Role Call of Resources - Art Plagiarism Story

Since we have a completely unexpected snow day I have five minutes to blog! Yessss! (I love when people add extra "esses" to a "yes." It means they really mean it at a visceral level. They/I may have even closed my eyes and motioned a fist grab-and-pull.)

Here's one of my favorites from this semesters role call of resources. This one fosters THE BEST classroom discussion.

Back in December an art photographer was walking around a gallery in Miami and thought some of the pieces looked extremely familiar. He created a Facebook post with some of the images and all of his "fans" immediately cried out that the pieces were clearly stolen from him and another photographer. He notified the gallery and the owner immediately shut down the show, in horror. Here are some of the Powerpoints I use for the discussion. I like to walk them through the beginning of the story and ask how they think the photographer and the gallery owner should respond, before telling the class how the photographer and gallery owner actually did respond. The thief's response is priceless. It's like he was trying to give me fodder for class!

The story will often lead to discussions on copyright and ethics and composition. I've used it both with art students and non-art majors and the discussions are the same. This hits home for them, more than I thought it would. Feel free to use. You'll be both shocked and pleased by what students say - and how they discuss with each other.

Art Plagiarism Bust from Shannon Simpson