Category: Key Concepts

Jim Nielson’s term for well-recognized old images and visual clichés that have been so widely reproduced and re-used that they have lost most of their original meaning. Such images are empty of significance for most viewers, or at most carry a tiny bit of connotation of some sort. People who have seen them reproduced but Read More …

An idea pioneered in the theatre by the playwright Bertolt Brecht (probably best known for The Threepenny Opera, and the words to “Mack the Knife” from that work). The idea was to perform the play in an unnaturalistic style or with interruptions, discussions with the audience, and other things that called attention to the artificiality Read More …

“A pastiche is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, or music that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche celebrates, rather than mocks, the work it imitates.” (Wikipedia) Pastiche often involves a formal imitation of style that is focused on showing off the style, Read More …

Parody is a weak form of critique. Its effect is typically to make us laugh off something we might actually think is wrong or bad, releasing our negative emotions in laughter. Parody is actually often welcomed by those it targets, because the parody nevertheless reaffirms them and their positions. Culture jams, on the other hand, Read More …

A general way of referring to creative appropriation techniques that are focussed on removing elements from the original to create a new experience of it. Dub often begins with a subtractive process, removing the lead vocals and various instruments from the mix – often to focus on the drums and bass – before bringing up Read More …

Identity appropriation is the appropriation of a (famous) human being’s image and personality after they are dead for uses they have not agreed to. Well known examples involve the use of dead celebrities “reanimated” through digital technology and used to sell products in tv ads or as figures in fictional films. Some ways in which Read More …

This is my shorthand way of talking about a phenomenon that has become more prominent with the advent of performance abduction in the late 20th and early 21st century, though decontextualization has always been a part of cultural evolution. There are two ways in which appropriated work may be decontextualized: (1) the appropriaters may be Read More …

In the 1960s, English rock musicians like the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin and many others were discovered by American listeners – largely because of the Beatles – and became a smash hit with American teenagers. Many of these UK groups had been listening closely to African American roots blues and electric blues – Read More …

It can be useful to distinguish between each of the following common types of culture in the Western tradition, and the relationship each of them has with appropriation. Folk and digital culture are generally or potentially participatory, while high and mass culture have not tended to be. Folk culture Middle Ages – present (frequently participatory) Read More …