Art:Law:New Media at the Law School February 11, 2009

ART: LAW: NEW MEDIA lectures at the Law School

Hastings Law School, in collaboration with visiting professor Sonia K. Katyal, invite you to an exciting new lecture series on art, law, and politics. Inspired by the San Francisco art world and the rise of new media, the Law School has asked a variety of award winning emerging and established artists to share their perspectives on the role of art, the law, new media, and the public and private domain. Each talk features a different topic and is designed to facilitate a collaborative dialogue between the artists, members of the public, and the community on the role of art in law – or vice versa.

The lectures are free and open to the public, although RSVP is required. The talks last from approximately 3:30 to 4:45. To attend, as seating is limited, please contact Roslyn Foy at [email protected], and specify the date you plan to attend, your name, and the number of participants.

Hastings Law School is located at 200 McAllister Street, in downtown San Francisco, just near City Hall.

ALL ARE WELCOME AND ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND!

* * *

February 11, 2009: Reimagining Public Space

JD Beltran, Johanna Poethig and Matthew Passmore (Rebar)

What is the role of art in creating – or challenging – the line between the public and private domain? In this inaugural talk in this series, three established artists – one a conceptual artist, another a muralist, and a lawyer-turned environmental artist – examine the possibilities and challenges for creating community, activism, and dialogue in urban spaces throughout the Bay Area. Does the law governing urban areas, including everything from the Bill of Rights to parking regulations, play a role in fostering – or inhibiting - artistic innovation, and if so, how? Should the government play a role in fostering public art, and if so, what role should it play? Special attention will be paid to the role of the state, city, and local government in funding public art and the infamous “culture wars” of the 1990s. How can localized activism and engagement create and foster public art and protect freedom of artistic expression at the same time?

J.D. Beltran is a conceptual artist exploring the contexts, language, and scope of portraiture. She holds an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and a Juris Doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley. Her work has been screened and exhibited internationally, including at the Walker Art Center, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Singapore Digital Mediafest, Cite Des Ondes Video Et Art Electronique in Montreal, Canada, and the ISEA/ZeroOne San Jose Festival. She was awarded a San Jose Cultural Commission Grant for a public art project exhibiting in the streets of San Jose from October 2007 – Spring 2009, and an Individual Artist Commission from the city of San Francisco for a public art project to be exhibited in March 2009. She also was awarded an Artadia grant in 1999, and residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Other prizes include being awarded the Silver Award for the 2002 Interactive Media Design Review, Installation Category, ID Magazine. Her work has been reviewed in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Boston Globe, as well as in Art In America, ArtNews, the New Art Examiner, and Art Papers. She is faculty in the New Genres, Interdisciplinary Studies, Critical Studies, and Urban Studies Programs at the San Francisco Art Institute. She lives and works in San Francisco.

Johanna Poethig makes work that crosses the private and public realms. Her paintings, sculpture, video and installations reflect her interest in symbol, satire, society and our colonialist, consumerist culture. She produces and participates in performance events that mix feminism, global politics, costume, props, cabaret, experimental music and video. Her recent projects include a mural on a 24 story historic building for downtown Chicago’s loop district, the artwork for San Francisco’s new Juvenile Hall and a gateway sculpture for Gleason Park in Stockton. She was part of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Bay Area Now 5, and has also shown at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Bronx Museum, New Langton Arts, The Luggage Store Gallery, and the Headlands Center for the Arts. She received her BFA at University of California, Santa Cruz and her MFA at Mills College in Oakland, California. She is an Associate Professor at the Visual and Public Art Department at California State University, Monterey Bay.

Matthew Passmore is a founder and director of Rebar, an art and design collective based in San Francisco. Situated within the domains of environmental installation, urbanism and absurdity, Rebar's work engages regulatory systems as artistic media, particularly as these systems relate to the organization, use and re-use of land. Rebar has exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the American Institute of Architects, Canadian Center for Architecture, Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a variety of other museums and art galleries around the world. Matthew holds a BA in Philosophy from UCLA and a Juris Doctorate from U.C. Hastings College of Law, where he served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Hastings Communications and Entertainment Law Journal.

Professor Sonia K. Katyal, moderator, is visiting at Hastings Law School from Fordham Law School, where she teaches in the areas of intellectual property, property and new media. Her current projects study the relationship between copyright enforcement and privacy (as applied to peer-to-peer technology); and the impact of artistic expression and parody on corporate identity, advertising, and brand equity. In March of 2008, Katyal was awarded a grant from the Warhol Foundation for her book, Contrabrand, which studies the relationship between art, advertising and intellectual property. Katyal's work has appeared in a variety of law journals, including the Yale Law Journal, Pennsylvania Law Review, Washington University Law Journal, as well as the Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, and the New York Times. Her current book, Property Outlaws, co-authored with Eduardo Penalver, studies the role of disobedience in property and intellectual property law, and is coming out this fall from Yale University Press.

* Future Talks*

February 18, 2009: Everyday Urban Interventions

Josh Greene, Eddie, Kate Pocrass

In this workshop, we explore the role and value of interruption in urban space and conversation. Each of the artists who will be speaking today both recreate and challenge the concept of civic engagement in new and important ways. One of our speakers is a well known but anonymous street artist in San Francisco; another of our speakers recreates moments of travel and everyday civic participation in art, and a third speaker, also an educator, challenges us to reathink the overall line between everyday life and art through a variety of socially conscious art projects. How is art created through interruption, and what role do these everyday interventions play in reconfiguring our imagination?

February 25, 2009: Renavigating the Commercial Realm

Alison Pebworth, Sherri Lynn Wood, and Zach Houston

In this talk, continuing the themes of civic engagement and interruption, we present the work of three artists who are pushing the boundaries of the individual and collective experience in urban environments through both verbal and visual participation. Each of the artists for today—one a well known “street poet,” another a painter who re-appropriates American history and 19th century advertising ploys, and a third artist who created a trailer and traveled through America to record the mantras and self-talk of passerby—demonstrate that art is created, everyday, through the lived experiences of citizens forging unique boundaries in the public realm.

March 18, 2009: TechnoIntervention and Reanimating History

Kota Ezawa, Praba Pilar and lauren woods

What is the role of technology in creating public art and performance? Is it a new form of regulation, or a new form of religion, or something else entirely? How can we use art to revisit – and recreate - important moments throughout history? In this talk, three artists who focus on new media share their work and commentary on the role of technology, history, performance, and social and cultural regulation on innovation and creativity. Each artist also pays special attention to the impact of technology on race, gender, and desire, and the overall role that regulation – cultural, legal, and social – plays in the construction of identity.

March 25, 2009: Appropriating Advertising and Icons

Libby Black, Ryan Alexiev, and Ala Ebtekar

This talk explores the dynamics of cultural fusion and appropriation, and how – or if – the law should play a role in fostering artistic expression. One artist is a master at fusing contemporary hip hop images with his traditional Iranian heritage; another artist plays off of the concept of luxury brands like Chanel and Louis Vuitton, and a third carefully remixes established brands in new contexts, challenging our imagination. All of these talented artists, in their own way, comment on the social forces that operate in favor of consumerism and globalization. Does the law and the notion of ‘counterfeit’ creativity play a role in challenging the public to rethink our commitment to icons? How do intellectual property laws—trademark, copyright—address the value that is created by artistic speech, and do these laws inhabit or encourage innovation and creativity? How does branding—and anti-branding—play a role in encouraging us to remix modern expressions and images?

Official Website: http://www.uchastings.edu/index.html