PROJECT STATEMENT

Throughout this project I have explored the issues surrounding authorship and appropriation and the connection between the two. Initial research included an article which I read that caught my eye as appropriation and authorship is something that I have never looked into before and it seemed like it would be a challenging yet interesting project to do. From this I started by looking at articles and books such as 'The Intentional Fallacy', 'The designer as an author' 'The death of the author'. These were all very complex and they took me a long time to get my head around, however I got some great information on how authorship is a very modern problem and how the meaning of these authorship and appropriation are very much subjective matters that are seen differently to different people. 

Something that I argued which I found interesting was the fact that even if some pieces of work have named authors who have attached authorship to their work, it is not always the case that the name attached to the piece of work is the sole designer of the piece. This is where the question of authorship can be blurred and in a lot of cases authorship is not directly linked to the production of the piece. 

Authorship and appropriation have been related to each other for a long time. It is very rare that appropriation art is about disrespecting or taking the authorship of another designer for their own benefit. A lot of the time it is celebratory, much like Barnbrook's 'The Next Day' album cover for Bowie. It was so powerful yet simple because of the appropriation he used, it was sending across a completely different message and meaning for the viewers.

My written work helped me establish a strong idea behind my practical project because I had a wide understanding of the issues that relate to authorship and appropriation. The issues relating to authorship and appropriation I have been looking at throughout this essay will always be most exaggerated in fine art contexts because this is where they are debated freely, however how they manifest in everyday contexts will be more attenuated. This is when I decided to research into Jamie Reid to try to justify the use of appropriation in graphic design. This also influenced my practical work immensely as I believe he uses appropriation in a good way for design and think that it needs to be become more well known to the general public and to allow the viewers to hold more responsibility as the issues are very subjective.

The reasoning behind the exhibition is to allow the visitors to hold the responsibility and see for themselves that maybe they can't tell which is appropriated however as they are great designs and they should not be judged based on authorship and if they have been appropriated. My research showed me that direct appropriation is not particularly common in a lot of commercial contexts however that is what I believed before researching into this project. The outcomes showcases the ideas that it is not exclusive and that appropriation can be used in a good way. it is not always bad.