What is reproducibility? Does the original matter? Is a “reproduced” reproduction just as valuable? Is a copy of a book still the book?

The Diamond Sutra is the earliest known reproduced book that has a recorded date printed on it from the year 868, almost 600 years before Guttenberg and his movable type printing press. The Diamond Sutra was hidden away in a secret cave library with an additional 40,000 other documents in 1000 to hopefully protect them from destruction during an invasion. ¹ Which is more important, the woodblocks that printed the copies of the book, the knowledge that was reproduced in each copy, or the individual books, or in this case scrolls?

If this is the earliest know printed book with a date, and it was with 40,000 other documents that were also likely reproduced in some way, what does that mean for the spread of information and knowledge? Are only important texts reproduced? Who decides what is important enough to print and reproduce? A unique individually crafted scroll may only be affordable by a person with vast wealth, while multiple copies of a woodblock print may be more affordable by more people and therefore have its message spread farther. Is a single hand written scroll more important than the multiple disseminated copies of a woodblock print?

We take for granted that writing is reproduced in physical books and in digital form. Generally if one reads and understands the content of a written piece, they do not feel they have gained less if there are other copies of the text in the world. Is the same true for visual imagery?

Printmaking’s reproducibility was not limited to writing, it also helped the spread and proliferation of images beyond singular objects such as paintings and drawings. Albrecht Dürer is well know both for the aesthetics of his imagery and potentially more so because lots of copies of his works were printed. Dürer worked in many mediums including sculpture, printmaking, painting, and drawing, but his prints are most famous and recognizable due in part to the increased numbers of reproduced copies.

Look at the two Dürer works below. There is a good chance that one jumps out as something you have seen before while the other likely seems unfamiliar. The print of The Four Housemen is a widely known print image while the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, a masterwork on its own, is much less recognizable as it is a singular work of art. To be fair, there are lesser know prints of Dürer as well but the highly reproduced prints seem to have had a better opportunity to reach a wider audience than individual paintings by the same artist.

Photographic Reproduction

Before “photographs” artists had already incorporated the ability of a lens to “reproduce” the world as a 2D image using a device called a camera obscura. The human eye has a hole in the front to let light in. Due to the properties of light waves passing through a tiny opening the image of the world in front of a person is flipped upside down as it is projected onto the rods and cones at the back of the eye to create the signals that the brain interprets as seeing stuff. A camera obscura can be as simple as a darkened tent with a hand sized circle cut out of one wall that lets daylight through. This produces an inverted image of the outside world projected onto the opposite wall of the tent.

An artist could put paper or a canvas in front of this inverted projection and trace the image. Portable camera obscura drawing boxes and tables were produced to simply the process. Once an image passes through a lens, other than the human eye, it alters how the image is produced on a 2D surface. A trip to a museum reveals which images are reproduced with the eye and which images are reproduced through the lens.

Building upon the lens from the camera obscura, photography introduced a new level ease and speed of “reproducing” reality. Early photography relied on thick, physical glass plates to produce images. The invention of transparent film allowed for the the near infinite reproduction of photographic copies of an image.

Which is the Original?

Why do museums care if their art objects were really made by famous artists or are copies? Money. The Cleveland Museum of Art spent time and resources restoring a painting that they claim was painted by Caravaggio. The museum even displayed their “real” painting next to a “fake” painting of the same composition to show how real their painting was. ⁶

When making a print, which is the original, the block or plate? The first print? The best print? Does it matter? Would you pay more money for the fist print edition or for the ten-thousandth print edition if both were identical except for their order in the sequence of production.

Reproduction and Appropriation Legal or Illegal?

Andy Warhol used photography, printmaking, and methods of mass production to make multiples to examine concepts of appropriation, originality, media, celebrity, and pop culture. Warhol seemed to identify with the phrase circulating around that “art is what you can get away with.”⁷ True to the spirit of the phrase the exact origins are unclear. Sture Johannesson painted an oil on canvas titled Art is anything you can get away with around 1967 - 1971 ⁸ but the first time the words were published was likely in 1967 in “The Medium is the Massage” by Marshall Mcluhan and Quentin Fiore. ⁹

Sometimes the choice of media of a work can be a source of originality but not always. Jeff Koons made a 3D sculpture of a postcard of two people holding a group of puppies. The original postcard was a 3D photograph by professional photographer, Art Rogers, and Koon’s sculpture was a false color 3D object based on the photo. Koons did not acquire rights to use the image. US courts decided that the work was not fair use and the artist violated the copyright of Art Rogers regardless of the media used to create or transform the work into a new form.¹¹

Duchamp Forever

Although not the first nor the only, Marcell Duchamp engaged in the appropriation and commodification of images by reproducing and modifying known images. Duchamp also created multiple ways to reproduce found objects. A straight forward way was by authorising curators to purchace new “versions” of his signature readymade Fountain urinal. Later he commisioned handmade copies of previously lost readymades based on photos. A handcrafted urinal made from clay was then cast and enamled at a factory to create editions of multiple reproductions. Some of these reproductions are signed R. Mutt while others are blank. Is only the “chosen” urinal by Duchamp the real artwork? Is any urinal made at the same time as the orginal the artwork? Is the clay reproduction the artwork? What about the casts?

Duchamp chose a mass produced postcard of the Mona Lisa to be a readymade. He taped the postcard to a piece of paper, added a drawn on mustache to the image, taped on the letters L H O O Q, and signed it “TABLEAU DADA PAR MARCEL DUCHAMP”. Is the painting famous because of all the cheap reproduced souvenier merchandise or do the cheap souveniers appear once the painting is famous? If the image had not been so mass-produced it would not have been able to be selected as a readymade found object by Duchamp.

Most humans have not and will not see the Mona Lisa in person, but the image is ubiquitous across the globe. Numerous remixes of the image have been created. What happens to and artwork or an image with so much reproduction?

Digital Reproducibility

Digital technology has made copying and reproducing image, music, and video content easy, nearly instantaneous, automatic, and a common part of everyday life. Copying on the internet is so prevalent that it appears the public’s common understanding of copyright law has shifted away from the actual text and meaning of the law.

Digital 3D Objects

Digital fabrication technologies continue to make it easier to reproduce physical, 3D objects as well as semi 2D objects such as paintings. A 3 axis CNC machine can mimic the dimensional and physical brush marks of a painting, to make a convincing reproduction beyond simple color and image copying. 3D printing produces basically identical copies of any single material 3D object from rocket engines to character statues, to weapons.

References