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Day 48 (1/12): Art as Theft

Central Knowledge Questions

  • Does new knowledge in the arts always build on what is already known?
  • Can art change the way we interpret the world?
  • Can some knowledge in the arts only be gained through experience? How does the medium used change the way that knowledge is produced, shared or understood?

Key Concepts:

  • Medium
  • Affordances & Constraints
  • Erasure

Let's watch this TEDTalk by artist and author, Austin Kleon.



Now consider the implications of his claims on what we understand to be true about the arts, and about creativity and originality more generally.


Finally, let's make our own Newspaper Blackout Poems.

Topics for discussion:
  1. How do the limitations of the words in the article force you to be creative in ways that a "blank page" does not?
  2. What limitations does this exercise suggest for ALL forms of art?  How is this related to Picasso's declaration that "art is theft?"
  3. Is originality and creativity by necessity really just a form of remixing and reconfiguring?  


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