This lecture could not have come at a more timely manner whilst I am taking a more in-depth look at Matters of Care by Maria Puig de la Bellacasa and Staying With The Trouble by Donna Haraway. Whilst I had read portions of these during unit 1.1, I have felt that I wanted to revisit these texts and spend more time reading them word for word with highlighter in hand!
Both these texts as well as our online sessions with Dr Michele Whiting have certainly widened my perspective around ethics.
Ethics in art is deeply personal, and if we allowed ourselves to get carried away, we’d not be able to make any art (e.g. was this paper responsibly sourced? was this cadmium responsibly mined? How are the miners that extract the cobalt treated?). Having said this, all of this can and should give us pause for thought.
And whilst Ethics is an extremely layered and complex issue, I am trying to hold myself to account with 3 overarching questions:
- Will it hurt?
- Will it harm?
- Does it lead with love?
During the online session, we decided as a cohort to come up with a Group Ethics Manifesto of sorts. These are some of the aspects we agree upon:
Each one of us can “borrow” and expand on these ideas based on their personal art making:
“Why ART matters:
- Documenting, reaction, reflection of society, mirroring (examples: war artists, artists during the pandemic),
- The artistic expression has a power in it; it can change and shift ideas,
- Sustainability,
- Person struggle,
- Autonomy of material practice, engage with the thought (examples: digital infrastructure, digital data),
- Question: what is the environmental impact of our process,
- Consciousness to practice; mindful in our making; mindful process,
- Human centricity; human and non-human entities/alignment,
- Be aware of the process of our art making; ethos of it,
- Supply chain mindset and what are the circumstances?
- Where does the work go to? Do we repurpose things? Recycling. Usability of things,
- Speculative ethics,
- Our individual vision and ethics; our moral responsibilities.
We were asked to open up a working document to serve as our own Ethics Document. Herewith my notes as they stand in September 2024:
Ethics and My Practice
The purpose of this exercise is to help you to position your personal ethics in the context of your practice and the art school environment in which you are currently operating.
In answering the questions below, which serve here as a prompt to thinking, you should particularly consider how they apply to the context in which you study, and to the ethical issues that your discipline and practice raises, as well as your own personal belief system. You can add to the questions as you see fit and where appropriate to your own interests, so aim to think from your practice point of view.
- Stage 1: Spend twenty minutes considering the questions as they apply to you individually.
- Stage 2: Answer the questions and write some notes alongside your answers if you feel the need.
- Stage 3: Talk to your peers to discuss the similarities/dissimilarities of your answers, between individuals and any shifts between disciplines.
- Stage 4: Consider how much the responses represent personal decisions and how much they are led by the nature of the discipline in which you are/will be working.
- Stage 5: Write your own ethical questions that pertain to you and your practice.
- Stage 6: Write a reflective commentary about what you have found out.
NB: It is important to be honest in your answers rather than responding with answers that you think others would expect, we are all different.
- What is the worst mistake?
- To be too free and easy in your approach
- To apply rules too rigidly
- To ignore rules wilfully
I feel that all three of these are equally weighted – being too free and easy can lead an artist into being on the wrong side of ethics. At the same time, applying the rules too rigidly – taking things too literally – will mean the artist might struggle to be innovative and creative as they are continually holding themselves back in the name of sticking to all the rules. On the other hand, ignoring rules willfully could get the artist into trouble – this could be an attack on social media, being slapped with a Cease-and-desist letter, litigation, or just internally knowing that no karmic debt in the universe ever goes unpaid.
- In making decisions do you rely more on:
- hard facts
- personal feelings and intuition
- the advice of others
It depends on what type of decision it is. I would say I use a combination of hard facts and intuition. I also have a copyright and trademark lawyer whose advice I seek from time to time. So I won’t take advice from just anybody as a lot of that type of advice is down to their own personal opinions/feelings/intuition.
- Your work might mean that you could hurt someone emotionally or physically. If you carry it out, have you actually done anything wrong?
- Yes
- No
Yes. Artists need to endeavor to strike the delicate balance between freedom of expression – which could result in recklessly hurting others, and their moral obligation and moral compass to not cause harm to other beings and non-beings. We are all creative enough that we don’t have to bring to life ideas or artworks that willfully hurt others – we can want to make those projects, we can have those ideas and thoughts in our heads, but it does not mean we have to follow through by making that artwork and bringing it into the public domain.
- Which is more important in determining whether an action is wrong or right?
- Whether anyone human or non-human actually gets hurt
- Whether a rule, commandment or moral principle is broken
Both of these are equally important and should both be considered.
- Which is worse?
- hurting someone’s feelings by telling the truth
- telling a lie and protecting their feelings
I personally struggle to hold back from telling people the cold hard truth. However, I understand that the ramifications of my inability to filter my speech or feedback can result in such hurt that it does irreparable damage to the relationship. Be that as it may, I would always rather err on the side of truth and authenticity. On the receiving end, I’d rather hear a hurtful truth from which I can learn and grow than to later learn that somebody lied in order to try to protect me.
- Which is worse?
- not considering all beings as sentient
- not considering the agency of the natural world
I’d say both in equal parts: This pertains directly to my research and practice. As much as I do not believe in anthropocentrism, I do believe that humans as a species can wreak more havoc and danger on other sentient beings and non-beings than they can wreak on us. We as a species therefore have an obligation to use our will and actions to protect and nurture rather than to damage and hurt. The natural world has agency to right itself and restore homeostasis, but, as per the Gaia hypothesis (Lovelock, J), that could mean the natural world making conditions such that the human species is obliterated. It makes little difference to ‘nature’ if one species is obliterated – nature adapts, just as it did when all species of dinosaurs were wiped out – Gaia continued regardless.
- Which is better?
- Do good work, even if it means making a loss
- Make a profit, even if it means ‘cutting corners’
This depends on your financial situation. If a person is financially blessed enough to do good work at the expense of earnings, then that’s ideal. But others need the money in order to survive. Being blessed to take a moral high ground is a privilege and a blessing, not afforded to everybody.
Which is it better to be?
- Just and fair
- Sympathetic and feeling
These can’t be either-or. Both are equally important.
- Is using the ideas of ‘others’ justifiable if the ‘others’ can’t find out?
- Yes
- No
No. I recently had somebody blatantly copy a piece of my art. She posted it on her social media as her own work, and I can only think she did so because she thought I wouldn’t find out/mind/notice/remember the identical piece that I’d made 15 years prior. I did remember, and it broke my heart that she copied work that I am still selling commercially.
- Which is more important to you in your work? Being…
- Original
- Ecologically sound/sustainable
- Honest about the sustainability of your practice
All of the above in equal amounts.
- Which is more important to you in your vision of your future work?
- happy and wealthy
- ethical, moral and sustainable
I think it is at least possible to have all of these things and not have to choose between them. It is possible to find the balance between these things, if they are meaningful to you. If happy, wealthy, ethical, moral and sustainable are all meaningful, the artist can be mindful of all of these things and try to make work that strikes a balance between all of these elements. We live in a time where ethics, morals and sustainability are top on the agenda. Many entities are calling for sustainable art. It’s no longer a ‘fad’ but more of an expectation, so I feel that if the artist is mindful of that, they can shift focus in their practice and materials use in order to fulfill all of these.
Now, can you note your core values at this time? These may shift and change as the context and the making changes, so it is good to put a date and a small reflection against the notes
My Core Values: (as at 9 September 2024)
…
- Inclusiveness (i.e. making art that helps viewers to move away from divisiveness)
- Environmentalism, Sustainability and Ecology: not necessarily only in materials-use or practice but in the message in the art itself – giving people a factual ‘why’ that moves beyond simply the moral obligation of doing what’s right.
Connecting: people, their thoughts, academic disciplines that have largely been siloed up until now. For example, I see a perfectly coherent thread and overarching theme across Art, Science, Metaphysics, Psychology, Philosophy and Mathematics and would like to communicate that in my work.
References:
Puig de la Bellacasa, M. (2017). Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More Than Human Worlds. University of Minnesota Press.
Haraway, D. (2016). Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press.
Debbie New 