The Wheels in my Head Have Been Turning

I've had quite a while to think about what I was going to say for this post. Appropriation. Originality. What do they mean?

I don't know.

Appropriation: "In the arts [it] is the use of pre-existing objects or images with little or no transformation applied to them." (Wikipedia)

Originality: "The aspect of creating or invented works by as being new or novel." (Wikipedia)

Eh...Sure those definitions work. But I would like to point out some things that are not touched by those definitions. Originality and appropriation are connected. Nothing is completely original. Nothing ever was. Every 'original' piece is actually an appropriation of different pre-existing ideas and spoken images. (Spoken images are ideas that are spoken out loud. Defined by me.)

I mean no one ever had an idea without another person, thing, happening playing a part.

No drawing is original because it is a drawing, on paper. Paper was something made by a person who wanted something to write on. They got the idea from writing on walls. They got the ideas from shadows on walls (probably). But it was always an idea from someone before you. You take little things from other people and make it your own. Everything is an appropriation. Everything is 'unoriginal'.

Yet, invented works...new or novel. Everything is novel. Everything is not like the last. A recreated Mona Lisa is not like the very first Mona Lisa. "Oh, but that is a fake, it is not original. It's just a copy of a great works."

But it is still different. An original. Not painted by the same artist. But an original nonetheless.

This brings me to a point made by a fellow blogger, Kristina. She recently talked about Remix culture and the originality of remix. One such way she described originality through appropriation was with a parody music video that a boy made.

She made the point that "[the] boy and his friends put so much effort into their version." She went on to say "I don't think anyone can just look at something like that and say it's worthless or demeaning." 

In my opinion, as this entire blog is, I believe that to be original it has to be made through hard work. Originality is not just the idea, but the making of the object from that idea. By working to perfect what you want, you have created art. You are the artist. You labored through the ups and downs and finally got what you wanted through your own blood, sweat and tears (exaggeration). That is what it means to be an artist. To have originality, to be original. 

Thierry Guetta (aka Mr. Brainwash) considers himself an artist. A Street artist to be exact. I do not. He is NOT original. He has made nothing. He has done nothing. He claims to have created art. He hasn't. He had someone make it for him. Yes he paid them. Yes they knew what he was doing, sort of. Yes he claimed it as his own. No I do not appreciate him. No I do not like his work ethics. No I do not think he is an artist. Neither should you. 

Guetta is original in his thoughts. Not his art. For one thing all he does is tell his designers I want this random picture to look like Marilyn Monroe. He splatter paints the same exact picture in different ways and says the are masterpieces worth thousands. It took him almost no time to create 'original' works of "art" that would have taken others, hours, days or weeks to work on.

These are some of his works:  

The first picture up top is Thierry Guetta with his camera. He took the picture but hired someone to make a stencil of it then he plastered it all over Los Angeles. The next picture on the left side is another stencil of Guetta. The bottom right corner of this stencil says MBW or Mr. Brainwash. Finally on the lower right is the pictures that were all made by people Guetta hired to make his 'art'.

*Sigh* anyways, I'll stop my rant. I hope you get the point. Originality is all about appropriation. Art has to be made by yourself in order to call it your own. Whether a picture, drawing, painting, sketch, song or whatever. If it was not made or taken by you, it is not yours. If it is things made/taken by others but you make it your own in your special way with work and effort put into it then it is yours, it is original. 

Speaking of original...

Is the song 50 ways to say Goodbye by Train not original because of the chord progression similar (in my opinion identical) to that of Phantom of the Opera

I beg to differ.