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