originalcopy—Post-digital Strategies of Appropriation

In the context of digital, artistic technologies the copying of data material has become both omnipresent and invisible. originalcopy is an artistic-scientific project that examines the possibilities of this phenomenon and uses its own means the copy to put it up for discussion. The research project concentrates on the field of tension between the transience of digital technologies and the way in which these technologies express themselves in images, texts and sounds. originalcopy is here not so much interested in the results of copying than in the processes that lead to the results. In the 20th century well-known categories of art such as uniqueness, authorship or the question of intellectual property were already scrutinised by the artistic avant-gardes. However, current art production differs from earlier attempts to discuss the concept of the original anew. The reproduction of data material on the internet, techniques such as user-participation, sharing and re-blogging, make methods of exploring the boundaries between the original and the copy appear outdated. The omnipresence of copying techniques proves that this has established itself as a phenomenon that affects all branches of the arts. The starting point of originalcopy is the assumption that the original and the copy are not only rapidly coming to resemble one another, but that the phenomenon of the copy also beyond digital contexts has inscribed itself in artistic production processes in such a way that the original and the copy can no longer be separated from one another. As the title of the project suggests, the two poles have merged into a new entity and are productively employed in two ways: on the one hand in that originalcopy investigates the effects that this phenomenon has on current (digital) art-making. On the other hand, in that the act of copying based on the moment of iteration is itself artistically applied. With a web site as the main venue of the research, a (virtual) residency programme for selected artists and theoreticians, a lecture series, an artist book, an exhibition and a reader that discusses the methodology of the project, the aim of originalcopy is to create a research context in which what counts is not the opposition of original and copy, but in which the oscillation between these two poles proves itself as an artistic practice. The research method used for this is termed performative research and describes a process based on the act of copying. This method arises not just out of the theme of the research project but as an artistic action also has a cyclical retroactive effect on the whole field of research.

For centuries, the imitation of already existing works of art was the only method of artistic education-today one is prosecuted for copying. Furthermore, the logic of the art market requires images and objects that are unique and cannot be compared to or compete with any other art object. Is this the reason that the copy disappeared? With the project "originalcopy-Post-Digital Strategies of Appropriation" we have looked into the question of which different methods and strategies of copying exist in the contemporary art production and how these procedures are used by artists: What effects does copying have on the contemporary art production? How are these effects related to digitalization? And finally, can a research project like "originalcopy" identify certain patterns of copying and use them to further reflect on the process of copying? One result of the research project is that current copying methods are permanently changing and adapting to their respective conditions. However, these methods are embedded in such complex workflows that it is difficult to isolate them from these contexts. With "originalcopy" it could be shown that copying is included at all levels of the artistic process-in terms of content, form and material. Today the techniques of copying are diverse and complex. New variants keep appearing, often in an inner connection with the artists and their works, and cannot be separated from the creative process. The aim of the research project "originalcopy" to make visible this fundamental method inscribed in contemporary artistic activity has been achieved-even if the research process was less structured than expected. This called for a comprehensive examination of its own research method called "performative research". In order to access these methods, we collaborated with a group of artists who, for their part, use various copying techniques in their artistic work processes. With the "performative research" we have copied copying techniques. To this end, we invited artists to deal with their own production processes within a framework set by us and to make these techniques of copying visible in the working process itself. The joint research process took place in the form of workshops and a three-part exhibition series in Innsbruck, Vienna and Brussels. In addition, several artistic publication formats were developed and published, among others with students of the University of Applied Arts Vienna.