Prince and the Times

A recent slideshow from The New York Times puts the work of Richard Prince in the perspective of the photographers from whom he "borrows." Considered to be a pioneer of appropriation, something that was at its time (in the late 70s) both controversial and unconventional, his work is now accepted even to the point of earning a retrospective show at the Guggenheim. The article does not focus entirely on his work, but brings forth the issues that we all debate about our work and the work of all artists during this Postmodern and perhaps Post-Historical era.

Jim Krantz is presented as the comparison, one of the photographers whose work has been rephotographed and presented as art. But Krantz's photos were taken for Marlboro advertisements, no doubt coordinated and commissioned by a designer who art directed and designed the shoot. By choosing photography and works often created by designers in collaboration with photographers, Prince ties appropriation from the world of fine art (where his work lives) and into the design world (where his sources live), much like Duchamp and Warhol manipulated the ideas and contexts surrounding objects designed for mass reproduction.  

So when the question of ownership and authorship emerges from the observations of the links between these people and their work, it cannot be a one-or-the-other answer. Does it belong to Prince, to Krantz, to the designer who art directed it and held a responsibility to a client, or to Marlboro as a company and brand? 

Who owns the image in the first place? Does the photographer claim sole rights as the first to capture it-- is Prince appropriating an image without meaning? When the photographer's name is diminished by an art director's, does it become the art director's work as part of his concept? Is Prince appropriating the designer's idea? 

Is Prince really taking from Krantz, or instead from the designer of the Marlboro ads-- is he taking from neither, but from work "owned" by Marlboro? And is he asking us to read the message and statement associated with taking imagery from an advertisement or that of taking the uncontextualized imagery of a photographer? 

Is plagiarism about stealing the way something is done or the idea behind it? Does plagiarism even exist in the art world today? Duchamp took industrial design and gave it new meaning. Warhol used commercial design to make his own statements. As designers, our goals in appropriation have more to do with utilizing a style and semiotic meaning. As artists, appropriation itself has meaning and is a means to communicating a message or making a statement. Perhaps Prince, as an artist and not a designer, exploits design through art direction and advertising with the same goals of his Postmodern predecessors. 

As art directors and designers, this might not be fair. The work created for Marlboro was not a personal statement or cultural visualization. It was meant only to be the completion of a project for a client. If the work is seen as belonging to the art director or the photographer, the context of its initial creation is lost. In that frame of mind, I can only hope that Prince's intention is to take the images from advertisements as work that is owned and authored by the company, not the artists who collaborated to create it. 

Designers make a powerful cultural statement with each brand and advertisement we create, yet we create only to satisfy a client's wishes. We wonder why we have little sense of authorship, but it is because we join hands with companies to convey their message, not our own. 

Who is it, though, that Prince challenges? Is it Krantz, who captured the imagery he uses? Is it those that create advertisements, for helping to create a society where they hold such prominence and significance? Is it Marlboro, for using the kinds of imagery in their ads? Or for being moguls of advertising in the first place? Or, as an artist, is he merely challenging the audience, asking them to ask-- why these images, why for these companies, can they be separated from their intended associations, what do the images mean without them? Maybe the ownership and the authorship, despite what could be argued about the two, are only a small part of the challenges of viewing his work as art.

An Incomplete Manifesto For Growth

by Bruce Mau

from Looking Closer 4: Critical Writings on Graphic Design

1. ALLOW EVENTS TO CHANGE YOU.

You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.

2. FORGET ABOUT GOOD.

Good is an unknown quantity. Good is what we all agree on. Growth is not necessarily good. Growth is an exploration of unlit recesses that may or may not yield to our research. As long as you stick to good you'll never have real growth.

3. PROCESS IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN OUTCOME.

When the outcome drive the process we will only ever go to where we've already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we're going, but we will know we want to be there.

4. LOVE YOUR EXPERIMENTS (AS YOU WOULD AN UGLY CHILD).

Joy is the engine of growth. Exploit the liberty in casting your work as beautiful experiments, iterations, attempts, trials, and errors. Take the long view and allow yourself the fun of failure every day.

5. GO DEEP.

The deeper you go the more likely you will discover something of value.

6. CAPTURE ACCIDENTS.

The wrong answer is the right answer in search of a different question. Collect wrong answers as a part of the process. Ask different questions.

7. STUDY.

A studio is a place of study. Use the necessity of production as an excuse to study. Everyone will benefit.

8. DRIFT.

Allow yourself to wander aimlessly. Explore adjacencies. Lack judgement. Postpone criticism.

9. BEGIN ANYWHERE.

John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.

10. EVERYONE IS A LEADER.

Growth happens. Whenever it does, allow it to emerge. Learn to follow when it makes sense. Let anyone lead.

11. HARVEST IDEAS. EDIT APPLICATIONS.

Ideas need a dynamic, fluid, generous environment to sustain life. Applications, on the other hand, benefit from critical rigor. Produce a high ratio of ideas to applications.

12. KEEP MOVING.

The market and its operations have a tendency to reinforce success. Resist it. Allow failure and migration to be part of your practice.

13. SLOW DOWN.

Desynchronize from standard time frames and surprising opportunities may present themselves.

14. DON'T BE COOL.

Cool is conservative fear dressed in black. Free yourself from the limits of this sort.

15. ASK STUPID QUESTIONS.

Growth is fueled by desire and innocence. Assess the answer, not the question. Imagine learning throughout your life at the rate of an infant.

16. COLLABORATE.

The space between people working together is filled with conflict, friction, strife, exhilaration, delight, and vast creative potential.

17. 

Intentionally left blank. Allow space for the ideas you haven't had yet, and for the ideas of others.

18. STAY UP LATE.

Strange things happen when you've gone too far, been up too long, worked too hard, and you're separated from the rest of the world.

19. WORK THE METAPHOR.

Every object has the capacity to stand for something other than what is apparent. Work on what it stands for.

20. BE CAREFUL TO TAKE RISKS.

Time is generic. Today is the child of yesterday and parent of tomorrow. The work you produce today will create your future.

21. REPEAT YOURSELF.

If you like it, do it again. If you don't like it, do it again.

22. MAKE YOUR OWN TOOLS.

Hybridize your tools in order to build unique things. Even simple tools that are your own can yield entirely new avenues of exploration. Remember, tools can amplify our capacities, so even a small tool can make a big difference.

23. STAND ON SOMEONE'S SHOULDERS.

You can travel farther carried on the accomplishments of those who came before you. And the view is so much better. 

24. AVOID SOFTWARE.

The problem with software is that everyone has it.

25. DON'T CLEAN YOUR DESK.

You might find something in the morning that you can't see tonight.

26. DON'T ENTER AWARDS COMPETITIONS.

Just don't. It's not good for you.

27. READ ONLY THE LEFT-HAND PAGES.

Marshall McLuhan did this. By decreasing the amount of information, we leave room for what he called our "noodle."

28. MAKE NEW WORDS. EXPAND THE LEXICON.

The new conditions demand a new way of thinking. The thinking demands new forms of expression. The expression generates new conditions.

29. THINK WITH YOUR MIND. FORGET TECHNOLOGY.

Creativity is not device-dependent.

30. ORGANIZATION = LIBERTY.

Real innovation in design, or any other field, happens in context. That context is usually some form of cooperatively managed enterprise. Frank Gehry, for instance, is only able to realize Bilbao because his studio can deliver it on budget. The myth of a split between "creatives" and "suits" is what Leonard Cohen calls a "charming artifact of the past."

31. DON'T BORROW MONEY.

Once again, Frank Gehry's advice. By maintaining financial control, we maintain creative control. It's not exactly rocket science, but it's surprising how hard it is to maintain this discipline, and how many have failed.

32. LISTEN CAREFULLY.

Every collaborator who enters our orbit brings with him or her a world more strange and complex than any we could ever hope to imagine. By listening to the details and the subtlety of their needs, desires, or ambitions, we fold their world into our own. Neither party will ever be the same.

33. TAKE FIELD TRIPS.

The bandwidth of the world is greater than that of your TV set, or the Internet, or even a totally immersive, interactive, dynamically rendered, object-oriented, real-time, computer graphic-simulated environment.

34. MAKE MISTAKES FASTER.

This isn't my idea -- I borrowed it. I think it belongs to Andy Grove.

35. IMITATE.

Don't be shy about it.  Try to get as close as you can. You'll never get all the way, and the separation might be truly remarkable. We have only to look to Richard Hamilton and his version of Marcel Duchamp's large glass to see how rich, discredited and underused imitation is as a technique. 

36. SCAT.

When you forget the words, do what Ella did: make up something else... not words.

37. BREAK IT, STRETCH IT, BEND IT, CRUSH IT, FOLD IT.

38. EXPLORE THE OTHER EDGE.

Great liberty exists when we avoid trying to run with the technological pack. We can't find the leading edge because it's trampled underfoot. Try using old-tech equipment made obsolete by an economic cycle but still rich with potential.

39. COFFEE BREAKS, CAB RIDES, GREEN ROOMS...

Real growth happens outside of where we intend it to, in the interstitial space -- what Dr. Seuss calls "the waiting place." Hans Ulrich Obrist once organized a science and art conference with all the infrastructure of a conference -- the parties, chats, lunches, airport arrivals -- but with no actual conference. Apparently it was hugely successful and spawned many ongoing collaborations.

40. AVOID FIELDS. JUMP FENCES.

Disciplinary boundaries and regulatory regimes are attempts to control the wilding of creative life. They are often understandable efforts to order what are manifold, complex, evolutionary processes. Our job is to jump the fences and cross the fields. 

41. LAUGH.

People visiting the studio often comment on how much we laugh. Since I've become aware of this, I use it as a barometer of how completely we are expressing ourselves.

42. REMEMBER.

Growth is only possible as a product of history. Without memory, innovation is merely novelty. History gives growth a direction. But a memory is never perfect. Every memory is a degraded or composite image of a previous moment or event. That's what makes us aware of its quality as a past and not a present. It means that every memory is a new, a partial construct different from its sources, and, as such, a potential for growth itself.

43. POWER TO THE PEOPLE.

Play can only happen when people feel they have control over their lives. We can't be free agents if we're not free.

Advice for Creating

As students, we often share advice we have received with each other, so that we might all learn and progress and help each other to do so. This was a response to an email that a friend and classmate sent to one of our professors, and some much needed food for thought.

-------------------

Well, first don't panic. This can and does happen to everyone in our field from time to time. I can't really give you any concrete advise on how to get 'unstuck', however. Everyone's different as is their creativity and ability to call on it. For me, a number of ways work. I'll share them with you.

1. Quit trying to be 'creative'. Focus on doing something else for a while and let whatever part of you that is creative take a break and relax. Then come back to your classwork more refreshed.

2. Break your creative tasks into smaller, more digestible pieces. Put another way, attack small parts of a larger problem rather than trying to win the entire battle in one grand sweep.

3. Try some process based approaches that have worked for you in the past. For instance, would word listing be a starting place or perhaps even some really small sketches done rapidly in a free associative manner.

4. Focus on the audience, put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself what messages would you like to receive (as them) when you are looking at (your) particular package.

5. If you like to write, write something silly or fun or stupid without any judgment.

6. If you like to draw, do the same.

7. Go to the bookstore with an open mind and just soak stuff in. Recharge your batteries.

Most of all, remember that design and creativity is about imagination and fun, not rules and deadlines.

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Cranial Motivity

Inspired by the blogging designers, artists, and general members of the public, I'm attempting to begin my own. I have realized that my sketchbook is filled with pages of handwriting more often than with sketches and drawings, prompting a lot of introversion and thought about the issue. So, here I am. I plan to write and transcribe from my sketchbook, now becoming a journal, and presenting to you the thoughts that seem worthy of bringing to light.

The name of this entry has become a tactile goal that I wish to reach- this cranial motivity, it is anything that moves the brain. Which, in this day and age, is so much that we are often overwhelmed. So much so that our brains quickly edit out information so that there is less to be processed at one time. In a way, our brains begin create a routine, as do we for our own lives. Breaking free of the routine where we instinctually ignore things around us is the goal- to learn to see, feel, hear, say, and do the things that are out of the ordinary. To find the things that are interesting, whether they seemed to be at first glance or not. To stop ourselves from editing, and to begin to process everything around us as thoroughly as we can. To see it, analyze it, and connect it. In doing so, it happens: motion of the mind. Cranial Motivity.


Welcome to my new little world.

Let me tell you about myself.

I am a student at the University of North Texas. I am a member of the Communication Design program, and the greater design community at large. Communication Design is exactly what it is, not to be confused with public speaking or public relations. It is about business, but it is about art. This is the fine line that visual designers walk. Communication Design is about communicating ideas with imagery; storytelling at its most fundamental form. The term is a broad and general word that refers to all kinds of design - graphic, art direction, environmental, publication, multimedia, packaging, and more, all of which have subcategories of their own.

My major is located within the College of Visual Art and Design. This is where much of my recent thought is focused: analyzing this line that divides designers and fine artists. Or does it? Is there such a line, and what falls on either side? Are they one in the same, or is it a sort of spectrum on which we all sit? The idea intrigues me, as much as studio art. I have a love for both. I love the freedom of thought in studio art, all that it allows the artist to do, and the profound effects that it is able to have on its audience. And yet, the structure and discipline of design, of finding effectiveness in minute details, communicating to people in ways both perceived and unperceived, and combining business and the problem solving of clients' problems with the creativity and artistry of design - it has caught me up on its wings, leaving me out of breath and adrenaline pulsing through my mind and soul.

I am a student. And, being so, I am relatively new to this, to the idea of design and art in the real world. I am young. And taking my youth as an advantage, I know that I have much to see, experience, learn, and connect. This is another beginning for me, as I stumble through words, trying to piece together the things I have come to notice, the things I have yet to understand, and the things that have, in many ways, moved my mind. I have decided to pursue psychology as a secondary interest to design and art, and in a way, they all inform the other. I hope that my interests and observations of art, design, psychology, society, and life in general will be the starting point of discussion and ideating, helping me to learn more and understand more than would be possible on my own.


As we move into the 21st century, it becomes ever clearer that the ultimate, most intimate territory for design is not electronics, or interiors, or furniture, or the Web. It’s us—our own living, breathing, biological selves. ... the personal makeover has become our most fundamental design task.
Rick Poynor, Design Writer