"art as theft/theft as art: using imitation

8/12/2019 "Art as Theft/Theft as Art: Using Imitation

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Art as Theft / Theft as Art

Using Imitation


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True Ease in Writing comes from Art, not

Chance,

As those move easiest who have learned to

Dance.

Alexander Pope,

An Essay on Criticism


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What similarity do you notice?


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Imitation in Art

Michaelangelos famous

sculpture Piet depicts

Mary holding her son

Jesus, after he is brought

down from the crossafter his crucifixion. It is

on exhibit in the Vatican

in Rome, and has often

been used as a model byother artists.


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Jacques-Louis Davids

The Death of Marat is

an idealized portrait of his

good friend, the post-

French Revolution patriotand fiery orator Jean-Paul

Marat, stabbed to death

in his bathtub in 1793.

Davids use of Christsright arm from the Piet

sends an obvious

symbolic message


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What good is it?

Imitation allows inexperienced writers to learnfrom those who are more experienced.

Imitation collapses the distance between thelearning writer and the text.

Imitation is a different form of thinking, allowing

the inexperienced writer to discover and explorethoughts they may not have even known theyhave.


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For exampleModel: Here it was motels and billboards and the

hot jangle of neon bursting red over fourlanes of concrete. (Ellington White, Iagoand the Tired Red Moor)

Here it was calculus books and term papers andthe confining rules of behavior boiling up instudents.

Here it was umbrellas and towels and thesuffocating heat blanketing the granules ofsand.


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Another model?

A man on horseback passes slowly,

accompanied by a boy on foot who carries

a willow branch.

(Joan Colebrook)

NOW ITS YOUR TURN


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Student sample imitations

A man in a Mercedes flies by,

accompanied by a woman who has a

Coach handbag.

A princess on a horse passes slowly,accompanied by a prince on foot who

carries a jewelled staff.


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What about Poetry?

Separation

Your absence has gone through me

Like thread through a needle.

Everything I do is stitched with its color.

(W.S. Merwin)


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Student sample imitations

This assignment has filled mewith yesterdays garbage.

Everything I do is touched with my boredom.


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Another model

Image

Old houses were scaffolding onceAnd workmen whistling.

(T.W. Hulme)

YOUR TURN AGAIN


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If it works for ONE line

This Is Just To Say

I have eaten

the plums

that were in

the icebox

And which

you were probably

saving

for breakfast.

Forgive me

they were deliciousso sweet

and so cold.

(William Carlos Williams)

Please Accept My Apologies

I didnt mean

to steal your Porsche

When you

were not around.

A nice car

Very easy to drive.

The Police couldnt catch me.

Forgive me.

It was such a beautiful car

So shinyAnd so fast

(Bern Brestek)


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Zimmers Head Thudding Against

the BlackboardAt the blackboard I had missed

Five number problems in a row,

And was about to foul a sixth,

When the old, exasperated nun

Began to pound my head against

My six mistakes. When I cried

She threw me back into my seat,

Where I hid my head and swore

That very day Id be a poet,

And curse her yellow teeth with this.

(Paul Zimmer)


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Rhapsody in Black and Blue

Seated at the piano I had played

Five wrong notes in a row.

I was about to strike a sixth

When my old hag of a teacher

Began to pound my head againstThe keyboard. When I cried,

She plopped me back in my seat

Where I hung my head low and swore

That very day Id become a truck driverAnd run her over with my semi.

(Stacey Lee, modeledafter Paul Zimmer)


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What can you imitate?

Forms of:

sentences / lines

paragraphs / stanzas

entire texts

From sources such as:

novels / short stories

poems

newspapers

magazines

plays / screenplays

essaysreally, anything!


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But you cantpublishit

Oh no? How about comparing this:

Police think they can see me lean

I'm tint so it ain't easy to be seen

When you see me ride by they can see the glean

And my shine on the deck and the TV screen

-- Ridin (Chamillionaire feat. Krayzie Bone)

With this:

First in my class here at M.I.T.

Got skills, I'm a champion of D-&-DMC Escher that's my favorite MC

Keep your 40--I'll just have an Earl Grey tea-- White and Nerdy (Weird Al Yankovic)


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Practice!

There are two times in a mans life when

he should not speculate: when he cant

afford it, and when he can. (Mark Twain)

In war, events of importance are the result

of trivial causes. (Julius Caesar)

Character is a victory, not a gift. (proverb)

"art as theft/theft as art: using imitation

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