Grad Sem: Origins, Copies & Strange...

Origins, Copies and Strange Creations

This seminar will survey broad-based ideas about
originality, narratives of origin, artistic
genius, authorship, photographic reproduction of
art and reality, natural history, religious and
cultish narratives of strange creations.

Narratives of origin in science and the history
of culture whether through a trajectory of
evolution or de-evolution, lack or abundance,
construct a worldview often called the 'truth'.
The concept 'origin' is a problematic one because
an artwork or scholarly work can never be without
precedent or understood apart from the historical
conditions of its reproduction and reception.

Although cultural theories have debunked ideas
like originality, authorship and genius; artist
biographies continue to characterize the
individual artist as gifted with god-like
inspiration. Reproductive technologies have
become so widespread that our eventual experience
of the "original object" or the idea of the
original genome is mediated by prior experiences
of them in reproduced forms. Myths and scientific
theories of origin, evolution or de-evolution
have been used to justify religious
fundamentalism, racism, and misogynistic
hierarchies.

Students should expect to spend up to $50 on
supplies.