Lessons from Taylor Swift’s Re-recordings: An Ontology of Versions
May 23 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM
ALUM 302 (Trustees Room)
free
This event is open to the public.
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This month, Friday at Four celebrates Philosophy professor Brandon Polite with his talk entitled
Lessons from Taylor Swift’s Re-recordings: An Ontology of Versions
This is an abstract of the talk
Many works of art across different mediums exist in multiple versions. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein appears in both its original and heavily revised editions. Ridley Scott's Blade Runner has five officially released cuts. Shakespeare's Hamlet survives in a Folio and two Quarto editions. Taylor Swift's "All Too Well" exists as an original recording, a re-recording, and explicit and clean re-recorded extended versions. The list goes on. Drawing on metaphysical insights from Swift's re-recordings, this talk develops an account of the ontology of versions that spans artistic mediums.
