Jeff Koons, disgrace to MICA.

Personally im pissed off that Jeff Koons went to the same school as me because now we are all associated with copyright infringement. It's ridiculous the likeness of his sculpture to Rogers' photo. I also hate Koons for employing Jaclyn Santos. I HATE JACLYN SANTOS. She has no original ideas of her own which i learned in "Work of Art" on Bravo, and I can see where she gets it from. She is such a talented painter but ruins it. Koons is also incredibly successful and versatile. he works in do many mediums so well but it's all bullshit. Art should have got all the proceeds from the sculptures. He was totally within his rights to sue.

The appeal of the photo is evident ans incredibly inspiring; But the fact that Koons used his inspiratinon to rip off Rogers is crazy. the photo and the sculpture are exactly the same. The only difference is the stupid daisys which i suppose are supposed to represent something of whimsy or whatever, but its not enough. its just stupid. the sculpture even cuts off at the knee like the photo and is just sitting there on the ground ike the photo would.

Despite my strong feelings against Koons' actions im still fuzzy on what exactly is copyright infringement and what is appropriation. What gave me the biggest insight was this excerpt from James Traub's article in The New Design Observer, "Art Rogers vs. Jeff Koons"

" In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include —

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work."

Even armed with this knowledge, the line between legal and not is so blurred. I hope i dont get into any trouble like Koons did, but i would never be THAT stupid.

thoughts on EGG interview with Barbara Kruger

Quickly, i read over the interview and realized that I wasn't engaged at all in what it had to say because i had yet to see any work by Kruger. I did some searches on her art and found them to be, to my surprise, INCREDIBLY engaging. From the first glance at the interview I could tell that Kruger's work was going to be very personal, but I then realized that the depth of her personal thoughts expanded into the world of advertisement in a universal, relate-able way. Her style is very specific to her, but yet commercial in a sense that it is easy to follow and see the whole picture.

Taking another look at the interview, i revisited the fact that Kruger worked as a graphic designer for a magazine, and could immediately see the influence. Although, I completely agree with Kruger that her work is ART and not graphic design. Her work reflects her persona vividly, which ties into her question, "'Why have you chosen to call yourself an artist?'". That question made me consider my own work and it's worth to my personality. I think all art should tell a story about the artist in a way.

Film: Hacking

I think the most intersting part of this movie was the connection between  phone phreaking and computer hacking. It seems that they would bev ery different, but infact they are quite similar. it blows my mind that people have thw intelect to come up with the blue box devices and be able to get phone service for free at a time when it was up and coming and exppensive. I think it was a brilliant idea! the only problem is that it lead to not so brilliant ideas in the computer age. Its scary to think that hackers can enter the internet and get all of your information. i nthink that hacking could have been used for fun and new innovations but unfortunately people are not always good hearted.

I also find it fascinating that people felt and still feel the challenge of hacking. that some people dont want to steal information or anythig, they just want to see how smart they can be at getting past  barriers. i never would have guessed that that is how it all started. i feel that if we hadnt stiffled those people's ingenuity, then maybe we would have advanced technologically alot fast than we have. But then again, they could change things for the worst too! its such a controversial and complicated topic. but im glad that now i can see the other side of the story.

Steve Wozniak using  a blue box to phone phreak!