Christine M. Schröder interviews Pedro Vélez for FreeRadioSAIC on the ocassion of Persistence:The Lions' Roar at the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance in Chicago. Curated by Jorge Félix.

In this interview Vélez talks freely about his role and experiences as a Latino Puerto Rican critic and artist in Chicago from 1997-2013.

Collaboration piece.

Concept by Pedro Vélez

Written and performed by Opera Coquí:

Yaritza Zayas, Ernesto Busigó, Patricia Vasquez, Christian García, Rafael Lebrón.

Abstract

What do pictures want? Echoing the famous question posed by art historian W.J.T. Mitch- ell, this article interrogates that query within the skein of copyright law. The creation of a fictional character means seeing a possibly singular, inert image as having a past and a fu- ture, a panoply of emotional responses and, significantly, desires. Fictional characters are not copyrightable per se. Rather, protection stems from expression of those characters in copyrightable works. To determine whether fictional characters have reached the threshold of complexity worthy of copyright, courts inquire how well a character has been delineated.
For nearly a century, copyright has relied upon traditional round character literary analysis which looks at a character’s distinguishable features from the audience’s point of view. Recently, flat protagonist criticism examines whether the character serves as a proper ve- hicle for the author’s story. This article takes another approach—asking what the image is trying to tell us about its own absences, needs, and emotional lacunae. Beyond establishing protection, we need to query what protagonists are unworthy of copyright. I argue that stereotypes should be held to stricter scrutiny as creating insufficiently desiring characters.

Girlhood and the Plastic Image explores how and why our images promise us the adaptability of youth. This original and engaging study will appeal to a broad interdisciplinary audience including scholars of media studies, film studies, art history, and women’s studies.