Class Activities

In-Class Exercise: Paris Collage

Based on the works of various artists during the Dada movement, specifically in Paris, we put together a collage depicting the Dada movement that was greatly influenced by the literature, theater, and classical music culture thriving in Paris. Dada pieces were created by multiple artists such as Duchamp, Picabia, Dali, Arp, Breton, Man Ray and Tzara. In this Paris collage we decided to go with a theater theme where we had a huge banner and arrows inviting people into the theater.

Appropriation Show and Tell: Shovel Knight OST The Starlit Wilds Remix by Captain Impossible

The type of appropriation that I selected was taking a original game soundtrack (OST) in this case it is Shovel Knight The Starlit Wilds which here is a link to the original version:

Now my roommate Captain Impossible made this remix of it, which can only be classified as beautiful and it shows a perfect example of appropriation since it is taking a song and having fun with it and making it your own here is a link to his song:

https://soundcloud.com/impossiblewilds/starlit-wilds-captain-impossible-flip/s-yuXEV

 

Dada Collage – Paris

 

Our collage was based on works from the Dada movement in Paris. Works by artists such as Duchamp, Picabia, Dali, Arp, Breton, Man Ray and Tzara. These art works and our collage itself were influenced by the literature, performance, and classical music background of Paris.

In-Class Collage Exercise (Zurich)

For this piece, we decided to create a stage to represent Cabaret Voltaire because performance art was a huge part of the Zurich Dada, and this was also how Dada originally started. While making this piece, we tried to recreate the chaotic and confusing vibe of the performance where people were doing things that wouldn’t make sense in a traditional theater performance. Since there were many costumes and puppets made in this period, we created strange-looking figures by cutting and reassembling them to represent the performers. As for the two-dimensional artworks, we cut them into different shapes to represent props on stage, such as the sun, the boat, and the balance ball. In the middle of the sun, we put the word “DADA” and one of the costume heads made by Sophie Taeuber to represent the theme of this performance. The texts of “DADA” we put in front of the stage are used to represent the theme as well.

Appropriation Show and Tell — Hamilton

The musical Hamilton hit the broadway world as an iconic historical revisionist masterpiece. Through its varied themes and multicultural cast, the show’s goal was to tell the story of the American Revolution through the lens of America today, both in the flawed ways we view some of these flawed people, and in how these figures were rockstars of their own kind during their lives. The show not only appropriates the story of the revolution, it directly appropriates many of the events of Alexander Hamilton’s life, directly citing his own work in two songs, Farmer Refuted (based on his work The Farmer Refuted), and The Reynolds Pamphlet (based on the book of the same name). Both of these songs take the themes of Hamilton’s writing, and the impact these writings had on his life, and translate them musically. The show also appropriates and references much of hip-hop and rap culture in specific lines. When Hamilton spells out his own name, he does it in a way reminiscent of the Notorious BIG. Hamilton almost directly quotes a Mobb Deep line, “I’m only 19 but my mind is old” simply replacing the last word with “older.” Many of these appropriations are peppered throughout the show and relate to the impact these artists and songs had on creator Lin-Manuel Miranda. The show has also taken on an almost self-appropriative nature, as there is also a book describing the creation and lyrics of the show (seen below), and an entire other album called The Hamilton Mixtape, which appropriates lines and parts of the show and recontextualizes them into a more traditional, politically-charged rap album.

Appropriation Show & Tell: GlitchxCity’s Christmas Medley 2013

Video Link:

GlitchxCity is a YouTube content creator who creates remixes of music from various Pokemon games, but occasionally makes remixes of music from other games, such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Splatoon 2. Just the remixing of songs would be considered appropriation, but the next piece if information shows her taking it a step further. One of her more well-known music lineups would be her yearly Pokemon Christmas Medleys.  Glitch takes various Pokemon tracks and mixes them with different songs from separate movies, animes, and video games. In this medley, besides the Pokemon music (one of which is the Primal Dialga Boss Battle), there is music from Attack on Titan, The Legend of Zelda (Song of the Storms), Avatar the Last Airbender, the Pokemon 2000 movie (Lugia’s Song), and Kingdom Hearts, and this is without mentioning that this is a CHRISTMAS medley, so there are obviously different pieces of Christmas music in here (Ex. Carol of the Bells).

Appropriation Show and Tell: To Be or Not to Be

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_ZU-Mv9VSc

Hamlet is my favorite Shakespeare tragedy of all times, but the indecisiveness of Hamlet and countless tragic coincidences that happened in the play do make me wonder if the story would change completely if someone does something different. To Be or Not to Be, a game that appropriates Hamlet, gives me the opportunity to mess with the plot of Hamlet and see what the outcome would be. The game also makes fun of the original story by describing some decisions that were made in the play as stupid and advise the player not to choose them. In To Be or Not to Be, you can be a decisive Hamlet, a rational Ophelia, or…a dead Hamlet Sr, because the fact that he gets killed in the beginning of the story still doesn’t change. Sorry, Hamlet Sr.