Module 7 GE 6

Module No 6- Art
Module 7- Soul Making: Appropriation and Improvisation
By the end of this module, students should be able to:

1. Explain how meanings can be derived from art;
2. Discuss how improvisation can make an artwork distinctive, and;
3. Identify the issues and problems that can arise because of
appropriation.
Art has been an instrument to reflect the things and events that
transpired in the past so that the future generations can have a
glimpse of the past. With the advent of technological advancement,
societies have improved the ways and means through which art can be
communicative tool. If an artwork is an avenue for an artist to
express narratives through symbols, then it follows that the artist
is the author of the work. But during the twentieth century, issues
on ownership have emerged primarily because of the value ascribed to
the viewer of the work.
To "appropriate" is to take possession of something.

Appropriation artists deliberately copy images to take possession of
them in their art. They are not stealing or plagiarizing, nor are
they passing off these images as their very own. This artistic
approach does stir up controversy because some people view
appropriation as unoriginal or theft. This is why it's important to
understand why artists appropriate the artwork of others.
What's the Intent of Appropriation Art?
Appropriation artists want the viewer to recognize the images

they copy. They hope that the viewer will bring all of his original
associations with the image to the artist's new context, be it a
painting, a sculpture, a collage, a combine, or an entire
installation.
The deliberate "borrowing" of an image for this new context is

called "recontextualization." Recontextualization helps the artist
comment on the image's original meaning and the viewer's association
with either the original image or the real thing.
What's the Intent of Appropriation Art?

Appropriation artists want the viewer to recognize the images
they copy. They hope that the viewer will bring all of his original
associations with the image to the artist's new context, be it a
painting, a sculpture, a collage, a combine, or an entire
installation
When an artist creates something there is a desire from him or
her to elicit a certain kind of response from the audience. To a
certain extent, the artist is considered as the first and primary
audience of the work. There is the notion that art should be
perceived as something that would engage and enrich the experience of
the audience as the artist tires to piece together all the elements
grounded on design rules. However, there have been art movements
throughout history that tried to break away from the norms of visual
arts. Improvisation have led artist to find other medium and avenues
to showcase their creative experience in art can also led to
appropriation there seems to be debate whether or not something is
just an appropriation of existing work or just plan forgery.
Appropriation can be tracked back to the cubist collages and
constructions of Picasso and Georges Braque made from 1912 on, in
which real objects such as newspapers were included to represent
themselves. The practice was developed much further in
the readymades created by the French artist Marcel Duchamp from
1915. Most notorious of these was Fountain, a men’s urinal signed,
titled, and presented on a pedestal. Later, surrealism also made
extensive use of appropriation in collages and objects such
as Salvador Dalí’s Lobster Telephone. In the late 1950s appropriated
images and objects appear extensively in the work of Jasper
Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, and in pop art.
1|GE 6
However, the term seems to have come into use specifically in
relation to certain American artists in the 1980s, notably Sherrie
Levine and the artists of the Neo-Geo group particularly Jeff Koons.
Sherrie Levine reproduced as her own work other works of art,
including paintings by Claude Monet and Kasimir Malevich. Her aim
was to create a new situation, and therefore a new meaning or set of
meanings, for a familiar image.
Appropriation art raises questions of originality, authenticity and

authorship, and belongs to the long modernist tradition of art that
questions the nature or definition of art itself. Appropriation
artists were influenced by the 1934 essay by the German philosopher
Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical
Reproduction, and received contemporary support from the American
critic Rosalind Krauss in her 1985 book The Originality of the
Avant-Garde and Other Modernist Myths.
Appropriation has been used extensively by artists since the 1980s.
What are the 4 types of cultural appropriation?

Examples
 Art, literature, iconography, and adornment.

 Religion and spirituality.
 Fashion.
 Hairstyles, makeup and body modifications.
 Sports.
 African-American culture.
 Indigenous cultures.
 Minority languages
Improvisation
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In everyday life agents improvise when they do something on the
spot, without a previous plan. They improvise when they have to
(re)act under pressure to unexpected circumstances without being
properly prepared for the action. Thus, in everyday practices, agents
improvise when they use “the limited experience and resources at
[their] disposal to carry out an activity in a (usually) time bounded
situation” (Anderson 1995, 93). The way agents cope with unforeseen
difficulties, adapting their intelligence to the unexpected
affordances of the environment, can be more or less efficient and
ingenious. It can be aesthetically satisfactory, in that, for
example, one can find an elegant solution to an unexpected problem
without previous preparation and without having the means ordinarily
required to do it. Moreover, while improvising a solution to an
unexpected problem, we can achieve a practical experiential knowledge
about how to act in some unforeseen circumstances.
In a general sense improvisation is spontaneous, unplanned or

otherwise free-ranging creativity. Besides denoting an activity
improvisation is also used to denote a product of improvisational
activity (see Alperson 1984 19). Thus certain performances or
products of artistic activity are referred to as improvisations when
they have been produced in a spontaneous, originative way. Philip
Alperson considers Aristotle (Poetics) and R.G. Collingwood (The
Principles of Art) to be examples of philosophers who use the term
improvisation to denote creativity in the broad sense (see 1998). In
a similar vein R. Keith Sawyer treats improvisation as a kind of
product creativity that leads to art objects such as paintings,
sculptures, architecture, poems and novels, theatrical scripts and
musical scores ( Vein R. Keith Sawyer). At this broad level of
generality improvisation in the arts is no different from
improvisation in any other field of minded human endeavor, whether it
be conversation, science, ethics or any other spontaneous, creative
activity. This is in line with the pragmatic philosophies of John
Dewey and Joseph Margolis, among others (Aaron, Alperson 1998,
3|GE 6
Barnes, S. Davies 2001, Hamilton 2000, Hebidge, Matheson, and
Zaunbrecher). Music, theater, and dance, however, are more likely to
use improvisation to refer to a particular method, mode or feature of
a performance practice. Despite this focus on spontaneity, most
improvisation theorists agree that improvisation is not ad hoc
activity; rather, it involves skill, training, planning, limitations
and forethought (Alperson 1984, Bitz, Bresnahan, Brown 2000a,
Clemente, Hamilton 2000, Kernfeld, Sterritt, and Zaunbrecher). These
theorists hold that all creation and performance within an artistic
discipline involves an awareness of the art.
Is improvisation good or bad in art?
Improvisation is an important component in the new 2014 Music

Standards. It is also a very important part of the current National
Core Arts Standards. Improvisation teaches students how to make
decisions quickly, how to keep calm in a fast and emotional situation
as well as how to think, act and feel simultaneously.
How improvisation can make an artwork distinctive?
Painters, sculptors and ceramists all convert information into visual

and tactile artifacts. They interpret emotions and sensory data into
physical representations. In their way, these artists also improvise:
They deal with the reality which confronts them, in order to bring
the work of art into being.
Five Basic Improv Rules
 Don't Deny. Denial is the number one reason most scenes go bad.
 Don't ask open ended Questions.
 You don't have to be funny.
 You can look good if you make your partner look good.
 Tell a story
The Five Basic Improv Techniques

 Be Specific. When starting a scene try to answer the
who/what/when/where/why/how in the first sentence or two.
 “Yes and…” Whatever your scene partner suggests, you should go along
with it and try to add onto what is already being built.
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 Object Work.
 Emotion.
 Status.
5|GE 6
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Module No 6- Art

Module 7- Soul Making: Appropriation and Improvisation

By the end of this module, students should be able to:

To "appropriate" is to take possession of something.

Appropriation artists want the viewer to recognize the images

The deliberate "borrowing" of an image for this new context is

What's the Intent of Appropriation Art?

Appropriation art raises questions of originality, authenticity and

Appropriation has been used extensively by artists since the 1980s.

What are the 4 types of cultural appropriation?

 Art, literature, iconography, and adornment.

In a general sense improvisation is spontaneous, unplanned or

Is improvisation good or bad in art?

Improvisation is an important component in the new 2014 Music

How improvisation can make an artwork distinctive?

Painters, sculptors and ceramists all convert information into visual

Five Basic Improv Rules

The Five Basic Improv Techniques

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