Celia Lury is Professor of Sociology at Goldsmiths College. She is a member of the Centre for the Study of Invention and Social Process at Goldsmiths.
Celia Lury within her essay ‘Contemplating a Self-portrait as a Pharmacist’, discusses the concept of a ‘brand name’(93). She begins analysis by drawing a direct comparison to how historically a brand name functioned for a product to how currently a brand name functions in society. Historically being ‘a mark of ownership intended to create trust in the consumer as a guarantor of the quality’.(93) To now no longer only serving this primary purpose, but instead that brand name serves multiple functions within culture. Lury proposes that this considerable change within the ‘contemporary brand’ marks ‘a transformation in the author function’.(94)
The ‘author-function’ is an idea developed by French philosopher Michel Foucault. He critically questioned the role of the author by suggesting that through our own reasoning we construct an author, but this individual we designate as an author is only a presumption (94). Lury uses British artist Damien Hirst as a ‘figure case’ example of someone who typifies this change in the author function in present-day society. Hirst proposes that ‘becoming a brand name is an important part of life’ (93), suggesting that is it a necessity and simply unavoidable because of the world we live in. At several points throughout his career Foucault proposes that publishing text without authors’ names attached would be a useful step towards dismantling this ‘author function’. (Hendricks)
I question what would happen if artworks were released to the public where the name of the creator was absent. Would author ambiguity successfully remove all prior knowledge and conceptions of the author enabling us to look simply the artwork itself? Et al is a New Zealand art ‘collective’ which attempts to remove the author by wishing to remain anonymous. Et al advocates being a ‘collective’ but is often suggested to be an alias for Auckland artist P.Mule (Marilyn Tweedie). What is interesting is that although et al remains anonymous, it has still established a distinguished brand name. In fact, being an anonymous collective attracted much curiosity and attention, making their anonymity a commodity in itself, proving that creating an unidentified brand name or author doesn’t affect success.
References:
Celia Lury, “‘Contemplating a Self-portrait as a Pharmacist’: A Trade Mark Style of Doing Art and Science”, Theory, Culture, Society, Vol.22(1), London: Sage, pp.93-110.
Hendricks, Christina. ‘The Author's Remains: Foucault and the Demise of the "Author-Function”’. Philosophy Today. 1 July 2002, Vol.46(2), Pg. Abstract.
