If it is necessary today to create from your own art then why was it okay for artists like Rauschenberg, Heartfeld, and Schwitters to take art from their current technology sources and rework them through their own technological means to create new work? Didn’t they just simply use the tools of their time to collect this “found” art (that was copyrighted) by someone else and rework the imagery into a new piece of work? Was it because corporations owned the imagery? Well aren’t Corbis, iStockPhoto and other sources corporations?
Didn’t the New York Times own many of Rauschenberg’s images?
Didn’t the Nazi propaganda machine own Heartfield’s?
Weren’t Schwitters taken from popular culture magazines and newspapers?
That was the technology of the day and these artists used it to create new work. They then sold the work. Today we purchase the imagery from these stock sources rework it through our technological means and yet somehow it is seen as not ours? Why? Didn’t we gather skill sets to create this new work?
What is your opinion?
To see interactive art like this please visit http://www.potatoland.org – then click on any link to the right side (preferably Riot or Feed). Caution this work can be very risque and is meant for adults mainly. This is the work of Mark Napier, he is in the Whitney collection along with many others.
Please comment, this will be your third paper in Art 85.