Remixing & Drawing

1970

Artist Cildo Meires covertly launched his appropriation work, Insertions into Ideological Circuits, by stamping subversive messages onto banknotes and Coca-Cola bottles, then putting them back into circulation, thereby sharing his messages with people he would not otherwise reach.

1973

The first Xerox Alto computers were released non-commercially for use at various Xerox labs and some universities. This was the first computer to support an operating system based on a graphical (screen-based) user interface [GUI]. Its GUI inspired Apple to develop computers that would eventually lead to the massive popularity of personal computing. Putting computers in the home helped remixing become an everyday phenomenon.

1970’s

Punk Movement: A musical and cultural movement that borrowed détournement and other subversive political pranks. One of the well-known images of this movement is the Sex Pistols’ God Save the Queen cover art from 1977.

1977

The first commercially available digital audio recorder, the Sony PCM-1, was released, making audio remixing even more accessible to artists.

1977

Curator Douglas Crimp’s “Pictures” exhibition at Artists Space featuring Troy Brauntuch, Jack Goldstein, Sherrie Levine, Robert Longo, and Philip Smith, focused on appropriation from photography via mass media, such as newspapers and magazines.

1978

All expression is declared copyrighted from the moment it is reduced to tangible form (ideas cannot be copyrighted)

1979

Sugarhill Gang releases “Rapper’s Delight”, which borrows the bass riff from Chic’s “Good Times”. This is one early example of remixing in hip hop music.

early 1980’s

Artist Barbara Kruger begins making her iconic collaged works that juxtapose words and photos which question the media’s construction of women as consumers and shoppers.

1980’s

Culture Jamming: A term coined by Don Joyce, of the sound collage band Negativland, describing a tactic used to subvert or critique political and advertising messages, and promote progressive change, closely related to situationism and détournement. The process critiques mass media, such as magazine advertisements or billboards, and often involves using the original medium’s communication method to create satirical statements. Famous culture jammers include the Billboard Liberation Front and Adbusters.

1987

Public Enemy, a rap group known for their use of sampling, or including clips from other musical works which are repeated and / or rearranged, releases their debut album, Yo! Bum Rush the Show.

1987

Artist Mike Kelley creates one of his most well-known works, More Love Hours Than Can Ever Be Repaid and The Wages of Sin, which consists of an assemblage of stuffed fabric toys and handmade afghans from thrift stores on canvas with dried corn and accompanied by wax candles on a table. This work remixes cast-off items to create a representation of time spent in caring for another human being.

1993

Artist Douglas Gordon creates 24 Hour Psycho, a video work that appropriates the entire film of Psycho, and slows it down to last 24 hours.

1993

The Yes Men, a two-person collaboration between Mike Bonanno and Andy Bichlbaum, create the Barbie Liberation Organization, which purchased Barbie and G.I. Joe toys and switched their voice boxes. They then covertly placed the toys back in stores for purchase.

1997

Artist Glenn Ligon appropriates text from a 1953 James Baldwin essay to create a series of text-based paintings entitled, Stranger in the Village.

1998

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was signed into law. This act stated that internet service providers were vulnerable to prosecution if they didn’t take down content that copyright owners complained about, regardless of whether the work falls under the category of fair use. A counter claim can be filed, but it can take months to get content re-posted.

2004

Kanye West, now well-known for sampling and remixing in hip-hop music, debuts his first album, The College Dropout, which pulls samples from songs such as ”Mystery of Iniquity,” by Lauryn Hill, “Distant Lover,” by Marvin Gaye, “(Don’t Worry) If There’s a Hell Below, We’re All Going to Go,” by Curtis Mayfield, and “A House is not a Home,” by Luther Vandross, among others.

2006

Artist Steve McQueen appropriates the images of British soldiers killed in the Iraq war for a work titled, Queen and Country, which consists of sheets of unofficial postage stamps featuring this imagery.

2009

Artist Shepard Fairey is legally challenged by the Associate Press (AP) over the ownership of the original photo Fairey appropriated for his Hope (2008) poster. Fairey and his attorney claimed that the image was protected under fair use; the AP argued that the copyright of the photo was owned by the original photographer. A settlement was reached between Fairey and the AP in 2011.

2014

Richard Prince debuts his New Portraits exhibition at the Gagosian gallery in London. The exhibit consists of entirely of the Instagram photos taken by others, and used without their permission. Prince’s only alteration is the addition of comments beneath each picture. Multiple subjects of the photos have filed suit against Prince.