Theory: Art & the Paradoxes of Copyright (gLV) 

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Nummer und TypBFA-BFA-Th.22H.010 / Moduldurchführung
ModulTheorie 
VeranstalterDepartement Fine Arts
LeitungFelix Stalder
Anzahl Teilnehmendemaximal 18
ECTS3 Credits
VoraussetzungenCourse language: English
ZielgruppenBA Fine Arts students
Open for exchange-students

Interested BA students of other study programmes can register from 29th August to 11th September 2021 by ClickEnroll; https://intern.zhdk.ch/?ClickEnroll

Interested MA students write an email between 01 to 19 September 2022 to: studium.dfa@zhdk.ch
We will inform you by e-mail in week 38 whether participation is possible. Applications before 01 September 2022 will not be accepted.
Lernziele / Kompetenzen
  • Learning about 20th- and 21st-century art history, gender studies, avant-garde theory
  • Getting to know artistic positions in this field
InhalteContemporary art’s relation to copyright is paradoxical. Copyright gives artists a claim of ownership over their own work. Yet, it enforces a type of individual original authorship that poorly fits contemporary artistic practices, which are often collaborative, generative, and building on the works of others. Since Dada, many avant-garde movements intended to undermine the notion of artistic control and originality. At least since the 1960s, numerous artists and activists have explored this paradox in their works, coming into conflict with copyright, exposing the weakness of its conceptual foundations in the digital domain, instigating collective practices and, recently, through blockchain-based mechanisms (NFTs) pioneered notions of “ownership” that seemingly abandons copyright entirely.
In this module, we approach copyright not as fixed legal system, but as a contested cultural domain, in which artists play a key role in developing new models for 21st century. We will focus on artists such as Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Richard Prince, Cornelia Sollfrank, Elaine Sturtevant, and on movements such as "copy-left"and look into the strange case of the model Emily Ratajkowski who sold ownership rights to an image of herself she probably doesn’t own. We will also look at the rise (and possible fall) of NFTs as the latest incarnation of the paradoxes of copyright.


Felix Stalder (*1968) is a professor in the BA Fine Arts. His work focuses on the intersections of cultural, political and technological dynamics, in particular on new modes of common-based production, control society, copyright and transformation of subjectivity. He not only works as an academic, but also as a cultural producer, being a moderator of the mailing list <nettime> and a member of the World Information Institute as well as the Technopolitics Working Group (both in Vienna). Publications a.o. “Aesthetics of the Commons” (co-editor, Diaphanes, 2021), and “Digital Unconscious” (co-editor, Autonomedia, 2021), https://fs.zhdk.ch, https://felix.openflows.com
Bibliographie / LiteraturWill be handed out during the course.
Leistungsnachweis / TestatanforderungMandatory attendance (minimum 80%); active participation
TermineTime: 09:15 - 17:00 o'clock

CW 46: 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 / 18 November
Bewertungsformbestanden / nicht bestanden
Termine (5)