A Word on Originality

One critique that often gets thrown at works shown in class is that of originality of work. This could be because everything has been done and redone or it could be because people look too close for inspiration. That is, it's no vision quest to Google "art photography." (You should try this, it's fun).

I guess what I'd like to get at though is Type-in-Time. This is the history-based criticism that says that a surrealist in 2007 is no surrealist at all. Hell, even Jerry Eulsmann was way too late, right? If you wanna call this surrealism, you're a bit too damn late:


That's Type-in-Time. You can't perform effectively as a breed or brand of artist unless you live in those life and times. When Hunter S. Thompson talks about watching the excitement of the 60's crashing on the shore and finally rolling back, he's talking about that possibility no longer existing thereafter. Those artists can come back, and they can perform the same songs and howl the same poems, but Richie Havens won't be at Woodstock anymore.

That's why post-modernists never sample history without distorting it. They realized that it was impossible to make Greek architecture in Boston.

You can never go home again.