The essay discusses the same story from the perspectives of Joy Garnett and Susan Meiselas, who are in quite different positions. Susan attempted to sue joy and requested a licensing fee, implying that Susan thought Joy’s work was “plagiarized” to an unclear extent or border. She claims that she emphasizes the importance of accurate history and respects the individuality of the person when she takes photographs in a particular context. Joy agreed to give a credit line and cite Susan’s photo as its resource but disagreed with future requests for Susan’s written authorization. After experiencing how Molotov’s influence spread and fermented, Joy started to question the right to create art, as the article’s title suggests.

I understand both of their points of view from their perspectives. Apparently, appropriation is an endless topic. Controversial topics mean there is no right or wrong. In the literary and academic world, there is a very clear definition of plagiarism. However, in the art world, ‘appropriation art’ seems to be a kind of art expression dissociating between plagiarism and originality.

I understand that the original purpose of “appropriation art” was to inspire the audience to think creatively and to perceive commonplace objects from a fresh perspective. This brings me to Glenn Brown, the “plagiarism maniac” who gained fame while facing a great deal of criticism. I’ve seen a few of his paintings and sculptures online, and they truly moved me. His works carry a feeling of overwhelming emotion. Brown uses images from the web, books, and other printed materials and reconstructs, distorts, and manipulates them to express his thoughts via paint.

I remember Brown once said that he utilized the remnants of other artists’ works to create using the methods of reference, appropriation, and research, giving the memorized pictures a fresh perspective. Like when I was a child beginning to draw, the teacher would instruct me to utilize my imagination and draw it on paper for that. I would draw things from my life that I had captured and stuck in my memory and put them together in a collage of my imagination. Many of the details in the painting are realistic references, but the painting is also based on my creativity and imagination.

The key is how the creator perceives their own works and how the audience appreciates such works; if there is enlightenment, there is positive importance. In fact, all creation has a reference, but the percentage varies.

When I first glanced at the title, I thought about how I could recognize the difference between hearing and listening. The first thing that springs to mind is that hearing is a passive sense and listening is an active action. After watching Pauline’s speech, I understood how much more profound listening is than I had imagined. She studies, practices, instructs, and encourages deep listening as a new approach to comprehending the world. She wants to cultivate a habit of deep listening, which was something I had never thought of before.

I started to go back to a moment when I was closely paying attention to a specific sound. In truth, as I gazed at the sea, I would concentrate my attention on the sound of the waves, picture the view across the sea, and think back on the stories that had occurred at the shore. Perhaps sensation is more premised on focus. Our collective attention and listening create different dimensions that overlap, intersect, and even combine, with space and time, imagination and memory. Therefore, it’s possible that I listened more than I recognized, and that what I ignored was there in front of me.

The notion of deep listening proposed by Pauline also reminded me of my harvest as a yogi. My attention and awareness are strengthened via vinyasa and meditation, which results in a greater sensation of my body, mind, and environment. And assist me to feel the power and the grace of the world.

On the other hand, deep listening also fosters a habit related to life’s aesthetics. One of my favorite Chinese artists, Chiang Hsun, advocated the concept of aesthetics of life. In his belief, beauty manifests love and attention to the little things in normal life. Beauty is valued more when the economy grows prosperous. Slowing down to focus on feeling is the lesson of beauty.

Additionally, which makes me more impressed is her talent and greater bravery. Her willingness to move outside of her comfort zone, to temporarily set aside her naturally hypersensitive senses and consciousness, and to look at the universal audiovisual universe. She put a lot of time and effort into studying how to get common people to hear and see her romantic and mysterious world. Talent is insufficient. Helping people in a positive way requires great bravery.