Authenticity, Truth and Deception

Above is a work by Karen Justl, the artist who found the plagiarized writing in the post below. What follows is her statement against plagiarism.

I am an illustrator and graphic designer. I teach design, illustration and layout classes and self-publishing in a zine making class at The Toronto School of art. I am pursuing a masters' degree in the interdisciplinary art, media and design program at OCAD University and am in the process of writing research papers and proposals. At OCAD I am also assisting classes in the History of Modern Art. I conduct tutorials on researching and writing papers and mark essays and examinations.

As an instructor I have an obligation to teach my students to respect the property of other professional artists, writers, critics etc. and to try to adhere to copyright regulations. It is with this respect and proper citation that we can produce reputable work. In the nature of a culture full of sampling, mixing, collage, appropriation and culture jamming, the idea of having intellectual property rights is a little tricky. You can scan, cut, copy, paste, mix, cover-up, layer and present the work as your own as a post modern commentary and become a supra-modern art-star.

In the sphere of academic writing, cutting and pasting text from someone else's writing without citation is not met with such ambiguity. It is called plagiarism and you get booted out of your class if not from the university. There are strict rules regarding the citation of sources and ideas when producing work for an institution. I do research in peer reviewed journals and texts. The citations, respect and professionalism is implicit in these documents. I know that I can trust the writers, editors and publishers, and that my work will be taken seriously.

I also am engaged in the internet as a research tool and as a social networking tool. We inhabit a planet that has seen an increase of questionable actions from our world leaders. This is having a trickling down effect on many other spheres in our lives. There is an increase in self publishing in the face of mainstream media's interest in spin, evasion and omission. Like many who are skeptical and disappointed in the state of our media, I am engaged in the curious pursuit of knowledge and truth. I read blogs, on-line newsletters and I scour the internet for information that I can not find in the mainstream media, television and press. I am interested in credible and easily accessible sources. It is a very tricky business trying to winnow the 'wheat from the chaff'. Blogs are taken seriously. I believe that it is a writer's duty to respect their readership by revealing their sources of information.

Karen Justl

Catherine Spaeth

Hollingworth the Plagiarist

Special note: A sincere and heartfelt apology has been given. My response and reflection will be posted at a later time.

It has been brought to my attention that Thomas Hollingworth plagiarized my writing on Cai Guo-Qiang, here. Note particularly the epigraph, bold and in quotation marks but without a citation reference.

“Bristling with arrows that pin them to space, fake tigers flail aimlessly in ferociousness and beauty. In Cai Guo-Qiang’s Inopportune: Stage Two the baroque suffering that one would expect from such a piercing of arrows is not met by the tigers who bear them, and we may think of acupuncture needles as much as the hunt.”

This is my writing, in fact, the first few sentences of the essay as I wrote it. There are other obvious moments throughout Hollingworth's text as well. Here's a little one: "Although such shamanistic practices are not new, the presentation now of a ‘world healer’ by a globalizing art institution is, at the very least, curious" (Hollingworth) and the original sentence: "Such shamanistic practices are not new, but the presentation of a world healer by a globalizing art institution that everyone either ignores or loves to hate is, at the very least, curious." This is someone who plagiarizes and uses the first few sentences of the same essay he stole from as an uncited "epigraph." He also provides footnotes below, a sign of scholarship, but not his own as he is in fact using my citation of Krauss surrounded by plagiarized words and context.

Even more egregious, another version appears in an essay that he also published in Wynwood Magazine, presumably for pay. Take special note of the epigraph here: there are no quotation marks, as a responsible editor would have asked for the reference. And there is even a third essay published in M: The New York Art World, touting itself as "the insider's source for credible news."

Wrote Karen Justl, the sleuth: "I'm enrolled in an interdisciplinary graduate program at The Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto. I'm doing research on facial expressions and body language, specifically on lying liars in the media. My critical theory professor will have some thoughts I'm sure...."

For a peek into such an inquiring mind, here is a link to a slideshow of Justl's caricatures, "People and Their Problems." They would be quirky if we didn't know them so well. Karen Justl:

Thank you, Karen Justl! All the evidence and links are thanks to your labor and credit is due. If only I could pay you...

Update: There are some pretty interesting issues regarding blog ethics and the image on Art Fag City and Newsgrist. Responding to Karen's inquiry, Hollingworth wrote,"As many a TV show host once said...the choice is yous.[sic.]" I see the difference between the issues raised in the fair use of images and plagiarism as involving the difference between truth and a lie - given our current political media context his statement is an alarming symptom of ethics in the media.

Catherine Spaeth

Photo credit: White Hot Magazine Further update: Many, many thanks to White Hot Magazine, for responding appropriately, even though you did not carry the plagiarized article in question. It appears that you have taken down Hollingworth pages, and I greatly appreciate it. I would like to add that while I know magazines don't really know what kind of background their freelancers have, it is in fact their job to know, to make good choices and not to pick just any eager writer willing to work for free. There are enough good writers out there, ones who aren't merely showcasing "mots du jour" and advertising themselves through other's words - find out who they are and pay them. This is what an insider knows - be one.

Catherine Spaeth