• The Journal of Art Theory & Practice
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• no.2
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• pp.27-48
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• 2004

Robert Rauschenberg's artistic career has often been regarded as having reached its culmination when the artist won the first prize at the 1964 Venice Biennale. With this victory, Rauschenberg triumphantly entered the pantheon of all-American artists and firmly secured his position in the history of American art. On the other hand, despite the artist's ongoing new experiments in his art, the seemingly precocious ripeness in his career has led the critical discourses on Rauschenberg's art to the artist's early works, most of which were done in the mid-1950s and the 1960s. The crux of Rauschenberg criticism lies not only in focusing on the artist's 50's and 60's works, but also in its large dismissal of the significance of the imagery that the artist employed in his works. As art historians Roger Cranshaw and Adrian Lewis point out, the critical discourse of Rauschenberg either focuses on the formalist concerns on the picture plane, or relies on the "culturalist" interpretation of Rauschenberg's imagery which emphasizes the artist's "Americanness." Recently, a group of art historians centered around October has applied Charles Sanders Peirce's semiotics as art historical methodology and illuminated the indexical aspects of Rauschenberg's work. The semantic inquiry into Rauschenberg's imagery has also been launched by some art historians who seek the clues in the artist's personal context. The first half of this essay will examine the previous criticism on Rauschenberg's art and the other half will discuss the artist's 1955 work Rebus, which I think intersects various critical concerns of Rauschenberg's work, and yet defies the closure of discourses in one direction. The categories of signs in the semiotics of Charles Sanders Peirce and the discourse of Jean-Francois Lyotard will be used in discussing the meanings of Rebus, not to search for the semantic readings of the work, hut to make an analogy in terms of the paradoxical structures of both the work and the theory. The definitions of rebus is as follows: Rebus 1. a representation or words or syllables by pictures of object or by symbols whose names resemble the intended words or syllables in sound; also: a riddle made up wholly or in part of such pictures or symbols. 2. a badge that suggests the name of the person to whom it belongs. Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged. Since its creation in 1955, Robert Rauschenberg's Rebus has been one of the most intriguing works in the artist's oeuvre. This monumental 'combine' painting($6feet{\times}10feet$ 10.5 inches) consists of three panels covered with fabric, paper, newspaper, and printed reproductions. On top of these, oil paints, pencil and crayon drawings connect each section into a whole. The layout of the images is overall horizontal. Starting from a torn election poster, which is partially read as "THAT REPRE," on the far left side of the painting. Rebus leads us to proceed from the left to the right, the typical direction of reading in a Western context. Along with its seemingly proper title. Rebus, the painting has triggered many art historians to seek some semantic readings of it. These art historians painstakingly reconstruct the iconography based on the artist's interviews, (auto)biography, and artistic context of his works. The interpretation of Rebus varies from a 'image-by-image' collation with a word to a more general commentary on Rauschenberg's work overall, such as a work that "bridges between art and life." Despite the title's allusion to the legitimate purpose of the painting as a decoding of the imagery into sound, Rebus, I argue, actually hinders a reading of it. By reading through Peirce to Rauschenberg, I will delve into the subtle anxiety between words and images in their works. And on this basis, I suggest Rauschenberg's strategy in playing Rebus is to hide the meaning of the imagery rather than to disclose it.

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.11
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• pp.69-99
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• 1984

A dramatic development in the new technology of copying materials has presented us with massive problems on reconciling the conflicts between copyright owners and potential users of copyrighted materials. The adaptation to this changing condition led some countries to revise their copyright laws such as in the U. S. in 1976 and in Korea in 1984 for merging with the international or universal copyright conventions in the future. Copyright defined as exclusive rights given to copyright owners aims to secure a fair return for an author's creative labor and to stimulate artistic creativity for the general public good. The exclusive rights on copyrightable matters, generally for reproduction, preparation of derivative works, public distribution, public performance, and public display, are limited by fair use for scholarship and criticism and by library reproduction for its preservation and interlibrary loan. These limitations on the exclusive rights are concerned with all aspects of library services and cause a great burden on librarian's daily duty to provide balance between the rights of creators and the needs of library patrons. The fair use as one of the limitations on it has been coupled with enormous growth of a new technology and extended from xerography to online database systems. The implementation of the fair use and library reprography in Korean law to the local practices is examined on the basis of the new American copyright act of 1976. Under the draft revision of Korean law, librarians will face many potential problems as summarized below. 1. Because the new provision of 'life time plus 50 years' will tie up substantial bodies of material longer than the old law, until that date librarians would need permissions from the owners and should pay attention to the author's death date. 2. Because the copyright can be sold, distributed, given to the heirs, donated, as a whole or a part, librarians should chase down the heirs and other second owners. In case of a derivative work, this is a real problem. 3. Since a work has its protection from the moment of its creation, the coverage of copyrightable matter would be extended to the published or the unpublished works and librarian's work load would be heavier. Without copyright registration, no one can be certain that a work is in the public domain. Therefore, librarians will need to check with an authority. 4. For implementation of limitations on exclusive rights, fair use and library reproduction for interlibrary loan, there can be no substantial aggregate use and there can be no systematic distribution of multicopies. Therefore, librarians should not substitute reproductions for subscriptions or purchases. 5. For the interlibrary loan by photocopying, librarians should understand the procedure of royalty payment. 6. Compulsory licenses should be understood by librarians. 7. Because the draft revision of Korean law is a reciprocal treaty, librarians should take care of other countries' copyright law to protect foreign authors from Korean law. In order to solve the above problems, some suggestions are presented below. 1. That copyright clearinghouse or central agency as a centralized royalty payment mechanism be established. 2. That the Korean Library Association establish a committee on copyright. 3. That the Korean Library Association propose guidelines for each occasion, e.g. for interlibrary loan, books and periodicals and music, etc. 4. That the Korean government establish a copyright office or an official organization for copyright control other than the copyright committee already organized by the government. 5. That the Korean Library Association establish educational programs on copyright for librarians through seminars or articles written in its magazines. 6. That individual libraries provide librarian's copyright kits. 7. That school libraries distribute subject bibliographies on copyright law to teachers. However, librarians should keep in mind that limitations on exclusive rights are not for an exemption from library reprography but as a convenient access to library resources.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.254-267
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• 2019

Clamp resist dyeing is a resist dyeing technique in which a fabric is sandwiched between two or more pieces of woodcarving and then a pattern is expressed by dyeing. Records from nine years of King Heungdeok's reign during the Unified Silla dynasty show that the use of the clamp resist dyeing technique was banned for different garments. This was only for garments of YOOKDUPUMNYEO (六頭品女) or OHDUPUMNYEO (五頭品女). Given this, it can be assumed that clamp resisted fabrics were widely used, and the technique had been established during the Unified Silla dynasty or before. However, only the term can be found in the records. Neither its definition nor how this technique was used is explained. Also, it is difficult to assume the types and features of clamp resist dyeing due to a lack of materials. A small number of relics from the Goryeo dynasty still remain, though. Craft techniques have developed through international exchanges and have changed according to respective nations' circumstances including politics, economics, society, and culture. Hence, this research analyzed documents and relics from China and Japan, two countries neighboring the Republic of Korea, and studied the different types and features of clamp resist dyeing techniques. Clamp resist dyeing techniques were divided into monochromatic or multichromatic according to the number of colors that represented patterns, rather than according to the respective nations' features. They were also classified into mono, bilateral symmetry, or vertical-bilateral symmetry according to the structure of the patterns. Through the study of examples of inherited or reproduced dyeing techniques in China and Japan, it was confirmed that different engraving techniques, including relief, openwork, intaglio fit for the feature of a pattern and the number of colors, were applied in order to vividly represent patterns on fabric. Using small flower pattern clamp resist dyed fine tabby in Amitabha of 1302, the only relic showing its patterns and colors in Korea, as the experiment subject, this research successfully reproduced a clamp resist dyeing technique through a successful experiment based on the basic materials from the dyeing technique case study. Due to the significance of the experiment on a clamp resist dyeing technique that stopped its transmission and shows the features of the technique, this study is expected to be a basic resource that can be used for future reproductions of multichromatic clamp resist dyeing techniques. Also, it is expected to be helpful in widening and recreating the world of Korean pattern dyeing with modern dyeing techniques.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.42-57
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• 2017

The Joseon Dynasty (1392~1910) had a long tradition of making official seals to commemorate the granting of official royal titles, including posthumous honorary titles, to its kings, queens, crown princes and queen dowagers. These royal seals were typically gold-plated or made of jade. After the death of its holder, each seal would be stored in the royal seal depository in the Royal Ancestral Shrine. Extensive efforts were made to restore the traditions and culture of the royal family of Joseon during the reign of King Sukjong (r. 1674~1720). In 1705, discussions were held about the royal ceremonial objects, including the royal seals, stored in the Royal Ancestral Shrine, resulting in the reproduction of a set of accessories related with the storage of royal seals and ten golden royal seals which had been lost during wars or had yet to be made. With these reproductions, each shrine chamber of the Royal Ancestral Shrine would have had at least one seal. The details of the reproduction project were meticulously recorded in The Royal Protocol by the Directorate for the Restoration of Golden Royal Seals("金寶改造都監儀軌"). Given that the restoration project was the single event that led to the reproduction of all the golden royal seals, it is reasonable to conclude that the directorate had fulfilled a historically significant function. In this study, the main discussion is focused on the establishment of the directorate and the storage and management of the damaged royal seals. The discussion includes the manufacturing process of the golden seals, for which The Royal Protocol is compared with other similar documents in order to gain more detailed knowledge of the measurements of the turtle knob, the lost-wax casting technique, the gold plating with mercury amalgamation technique, and other ornamentation techniques. The discussion also covers the activities of the artisans who made the royal seals, based on a study of the royal protocols; the styles of the artifacts, based on an examination of the remaining examples; and the techniques used by the Directorate for the Restoration of Golden Royal Seals to produce the royal seals in 1705.