designs and details, sweaters and stitching. Whether in sketch form or in skirt, from the drawing board to the boardroom, fashion copyright is complicated. Can it be protected? When does an instance of 'substantial similarity' become imitation or worse, chargeable theft? Can the line be drawn? If copyright law is extended to include protection for fashion design, will the world of fashion be forever affected? The blurriness in the fashion design industry resulting from the almost counterintuitive cycle of fashion profits spurred by piracy makes it incredibly difficult to decide. Ultimately, copyright protection for fashion design is necessary and without protection, piracy will continue to hinder the progress of creativity and production as well as cause a discontinuity in what can be considered organic artistic thought.

I am working on creating a short video piece using clips from a number of different DVDs. By using short segments (one word or less), I plan to have the characters in the films I borrow from speak out portions of the anticircumvention provisions of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. In this way, I will be using appropriated (and, most likely, non-DMCA-compliant) video footage to comment on the questions raised by the conflict of the DMCA and appropriation art themselves.

McLaren, Carrie. "Illegal Art: Freedom of Expression in the Corporate Age." illegal-art.org :: A Project of Stay Free! magazine. 2002. Stay Free! magazine. 22 November 2006. .

This is the web site of the "Illegal Art" exhibition which has traveled the United States in the past year. The site contains a copy of curator Carrie McLaren's introduction to the show, in which she states, "The laws governing "intellectual property" have grown so expansive in recent years that artists need legal experts to sort them all out... If the current copyright laws had been in effect back in the day, whole genres such as collage, hiphop, and Pop Art might have never have existed... Should artists be allowed to use copyrighted materials? Where do the First Amendment and "intellectual property" law collide? What is art's future if the current laws are allowed to stand? Stay Free! [the magazine sponsoring the "Illegal Art" exhibition] considers these questions and others in our multimedia program." The site also includes a gallery of the various pieces included in the exhibit, which include a Mickey Mouse gas mask, photographs of Barbie dolls in kitchen appliances, a re-interpretation of the Starbucks logo as a "Consumer Whore", and various pieces including the "DeCSS" program.  Many of the artists involved in the "Illegal Art" show were or are the targets of legal action by the holders of the copyrights to the works they appropriated.

The "Illegal Art" website is definitely a valuable resource in the creation of my project; through the gallery of the included works, I will be able to see how other creators used appropriated materials to comment directly on the nature of copyright issues.  The artists involved in the exhibition used many different media to create their pieces, including a number of video pieces. 

Cardamone, Richard J. Art Rogers v. Jeff Koons; Sonnabend Gallery, Inc. National Coalition Against Censorship. 28 November 2006. .

This case is an appeal of the earlier Rogers v. Koons decision. Art Rogers took a photo titled "Puppies", depicting a man and woman holding armfuls of puppies; the photograph became very popular on greeting cards. Later, Jeff Koons took a postcard with the photo on it, removed the copyright notice, and planned the creation of a sculpture titled "String of Puppies." He specified that the sculpture be as similar to the original photo as possible, due to its use in an exhibition titled "The Banality Show" featuring art based on pop culture and commonplace images. Although the photo was in black and white, the sculpture was in full color. Three "String of Puppies" sculptures were sold for $367,000 each. Rogers sued Koons for infringing on his copyright; Koons claimed his work was a parody of the original, and therefore a fair use. The court found that the two works were substantially similar, that Koons had access to the "Puppies" photograph (and, in fact, actively worked to create a piece very similar to the original). The court did not find an specific necessity for the use of the "Puppies" photo that was being commented upon explicitly by Koons' sculpture, and therefore did not uphold his claim of a parody.

This case is very significant for being one of the first instances in which appropriation art came to trial for a copyright violation. Significantly - and keeping with the trend in many later cases - art using appropriated content lost.  Although this particular case had many of the hallmarks of a decision against fair use - willful, known copying, economic profit from the work, etc. - it still shows a tendency of the court to dismiss this kind of art as copyright infringement.  As I will be working with appropriated content on my final project, it is useful to know how court cases involving other appropriated-content works have turned out.

Slater, Derek. "Take Another Little Piece of My Art." Illegal Art | Creative Commons. July 2003. Creative Commons. 28 November 2006. <http://creativecommons.org/image/illegalart>.

This article describes "Illegal Art", a traveling exhibition which was displayed at the SF MOMA Artist's Gallery in July 2003. The show contained pieces in a variety of media, with a full-length CD and several films and videos in addition to various two- and three-dimensional artworks. Carrie McLaren, curator of the exhibition, began working on an appropriation art exhibit in response to unsuccessful challenges to copyright term extensions; the goal of the exhibit was "to make copyright's problems as real to the average person as they are to [the] featured artists".

The article attempts to place the "Illegal Art" exhibition in the context of the larger legal debate surrounding appropriation art by comparing the pieces in the show to famous copyright cases, such as the 2 Live Crew case. The author also pays close attention to the economic constraints place on appopriation artists by licensing fees, cease-and-desist letters, and other tools of copyright permission holders. Overall, the article sides firmly with the validity of the art and the necessity for its legalization - no surprise, considering that the article is written for the Creative Commons. Succintly summarizing his point, Slater writes, "Had these legal limitations [on appropriation art] existed years ago, perhaps collage, rap, and Pop Art would have been sued to death before they ever had a chance to flourish. These days, the implication is that these appropriations are lower artforms, deserving legal treatment suited to petty thievery."

This article will definitely be very helpful for my project; it provides a general background on the use of appropriation art to comment driectly on copyright issues.

MAIN SPACE ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN PROJECT SERIES:
H_edge

ARUP Advanced Geometry Unit
Design Team: Cecil Balmond, Daniel Bosia, Jenny E. Sabin,
Charles Walker, Francis Archer
Assembly Team: Jenny E. Sabin and PennDesign students
Curated by Christian Rattemeyer

Slides show, with music, showing various art works created with old catalog cards.  From Columbus State University (Ga.)

June 30–September 3, 2006
Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing, 5th Floor

An exhibition of twenty large-scale graffiti paintings from such influential artists as Michael Tracy ("Tracy 168"), Melvin Samuels, Jr. ("NOC 167"), Sandra Fabara ("Lady Pink"), Chris Ellis ("Daze"), and John Matos ("Crash"), Graffiti explores how a genre that began as a form of subversive public communication has become legitimate—moving away from the street and into private collections and galleries. Forms of graffiti have been discovered on ancient Roman and Mayan architecture and like today were both illegal and a form of communication. Modern graffiti, which is associated with hip-hop culture and spans all racial and economic groups, began in the mid- to late 1960s; it made its way to New York City and quickly became a phenomenon. Urban youth used the sides of subway trains and buildings as their canvases, reclaiming sections of their neighborhoods by "tagging" them with stylized renditions of their names or the names of the groups they formed. The self-taught graffiti artists turned the walls of public (and sometimes private) buildings into giant panoramas and subway cars into moving murals. Later, graffiti artists began to paint on canvas or large sheets of paper, attracting the attention of art dealers and collectors. One of the first dealers to collect graffiti was Sidney Janis. His heirs Carroll and Conrad Janis donated almost fifty works from his estate to the Brooklyn Museum in 1999. Graffiti is drawn primarily from this gift and supplemented by material the Museum's Libraries and Archives.

Devising digital techniques for graffiti artists

By Geeta Dayal The New York Times Published: June 23, 2006

NEW YORK This city may have given birth to modern-day graffiti art, but how is it keeping up with the times?   Graffiti in its traditional form, involving aerosol cans of spray paint and an inviting flat surface, still dominates on the streets. But online things are evolving quickly.

covering his head in tape.

Pyongyang; A Journey in North Korea

Guy Delisle

 

Shenzhen: A Travelogue From China

Guy Delisle 

 

 

Brian Jungen
Cetology, 2002
plastic chairs
Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery, purchased with the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition Assistance Program and the Vancouver Art Gallery Acquisition Fund, 2003
Photo: Trevor Mills, Vancouver Art Galler

artists who makes quilts that look like maps.

video interview here - http://www.coolhunting.com/video/archives/2006/05/ian_hundley.php

     

class at parsons for art students or computer scentists.

Loretta Lux
May 18–June 24, 2006
Reception for the artist
Saturday, May 20, 2006, 6:00–8:00 pm

May 12th- June 5th, 2006

ICEBOX Project Space
Crane Arts Building
1400 North American Street
Philadelphia, PA 19112
215-898-8374

Opening Reception Friday, May 12th, 6-9 pm

HIROSHI SUGIMOTO (Japanese, b. Tokyo, 1948) show at the Hisrshhorn in DC.

Over 3000 bunkers, built between 1882 and 1995, are scattered around Swizerland. Over the course of four years, Leo Fabrizio has documented these military strongholds. Real fortresses camouflaged amidst the rocks, hidden behind greenery and beneath improbable decorations, the Swiss bunkers, through a series of unconventional images, bear witness to an "armed neutrality" and provide a useful instrument for analysing the relationship between landscape and architecture.

About
EbOY is a small group of four people. The Berlin based group creates re-usable pixel objects and takes them to build complex and extensible artwork. Peter in New York works with vectors.

Art, Morality, and the Holocaust: The Aesthetic Riddle of Benigni's Life is Beautiful

Casey Haskins article, “Art, Morality, and the Holocaust: The Aesthetic Riddle of Benigni’s Life is Beautiful” analyzes the film’s impact on the philosophy of aesthetics as its controversial depiction of the Holocaust both in its humorous narrative style and its unrealistic representation of the concentration camp was the cause of much uproar. Haskin points to the controversy as proof that the film, whether praised or rejected, raises significant questions about the postmodern perception of the philosophy of aesthetic and urges its critics to revisit more traditional themes. 

            Haskin first highlights the film’s genre, what he deems “tragicomedy”, as a point of contention for critics. First, the film’s narrative style is that of a fictional fable, told in the adult voice of Giouse, Guido’s young and only son in the film.  Critics believe that this approach to the narrative is irresponsible as the severity of the Holocaust warrants the moral reality that can only be elicited from sociohistorical fact.  One critic Haskin highlights is David Denby of the New Yorker who criticizes the film’s misrepresentation of the Holocaust claiming Benigni wanted “authority not actuality” of the Holocaust and that the story is really “Holocaust-denial.” Haskin claims aesthetic as representations date back to Western Philosophers such as Plato whose cave allegory likened human experience to that of prisoners compelled to watch moving images on a wall and similarly, the film’s depiction of concentration camps isn’t supposed to be literal.  Moreover, Haskin charges that there is no real criterion for measuring the realism of any depiction of the Holocaust.

Haskin further analyzes the film’s self-reflexive humor as an aesthetic that can represent the morality and give insight into the characters’ psychology. He categorizes two types of humor in the film: Italian social and political satire and Holocaust humor analyzing them according to various theories of humor.

Finally, Haskin shifts to an analysis of the self-reflexivity of art as an indifference to political and social rule or a negation of dominant rule.  He points to the opposing philosophies of Adorno and Nietzsche on the purpose of art, “please or instruct”, “playful or profound” in order to suggest that while the critics of the film may lack a cohesive stance on the film and art in general, they do ignite a debate about the self-reflexivity of the film as art.   In sum, when analyzed according to these models, Life is beautiful “has reference to the specific wishes fears and historical beliefs of a particular cultural moment.”

 

"map plots "the history of 20th century music on the London Underground map devised by Harry Beck in 1933." Lines are renamed for music genres such as soul, reggae, pop, rock, jazz, hip-hop, electronica, and classical. Includes an article explaining how the map was plotted and many reader comments. From the Guardian Unlimited, the online companion to the British newspaper The Guardian." (via LII)

"Artur Barrio: Actions After Actions" continues through March 19 at the Goldie Paley Gallery, Moore College of Art and Design, 20th Street and the Parkway, Philadelphia; (215) 965-4027.

"Video games shape our culture. It’s time we took them seriously." A really great essay by Henry Jenkins (Textual Poachers) about the future of interactive media. He states the video games are in fact art, and that is is up to fans and critics to shape the video game industry through cooperation and constructive critisim.

A new book by Nic Kelman on the future of video games from an artistic standpoint.

An article about the changing landscape of video games, as they evolve from product into art.

In this article Walter Evans argues that Stanley Kubrick’s thesis in A Clockwork Orange is the exact opposite of what moralist writers have said about it. He also discusses the film’s implications on free will while calling for reformation of society’s institutions. The writer makes a number of impressive points that help one understand the film better. First he quotes Pauline Kael, a writer for The New Yorker, who blames Kubrick and other moviemakers for creating a “new mood” for society. She states movies do not mirror reality as filmmakers claim. They desensitize us to violence and incorrectly shape our view of the world. However, the writer of the article impressively argues the opposite. Alex lives in a more violent future that Kubrick blames on failures of social institutions, not on movies shaping a “new mood.” He points out that movies are largely absent in the film. Family, school, the police, and the government are all weak in this film and can be attributed as the cause of a violent world. He points out each of these institutions failures while exonerating film. Then he goes even further by showing that film is indeed the savior of society through its use in the Ludovico technique whereby Alex is conditioned to avoid violent behavior through film and drugs. While moralists such as Kael claim that movies are negatively affecting our culture, Kubrick shows that only through extreme circumstances (forced, repeated viewing and drug effects) can movies affect our behavior. Even if normal viewing of films could modify our behavior, it would be wrong to censor it. That takes away our ability to choose. The writer also points out that art and religion would be pointless without violence and sex. The lessons of the Bible could not be taught without violence. To take away violence and sex from humans is dehumanizing.

The writer points out differences in the book and the movie. Burgess blames the scientific community for Alex’s transformation whereas Kubrick represents it as a political move. Kubrick also makes the prison Chaplain more pious, making the character more believable when he argues about an individual’s ability to choose good over evil.

Kael criticizes Kubrick for causing viewers to root for the brutal Alex. The writer, again, shows that things are not as they appear to be. We are not happy that Alex returns to violence in the end; we are pleased because he can choose evil or good.

            In Loser Take All: The Comic Art of Woody Allen, Maurice Yacowar traces Woody Allen’s transformation from a “cult favorite into America’s foremost humorist” (1).  The turning point of this transformation is generally attributed to the success of Annie Hall.  Not only did Annie Hall do phenomenally well at the box office, but it was also nominated for five Oscars and won four, including Best Picture, Best Screenplay, and Best Director, all which could be directly attributed to Woody Allen.  Yacowar asserts that just because comedy is lighthearted in nature, there is an underlying seriousness and significance inherent in humor, especially in the case of Woody Allen, which makes it essential to critically study his films.  While humor can initially seem dismissible due to its comedic and blithe nature, Woody Allen instills such meaning and honesty in his humor that it often holds more meaning than dramatic counterparts.  This humor is apparent in every single one of Allen’s films, although some to a greater degree than others.  Allen is able to consistently convey meaning about serious topics such as loneliness, anxiety, love, and existentialism through his humor.  Allen also explores the relationship between life and art through this humor, and it is through such humor that the viewer is able to define the meaning and implications his work.  Yacowar specifically addresses each of Allen’s individual films and demonstrates how they uniquely use humor to create and communicate deeper meaning.  Due to the chronological structure of the book, Yacowar shows how each film influences and leads to the next film in Woody Allen’s repertoire.  One major issue in Annie Hall is the blurring of reality and fantasy.  Allen makes it difficult to discern to what degree the film is autobiographical and therefore a realistic portrayal of his life and thoughts.  This ambiguity is further compounded by his direct addresses to the audience.  This blurring of the line between reality and fantasy manifests itself multiple times throughout the film, thereby repeatedly challenging the viewer. 

Anderson and Richie separate the book into two parts; the first focusing on the “background” of Japanese Film, such as the development of editing techniques, camera angles and techniques, and sound.  The latter part focuses on the “foreground,” which is made up of the directors, techniques and actors that gave Japanese Cinema its international (and national) identity.  The book first mentions Ikiru, which it calls Living  after its English translation, in the chapter on the development of atmosphere in Japanese cinema from 1949-1954 (Chapter 10) .  The authors give a brief synopsis of the film and mentions that “the Quarterly of Film, Radio, and Television […] called [Ikiru] “one of the greatest films of our time.””   Ikiru is described as an example of Kurosawa’s humanist cinema,  which is encapsulated by its mood and atmosphere.  The authors actually do criticize the film, which the other authors I read did not do, saying, “The film’s fault is perhaps that Kurosawa’s genius flows unchecked and that sometimes he carries things too far.”   This quote underlines the strategy taken by Anderson and Richie in their analysis of Kurosawa’s films (as well as the films of other Japanese directors).  Instead of delving deeply into the meaning of various shots and sequences in films, the films are analyzed more in terms of the authors’ views.  Films are listed in relation to the given topic of the chapter, but not much space is given to actually explaining, for example, what in the film creates the atmosphere.  A few interesting facts about Ikiru, learned from the book, is that Watanabe was Takashi Shimura’s only lead role in a Kurosawa film  and that the film was the first film that Kurosawa edited solely by himself.
While the book doesn’t have as much relevant information to Ikiru as other books I read, it does present some new information concerning the film in its own right, not on its aesthetic principles or themes.  The book is able to ground the film in relation to other Japanese films of its time, which no other book does, which is valuable in a complete understanding of the film beyond its importance as an Akira Kurosawa film.

This thesis argues that the value codings inaugurated by
retail exchange exert a powerful influence over the aesthetic reception of gaming as a
set of enjoyable, exchangeable and exhaustible encounters. At the same time, the
mere fact that gamers talk about and contest each others' valuations in online forums
shows that there is nothing natural about such a valuation, and that the boundaries of
value codings and the boundaries of what constitutes fun are tested, if not traversed.

An exhibit that pioneers a new synthesis of photography and painting.

nonprofit motion picture archive, distributor and resource center housing the largest, most comprehensive collection of Jewish-theme film and video in the world. The ongoing mission of NCJF is to gather, preserve, catalogue, and exhibit films with artistic and educational value relevant to the Jewish experience, disseminating these materials to the widest possible audience. (out of Brandeis)

Contains 45,000 authoritative articles on all aspects of the visual arts. Articles contain bibliographies; links to associated images in the Bridgeman Art Library and in external websites.