This course examines the role that imitation, appropriation, and reproduction play in both historical and contemporary aesthetic cultures. Core to the class’s concerns is an attempt to understand what separates a productive appropriation or reproduction from a destructive or disrespectful one. We’ll look at examples such as remix, collage, drag performance, cross-cultural collaborations, fusion cooking, re-tweeting, memes, and recent controversies around racial mimicry and cultural appropriation. As we look together at these historical and recent examples of cultural blending, translation and appropriation, we’ll consider how they provide insight about our current moment, with its emphasis on social justice and cultural respect, as well as its technologies of rapid exchange, reaction and response

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