Hypothetical Ethical Dilemma

In his seminal book, The Reconfigured Eye: Visual Truth in the Post-Photographic Era, William Mitchell writes:

The photographic falsifier holds up not a mirror to the world but a looking glass through which the observing subject is slyly invited to step, like Alice, into a place where things are different--where facts seem indistinguishable from falsehoods and fictions and where immanent paradox continually threatens to undermine established certainties (190).

In this case study, the Wonderland in question is a collage created by an artist using a wide variety of appropriated photographic images and a skilled hand with a Photoshop program. The New York Times magazine art director who commissioned the piece rightly inquires about the

. . .
ment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research is not an infringement of copyright'" (24). In this case, the artist argues that the social commentary aspect of his work overrides any copyright protections that might otherwise restrict the use of the source images. An important copyright violation case involving appropriated images suggests some of the ways the law could treat these three arguments. Halbert summarizes the case: Artist Jeff Koons . . . had taken a photograph entitled "A String of Puppies" and used it to create a sculpture of the same scene. The copyright owner of the photograph sued Koons for copyright violation. Koons' argument was that his sculpture, exhibited in a show about American Banality, was a postmodern approach to illustrating the banality of art in an "image saturated society." Koons used a technique called "appropriation" to bring this point home. He lost (152). Koons' case was built on a number of arguments, including some form of the three in this hypothetical case. Although his work had more recognizable elements of the original than the magazine collage artist's work, Koons did argue that converting some elements of an image used on a notecard into a three-dimensional sculptur
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Pottery Barn, American Banality, Debora Halbert, , Vilis Inde, William Mitchell, York Times, Alice's Wonderland, Internet Art, String Puppies, art director, appropriated images, westport ct, copyright law, post-photographic era, social commentary, intellectual property, exercise equipment, original source, pottery barn catalog, issues raised, eye visual truth, reconfigured eye visual, truth post-photographic era, visual truth post-photographic,
Approximate Word count = 1564
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Hypothetical Ethical Dilemma