Connectivity

Originality, ‘the ability to think or express oneself in an independent and individual manner’, an original idea is one not thought up by another person beforehand, yet most pieces of work have taken ideas and inspiration from previous peoples work, does this mean the work is no longer original, or is it just a new take on an older concept.  Casper David Friedrich created the ‘Chalk Cliffs on Rügen’ in 1818, a direct link can be seen between it and Cliff Richard’s ‘Heathcliff’ CD cover created in 1996, and again in 2009 a obvious link can be seen with David Tennant’s RSC Hamlet design. 

It is clear that both of pieces have used Casper David Friedrich’s work as inspiration to create there new take on an older idea.  Another good example of modern work ‘paying homage’ to older pieces is the Pogues album cover for ‘Rum, Sodomy & the Lash’ created in 1985 which has many obvious links to Théodore Géricault’s piece ‘The Raft of the Medusa’ created in 1818.  There are many other examples in other media like film and music.  The band Oasis drew influence from The Beatles who drew influence from others before them.  Does this mean they weren’t original?  The film ‘The Killing’ 1956 was a direct influence for Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Reservoir Dogs’, its influence on Tarantino’s use of the fractured narrative structure is obvious.  But where is the line between ‘paying homage’ and plagiarism?

But can recontextualised ideas be contemporary? All these pieces are considered original even though they closely resemble previous work or ideas.  I believe that these pieces are a little too similar, almost on the verge of copying, but there are other examples of work were inspiration has been take from previous work yet they have made vast changes to their version creating a totally new piece of work, a good example of this is an advert for Ashanti beer, which has drawn inspiration from Hokusai’s ‘The Great Wave Of Kanagawa’.  

This piece has recontextualised Hokusai’s piece and made a new contemporary piece out of it.  I feel that taking fewer details from the inspirational work or creating a bigger contrast from the ‘original’ creates a more contemporary piece.  Because every piece of work, Art, Music, Film draws inspiration from some piece of media that has come before, and if all those pieces were called unoriginal then we wouldn’t have any original work at all.