Lecture 6/Tutorial 5

This week we learned about Appropriation. The basic concept of appropriation is using existing material, changing its context and even appearance, and creating something "original" out of it. It brings up the issue of originality, and that nothing in this world is ever original, because existing material related to it can always be found. It could even be accidental, that an artist views a piece of artwork, and eventually comes up with an original piece of artwork based on that artwork that he or she viewed. It was in his or her subconscious that she "appropriated" the piece of artwork. Even if it was not subconsciously, if something is created and thought to be original, can it be confirmed that in some other parts of the world, the same thing is not created? Of course, this brings up the issue of copyrights. If one were to gain fame and recognition based on an artwork that originates from another piece of artwork, which piece of artwork, or rather artist, should be credited?

These were the issues mentioned in Lecture 6 this week, and many examples were shown in class, including Marcel Duchamp's Fountain, where the value of Art is questioned, with using a banal, mundane object like a toilet bowl, changing its position, and promoting it as "high art". Dadaism and Surrealism were mentioned again, but the most interesting part (for me) was the topic of Pop Art. Andy Warhol is one of my favourite artists, and his recognition is based on him using recognisable, familiar objects and people like Campbell soup and Marilyn Monroe to create artworks. He duplicates these images in artworks, and addresses issues like mass culture through his works. He is the epitome of Appropriation.

This week's tutorial was about Photoshop! Seeing how my skills were limited, I was excited about class. We learned different adjustments for a picture, non-destructive and destructive photo editing, and the various ways of selecting an area within a picture or photo. The 3 most useful things I have learnt from this week's tutorial are:

Before.

After. (Saturation was adjusted to the minimum, with foreground and background colours swopped to make some parts of the picture in colour, and others being desaturated)

Before.

After. (Hue was adjusted!)

Selection with Magnetic Lasso Tool.