Connect to outside sources (article/book/podcast/ted talk/blog/website/etc)

• • This is a Text investigation. Consider your essential question in the context of at least two outside sources you have identified that connect to your essential question. How do these ideas resonate with or challenge your own beliefs, experiences, or practices? Be sure to give concrete and specific examples. You may want to address: ways the sources answered parts of your Essential Question, what additional questions were raised, or how your essential understanding of your project was altered or confirmed by the readings you did. Make sure to cite your sources.

So far, James has given me 3 books to read (Shape of Content, How to be an Artist, and Ways of Seeing, John Berger). One thing that the book Ways of Seeing (written by John Berger) discusses images, perception, and reproduction. While images are examples of how an individual views the world (or whatever they are looking at), my pastiches are also ways in which I am perceiving what I am seeing (the world, more specifically would be the famous paintings I am using as reference). The book also discusses the use of oil paint and how the material was used to depict buyable objects. The book states, “To have a thing painted and put on a canvas is not unlike buying it and putting it in your house. If you buy a painting you also buy the look of that thing it represents,” (Ways of Seeing). After reading this book, I realized that I can answer my question, by not only recontextualizing the paintings I am working with, but by changing the material as well. While oil painting today isn’t always used to represent buyable objects for the rich, we also have access to cheaper materials, such as acrylics. I realize that with this information, I understand an additional way in which to represent a change in time using art that is more modern. 

An article that I read called, “What Writers Like You Need To Know About Satire, Pastiche, Homage, And Parody” also relates to my essential question. It reminds me that what I am doing,  by using historical pieces of art with newer forms of art and pop culture to reflect a more culturally relevant set of ideas, is not satire, homage, or a parody. Instead, the works that I am creating are pastiches. Though this article was written for writers, it can be used by artists and help explain the different ways in which art can be imitated. It is important to keep in mind as I reference original works, I am “honoring” and “celebrating” them, while also demonstrating that change in time (Johnson, Fred). That I am not “mocking” or “ridiculing” the original pieces that I am referencing. As I continue to come up with more ideas relating to my project, it is crucial for me to think about how I recontextualize my pieces. So far this article has confirmed that my question and work are related to pastiching.

Johnson, Written by:Fred, and Fred Johnson. “What Writers Like You Need To Know About Satire, Pastiche, Homage, And Parody.” Standout Books, 14 Feb. 2021, www.standoutbooks.com/satire-pastiche-homage-parody/.