Wednesday, November 6, 2013

For all you badass intellectual ladies out there (and the men who love them respect them as equals):
Check out the Brontë Sisters Power Dolls and their “barrier breaking laser vision!"
And because what is more hilarious than nineteenth-century literary glass ceiling destroyers, check out this fantastic comic from Hark A Vagrant (a super fantastic web comic):
tumblr_mvllfeResH1si8h74o1_1280*This post originally appeared on my wordpress hosted blog: musinginmuseums.wordpress.com

DISCUSSING “FAIR USE” AND COPYRIGHT POLICIES WITH STUDENT ARTISTS




The unclear boundaries surrounding plagiarism in the arts is certainly nothing new. As the art world has become increasingly dominated by digital media, it has been changed by unprecedented access to an exponentially growing database of creative output. This access has created a global art network and expanded access to the arts in was never before possible. However, such seemingly unrestricted access has allowed for easier means of plagiarism, as well as more targeted ways apprehending plagiarists.As an educator, I feel it is necessary for emerging artists, or any person engaged in the arts today, to understand these issues on two levels: 

1. One should draw their own moral and ethical conclusions as to what constitutes “fair use” and where they personally feel that creative access crosses over into the territory of stealing. 

2. One absolutely must understand the currently legality of copyright and fair use practices in order to protect their own work from misuse by others, understand their own legal rights and limitations, and defend their reputation as respectable artists. 

It is important for students to understand that these are two entirely separate issues. It is absolutely important for artists to develop their individual views of regarding the creative process as well as access to cultural material. However, for practicality above all else, it is critical for any young artist to understand legal consequences they may face from their actions, regardless of how benign their intentions may be.
A recent fair use case that is appears  to have come to  a final (legal) resolution, but very much part of pop culture discussion today, is that of Shepard Fairey and his Obama “Hope” poster.

shepardOriginal AP photograph (left), Hope Poster, Shepard Fairey, 2008 (right), via NPR.com


Fairey, a street artist, created the original scree print with the use of a Associated Press photograph, featuring the then Presidential candidate. The image quickly emerged as the unofficial icon for the high profile campaign. One can easily argue that Fairely was within his rights under Fair Use laws because the dominating features of the work are not dependent on the original AP image. However, his ethics become a bit more questionable when you account for the fact that he charged manufactures of clothing, print works, and other memorabilia to use the image, without ever sourcing AP.Months went on without either AP or the original photographer recognizing the source of the image. When the source was finally discovered Fairey owned up to his unlicensed use of the image.  The AP sought to sue the artist for copyright infringement but the artist then rebutted by counter suing the AP. Eventually the two parties settled out of court. Although, the case does not end there. 

Fairy was taken to court again, this time for lying to the court and withholding evidence in his original trial. He originally claimed to have used a different AP photo of Obama, one that is less similar to his final design. The artist pleaded guilty and was sentenced to community service and order to never use an AP image again without the organization’s consent.

Ethics aside, and both sides of this case certainly have grounds for debate. Money and claim to fame are huge factors in the creative world, something I feel it is important for students to understand. Even if Fairey was morally sound in his use of the Obama image, he has repeatedly sued other artists for appropriating his own images and made a fortune selling the rights to his works.The AP on the other hand faced no real damages under Fairey’s hands. It seems that this entire battle began because a powerful company (not the original photographer) saw an opportunity to get media attention, monetary gains, and a artistic credit from an historically important piece of pop culture. In fact, while researching for this post, I realized that most images I came across regarding this case, Fairey’s other works, and Fairey’s himself, were all owned by AP. Media outlets seeking  to use even a stock photo of the artist were charged a hefty sum by the AP. Bit ironic, no?
However, not all cases of artists using media images in their pieces have created such controversies. The examples below, taught uncontroversially in any survey of modern Art History, could be used to facilitate such a discussion in classrooms or coffee shops alike:
duchamp
Marcel Duchamp,  L.H.O.O.Q., 1919, post card reproduction with mustache and title added in pencil, Wikimedia Commons
Duchamp, famous for his “ready mades” drew a mustached and added the title “L.G.O.O.Q.” with graphite pencil on a postcard reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci’s  Mona Lisa (1503-1517)
walker evans2
Walker Evans, Movie Poster, 1930, photograph, Wikimedia Commons
Some of Evans’s most famous works were his photographs of advertisements and movie posters pasted on the outside of buildings.
jackieAndy Warhol, Sixteen Jackies, 1964,  Walker Art Center
One of Andy Warhol’s prolific portraits, Sixteen Jackies was created with cropped photos from newspaper clippings. 
Some Great Learning Materials for Educators:
Teachers, Check out this great lesson plan on Fairy’s legal issues and “fair use,” from The SmART Teacher art ed blogger, LiveColorfully
Remix The Book offers up some fantastic discussion topics regarding appropriation and the arts great for the classroom or gallery opening.
Interested in becoming an advocate for free use and equal access to digital culture?
Creative Commons is a non-profit that “develops, supports, and stewards legal and technical infrastructure that maximizes digital creativity, sharing, and innovation.” They offer great education information, copyright licenses, and a platform to share your own creative material discover great material, all free and legally accessible for public use.
The Free Culture Foundation has some basic educational resources and opportunities to get involved.  The organization (though not the movement) began as a student organization. It recently expanded to all communities advocates, but appears to be very much rooted in a campus-based, minimally-hierarchical  that is particularly accessible to students. (Super out-of-the box class project?)

*This post originally appeared on my wordpress hosted blog: musinginmuseums.wordpress.com

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

“Every woman knows what I’m talking about. It’s the presumption that makes it hard, at times, for any woman in any field; that keeps women from speaking up and from being heard when they dare; that crushes young women into silence by indicating, the way harassment on the street does, that this is not their world.”- Rebecca Solnit



"How It Works" xkcd



For those of you unfamiliar with Rebecca Solnit’s 2008 essay, “Men Explain Things To Me, ” I highly recommend you give it a good, in-depth read. This is no angry rant preaching to the mainstream feminist choir, I promise. She offers up a straight-forward, honest critique of the widely accepted arrogance of men in the academic world. Her experiences deeply resonated with countless women, including myself, and quickly generated a wider examination of gender-based preconceptions in academia and beyond. If you have heard the term “mansplaining” floating around the academic  zeitgeist, or seen the popular and humorous blog “Academic Men Explain Things To Me,”  Solnit’s article is what inspired their conception.

While stories of “mansplaining” are easily digestible offer a platform for much needed discussion, I am wary that we are focusing on a very narrow characteristic of a much broader social norm. The issue at hand is not as simple disagreeing women, or not taking their intellect seriously. The issue I am trying to define has more to due with the filter in which society views women. A filter, that seems to become stronger in fields still dominated by men.

I now realize how greatly these themes have shape my experience as a female student, academic, and professional.* What I find unfortunate is how long it took me to recognize this connection.  I grew up being told that gender bias in the professional world was nearly a thing of the past. Even as I grew older, and tried to do my best to embody the ideals of third-wave feminism, I, ironically, remained completely oblivious to a characteristic of gender bias that was thrown in my face daily. This was the consistent assumption that I was less informed, less intelligent, or less experienced than a man who was speaking to me. Even some of the most supportive male mentors in my life would first experience several incidents of shock when I surpassed their low expectations before they took my intelligence seriously.  These expectations came to be something I expected, and something I felt was deserved. I didn’t realize that people were viewing other women in such a light, I thought I was personally doing something to warrant such low expectations.

To be absolutely clear, this is by no means some man-hating rant** (another belittling gender stereotype thrown at feminist commentators.) Women also belittle other women, men belittle other men, and women belittle men. Of course they do! All the time! The difference is that those instances do not typically relate to widely held preconceptions based on gender. In fact, I would argue that often times the men that patronize the intelligence of women are the most likely to be unaware of their bias, perhaps even well-intentioned.  In my experience, it is the men who are most convinced that they lack any gender bias who are the greatest offenders.  Rarely has a man in my life explicitly told me I couldn’t do something  because I am a woman. But after enough people, nearly always men, implied that I had little potential, I would limit myself. I have stepped away from everything from building a campfire,  to applying to universities, only to watch far less qualified boys and men confidently step into those roles.

What’s frustrating is how long it took me (and it appears, countless other women) to realize how misplaced these assumptions are. Rather than getting angry, I internalized others’ view of me and and, over time, reshaped their false assumptions into crippling self doubt. The few instances when males told me that I was less intelligent, less qualified, or less able because I am a woman, I worked relentlessly to prove them wrong. But those instances are not what I am focusing on. The danger of the more subtle and un-checked cultural assumptions is that women do not necessarily see where they are coming from and how unjustified they are. I have never been told, or believed, that women are worse at math than men. I knew for a fact that I had higher scores on my math SAT than any boy in my high school Calculus class, and I knew several other consistently high-achieving girls in a similar situation. Not a single one of us auditioned for, nor were encouraged by our male science teachers, to join our school’s academic team. But I didn’t avoid my first public opportunities to be labeled an “intellectual” because I am a woman. I avoided them because I did not see myself as deserving. woman or not. Now those boys have gone on to become successful engineers, businessmen, and Ph.d candidates. And they are absolutely deserving of their hard-earned success! What I am confused about is where they received their confidence to continue these pursuits, while myself and other females with equal or greater potential were not encouraged to develop equal self-confidence. Judging by the lack of self-promotion among female professors and the gender gap in academic citation this appears to be a consistent characteristic of even highly successful women at the top of their fields.

Although I am very passionate about them, I did not personally pursue my chosen areas of study because they are where my strengths lie (they really, really aren’t.) As a sensitive, “artsy,” young woman, I was told the arts or humanities would be more accepting and were saddled with less academic pressure (an unqualified judgement of more female dominated fields). As a woman, advisers of mine admittedly evaluated my career potential based more on my affinity for scarves and thrift store clothing, than my individual skill sets and  intellectual achievements, something I don’t believe would have happened if I was a man. I trusted that they knew something I didn’t and unquestionably internalized their misguided perception.

To be clear, I am by absolutely no means implying that the humanities are not as every bit as rigorous as the hard sciences or more male-dominated fields. Far from it. But I was a dyslexic with severe language-based learning disabilities.  If evaluating my academic assets and potential, any unbiased advisor would have pushed me into a math or science field, NEVER one that requires incredibly lengthy reading and writing and the mastery of multiple foreign languages to achieve high success. Perhaps they never expected for me to reach such a level in the first place?  I love my areas of study, truly. But to be frank, I am not suited for the typical path to success they require.  I am determined to make a name for myself doing what I am passionate about, but that requires proving many people wrong, which is both exhausting and discouraging.  Unfortunately, my identity as a female seems to add more greatly to academics’ preconceptions of me as I slowly progress further into these fields, perhaps just as greatly as it would have been in more male-orientated fields.

What has shocked me most as I have reach higher levels of academia, as well as the fine arts and museum sectors,  is how strongly positions of power are dominated my males. The low levels of the hierarchal pyramids in these fields are entirely dominated by women, but men are consistently the ones who reach positions of power and high esteem. Clearly, there is some sort of message being given to smart women  that they are less deserving. However subtle  this message may be, it has a far-reaching impact.

The message that I hope you all take out of my post is how necessary it is to take the time to evaluate the preconceptions you may unknowingly hold of others, or others may hold of you. A practice that I feel is particularly valuable for both learners and educators, at any age or stage in their career. The challenge for any learner should be to justify others’ high expectations of them, never to prove others’ low expectations wrong.

* This post deals exclusively with my own,very personal, experiences. I do not speak for all females as a whole. I also recognize that many of the issues I mention are similarly felt by people of color, low income communities, non-cisgendered individuals, among other populations, however, I cannot speak on a personal level about such experiences.

**I do feel that there is, in fact, a problematic bias towards talented males in our society as well. Young male students are often  discouraged from pursuing careers in  creative fields, in part, due to their low income potential. However, I do not feel that such biases have as far-reaching and negative impacts as these biases typically reverse in the higher ranks of the creative fields. I do feel pressure on boys to obtain careers with a salary capable of supporting a single-income household is an unfair expectation, the notion is out-of-touch with economic reality, and people of all genders. However, in the long run, this gender imbalance encourages men to excel, while women are continually assumed to have weaker aspirations and their professional personas are tinged with doubt about their aspirations and determination.

This post originally appeared on my wordpress hosted blog: musinginmuseums.wordpress.com

Why Blog? I’m Not Sure, and That’s Why I’m Here.

Break out your a glass of Pinot Noir, high-wasted professional pants, and all of your technological savvy, we’re going to blog and it’s going to be fabulous!

I should be upfront with something. I am a Millennial with near zero understanding of why people blog. As a 20-something with 1 1/2 liberal arts degrees, a lengthy but totally impractical resume, and no discernible life skills whatsoever, I have consistently received two pieces of career advice:
 
1. “Do something creative, and make it social!” (by that, I think, they mean viral?)
2. “Start a Blog!”

Which for me seems like a real Catch-22, I don’t know much about anything, at least not enough to feel confident to publicly voicing my opinion, but in order to get secure a job that will give any noteworthy experience, I am required to master digital/social/new media.
Unfortunately, I spent my life studying things like the  “symbolic role wearing wigs during the establishment of a new social hierarchy in 18th-Century Colonial America” and worked weekends as an historical re-enactor was precisely to avoid a life where popularity or social skills would play any sort of factor. However, nowadays-even colonial-style wigmakers need to get viral to stay in the game.
Now don’t get me wrong, I can navigate, Facebook, Linkedin, and Instagram as well as your former high school Spanish teacher that now follows you and twitter and refers to herself as “hip” and “still 17 at heart.” But, knowing how to use new media does not automatically give one the ability to generate something with an impact.

I am certain that I am in the majority of students or recent students (or all students since the printing press) who have experienced the dispassionate educator who happened to kept in step with evolving technology. They first transferred their block paragraphs of lecture notes onto a poorly designed PowerPoint slides, then perhaps threw that presentation up onto the class website or Dropbox account. While that educator did have some technological know-how, they did nothing but disengage their students on multiple. I learned a great deal more from educators who worked carousel projectors and record players like pros, it was because they were confident in their abilities using those tools (which were the “new” media of their own day.) Creative, passionate, innovative teachers like them now have more tools than ever at their dispose.

There is no doubt that new media hold unlimited potential for connecting people, sharing ideas, and generating entire communities. It offers potential for educators and learners and enthusiasts to connect in ways they never have before. But, like any good practice, a how-to guide and can only get you so far. I have always found that the only way to know I truly understand something is if I can teach it. On the flip side, my most rewarding and engaging experiences as a learner has been when an educator is learning right along with me. That’s when learning is truly active, and that’s when it gets exciting.
So that right there is why I am blogging. Motivation. I want to connect with others who are just as excited about learning and creating.

*This post originally appeared on my wordpress hosted blog: musinginmuseums.wordpress.com