First Post - Somewhat Lacking in Originality?

Given the task of writing, using and/or updating a blog for my Beginning Digital Imaging class, I find myself facing my first post and not knowing quite what to say.  Since this is supposed to be a creative endeavor, I don't really want to start out with some cliche first-post message or welcome... Then again, perhaps that's what I'm doing now.

Fortunately enough for me, our first assignment addresses the concept of using images and objects created by others - in this post, we were told to reflect on the nature of appropriation in art.

Above is a reproduction (taken from a public site) of the artist Richard Hamilton's early pop art work Just What Is It That Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing? (1956).  No copyright violations or infringement is intended.

I say this because I must admit, to my own shame and horror, that I am really unfamiliar with the laws that govern the use and/or reproduction of other people's works.  So, I usually err on the side of paranoia.  After all, how would I feel if someone were in some way abusing or misusing my artistic creations or words?  However, the use of the image above is for purely academic purposes, and indeed I was asked to post just such an image under the terms of my assignment.

Hamilton's own re-use of images created by others (mostly pulled from popular advertisements of his time) did not have an academic purpose - not really...  Instead, with the birth of pop art you saw people reusing the images that were constantly bombarding the public in a new way.  The goal was to send a message - a powerful one - to throw light on those consumer images by and to which the public was (and today still is) growing desensitized.  Sure, Hamilton was primarily using graphics created by others, but can you really say that Hamilton was stepping on the intellectual and creative toes of the original artists and designers?

The whole point of appropriation in art is to take that which was made by others, and in a sense to make it your own (or, at any rate, something it was not before).  The appropriation in Hamilton's Just What Is It That Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing? is the very thing which gives the work its power for social commentary.  Appropriation can and must certainly raise questions about the point at which someone else's work becomes so altered that it belongs to someone else, or everyone else, I suppose.

All things to ponder.  At any rate, I doubt very much that Hamilton would mind my using his piece for this exercise.  And so, with little else original to say, until next time Internet...

-Kelly F.