Freedom of Expression
Copyright Laws
The term, Freedom of Expression is the 1st amendment of the USA, and means that you have the right to expression opinions freely through different forms, but without deliberately causing harm to others. So, when creating my album covers, I wanted to consider the Read Write Culture/Mash-ups in a way that allowed me to change and remix art in my own way. And through this term it has let be more creative in what I produced and how I produced it. Also, I wanted to manipulate CD covers in a way that had questionable imagery within them, presenting the female models in such a way the viewer may do a double take. Through freedom of expression it allowed me to create my own, individual style while showing some mild, controversial content. However, over time there has been imitations and I need to consider these when presenting my work.
The greatest limitations of all are copyrights. The Intellectual Property Office state that, copyright gives the automatic right to the author which applies when the work is fixed that is written or recorded in someway, and it lasts 70 years after the death of the author. So, because I have changed certain album covers, I need to think I am breeching the law of copyright. But does freedom of expression allow me to change these covers and produce what I want. Yes, I’m changing album covers, but the only thing that remains the same to the original is the artists’ name on cover.
Appropriation
The album covers are a mash-up, and mash-up’s basically mean a mixture or fusion of disparate elements, (things that don’t normally go together). It’s like taking existing art and changing it to how you want to see it. Applying theory to why I’m creating my work, appropriation comes into play; this simply is the taking of something for ones own use, typically without owner’s permission. And in this new digital age it has become easier for us to engage with changing works. Connecting mash-up/appropriation to my work, each album cover shows a mixture of subjects coming together to make one piece of questionable artwork. While, I am taking original album covers (without permission), I’m editing them in a way that is recognisable to the viewer but also different so I don’t breech copyright laws.
