"Bad artists imitate; great artists steal." ~ Pablo Picasso
One of the surest of tests is the way in which a poet borrows. Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different from that from which it was torn; the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion. A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time, or alien in language, or diverse in interest. ~ T.S. Eliot
Artists Steal
Artists seek inspiration
Artists collect
Artists repurpose
Artists synthesize
Artists curate
Artists transform
Artists pay tribute
Artists appropriate
Artists comment upon other artworks
Introduction
Have you ever had trouble coming up with original, creative ideas? Everyone has! It’s tough finding something new to do. But it’s time to move beyond just trying to copy an exact replica of what you find on the internet. Pablo Picasso once said, “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” What you’re looking at, above, is a version by Banksy, the anonymous street artist. Picasso was actually one of the first modern artists to use collage as a medium, to collect inspiration from a variety of sources.
Learning Goals
Students will learn the difference between inspiration & appropriation.
Students will how to create an original work by gathering the ideas of others
Essential Questions
Is copying as part of your artwork ever ok?
What is the difference between copying someone else’s idea and being inspired by their work?
Success Criteria
You can:
Knowledge and Understanding– 10%
Apply the steps of the Creative Process
Demonstrate knowledge of vocabulary
Thinking and Inquiry - 30%
Document the stages of your developmentUse more than a single source of inspiration
Modify at least 4+ elements/techniques/materials to create your own (more is better)
Vocabulary
Appropriation – Taking something for your own use without the owner’s permission. Using already existing images and making little or no change to the original image. In art, it can also mean
Inspiration – Process of being mentally stimulated to do something, especially a creative act.
Parody – An imitation of the style of an artist with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.
Satire – Use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule.
Intertextuality – Referencing other work – art, literature, film, and using it as the basis for a new work of art. You can also include references within your own pieces. This adds significance to the meaning behind a work based on your previous knowledge and understanding of those works.
Remix – pieces of art (or other works) are mixed together to form a new creation.
Copyright - a law that protects the creator's ownership of and control over the work he or she creates. It requires other people to get the creator's permission before they copy, share or perform the work. NOTE: Assume that any work you find on the internet has automatic copyright. Somebody created it and is entitled to credit.
Plagiarism - The practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own, or neglecting to give credit to the creator.
Creative Commons - A kind of copyright that indicates how a work can be shared, copied and adapted. Usually requires credit to the original creator.
Public Domain - A creative work that is no longer protected by copyright (usually due to age, or as specified by creator). There are exceptions based on the type of work, who owns it and if it was published. Some old material is copyright by museums or the family of the creator.
Fair Dealing - The ability to use small amounts of someone's creative work without permission, but only in certain ways. Click on Copyright to see more.
Activities
Can I use someone else’s work if I make changes to it?
If your work transforms the source material, then it may be considered original. Transformative work is a new work that adds value, substantially changes, comments on, or gives a new expression or meaning to the source.
If the submission uses another artist or writer’s work as raw material and transforms the original work by bringing new insights and understandings to the piece, it may be submitted to the Scholastic Awards.
Changing the medium—for example, creating a painting based on a photo that was taken by someone else or creating a poem by rearranging the lyrics to a song—does NOT make the work transformative.
Cropping or resizing an image does NOT make the work transformative.
Changing the order of the lines in a poem or adding a few words to a sentence written by another author is NOT transformative.
Watch Steal Like an Artist: Austin Kleon at TEDxKC. - see embedded video, below.
Viewthe PowerPoint presentation shown in class. (You will be taken to a new link. Download the file) Artists Steal.pptx -> Artists Steal Revised 2017.pptx Explore the definition of the words Appropriation, Parody and Intertextuality. What are the differences? How are they similar? Create your own definitions (in your own words) and write them in your sketchbook.
I have used work as inspiration, but modified it to make it my own
I have documented my process
The idea behind “Steal like an Artist” is to find inspiration from many sources, not just copy a single image. Of course, it’s great to use your own, original ideas, too. Please share what inspired you and how you used the ideas or images in your own work.
Plagiarism is the practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as your own. What are 2 steps you can take when creating your own work to avoid plagiarism? Please give details & examples using unit vocabulary. If you would like to review the information shown in class, please refer to
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