Plagiarism As an Art Form

746 Words2 Pages

One aspect of the creative industry that has remained the same throughout generations is the difficulty for artists to inject their work into popular culture. Utopian Plagiarism, Hypertextuality, and Electronic Cultural Production by Critical Art Ensemble (CAE) written in 1991 argues that “The Video revolution failed for two reasons – a lack of access and an absence of desire” (99) while artists from the documentary Press. Pause. Play. point out how easy access is to creative technology. The artists from PPP point out that it is much more difficult for good work to breakthrough into popular culture because there is so much of it. Comparing the arguments by CAE with the ideas in PPP reveals that artists breaking through into popular culture has always been difficult, but it is difficult today for different reasons than it used to be. For this reason, quality plagiarism is essential in the creative industry. First of all, it is important to understand the meaning of plagiarism. CAE said that “one of the main goals of the plagiarist is to restore the dynamic and unstable drift of meaning, by appropriating and recombining fragments of culture.” (86). CAE is defining what makes quality plagiarism here. This definition compares nicely with their question “what is the point of saving language when there is no longer anything to say?” When they say “there is no longer anything to say,” they mean that there are no more “fragments of culture” that have gone un-experienced. CAE’s point here is that there is nothing that can be made anymore without plagiarizing. Artists from PPP embrace the fact that plagiarism or “recombination” is necessary to make good art. The similarity between the two works is that the comparison between the two show... ... middle of paper ... ...en in 1991. A lack of access was a hurdle that made it difficult for artists to be successful. Like an over-indulgence in technology today makes it difficult for an artist to get noticed, a lack of access to technology in the past made it difficult for artists to create work. In both cases, quality plagiarism was essential for artwork to break through into popular culture. One artist in PPP said it best when he said “you just can’t avoid limitations I guess.” This statement summarizes the constant limitations that artists have faced throughout history when trying to get their work noticed in popular culture. One important way that artists have gotten their work noticed is by gathering different “fragments of culture” and recombining them to make quality art. In other words, Plagiarism is the key for artists to overcome constant limitations in the creative industry.

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