Presented by DHI Studies in Performance and Practice Research Cluster and The Center for Science and Innovation Studies

1246 Social Sciences and Humanities Building

Colin Milburn, Guido Guerzoni, Kriss Ravetto, Winnie Wong

The appropriation and the integration of copied images and ideas into our way of life, by buying or stealing commodities, acquiring knowledge, the claiming and naming of places on the map has a long tradition. But appropriated objects and spaces have raised questions about the relationship of ownership, property rights and cultural heritage.  Similarly, appropriation has been a key feature in modernist and postmodernist art and cultural practices, the global enforcement of copyright law have made such appropriations more and more difficult. Criticism and parody used to be a safe way of appropriating material, however, with the recent indictment of whistleblowers, such forms of criticism (along with freedom of the press) seem to be in peril. The extension of copyright, has made it more difficult to understand just what belongs to the public, or even what constitutes the commons. The Art of Appropriation seeks to bring together legal scholars, with visual media scholars and practitioners to discuss the relevance of appropriation to public culture and the arts.

Kriss Ravetto-Biagioli (organizer)
John Zibell (graduate organizer)