Oh no need to apologise Edmund - I'm not angry with you - just these people
who stuff camera's into people's faces at poignant moments, especially when
the 'victim' isn't of an age to understand or protest. There are moment
when comfort is required and making a video of a crying child isn't an act
of comforting. It's as though the 'moment' itself has ceased to be real and
the recorded moment is the new reality: the 'old' reality of the 'now' is
therefore bereft of comfort and sympathy. It's a disturbing development from
the holiday snappers who don't actually look at what's in front of them but
record it on their camcorders and presumable watch what they didn't see when
they get home. For all I know they don't even do that!!
As for your question of whether it is unethical to record personal
statements made in public and use them in art, well I don't think there is
a clear cut answer to that. It depends on the circumstance and nature of
the recording. Once it is 'out there' it belongs to everyone but if you
carry that argument to it's starkest manifestation then we have the question
of child pornography on the web. Subjecting children to pornographic acts
is wrong (although obviously a sizeable minority of people don't think it
is - or at least don't care if it is) but the people who merely view it can
argue that it would have taken place anyway whether they watched it or not.
I'm not comparing the video of the crying girl to pornography but trying to
understand the ethics surrounding recorded material and it's usage. I don't
think there's one answer to this.
We are compelled by things we are not suppose to see. If any artist got
their hands on the photos of Princess Diana as she lay dying in the car they
would be vilified beyond imagining but they would also become instantly
famous and very rich because everyone would wants to see what we are not
allowed to see even though the event is long over and no harm can actually
from viewing it. We see images of maimed and dying Iraqi's everyday so it's
not violent death per se which is taboo just some violent deaths and we have
to make the choice which is right and which is wrong - and we won't all
agree on this.
Right - I've just made more knots rather than disentangling them. Any more
thoughts?
G.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Edmund Hardy" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, June 30, 2007 9:39 AM
Subject: Re: Power-Ethics and Found Speech
> Geraldine, I think your first anger about the clip gets the circumstances
> of it right, and I'm very sorry for making you angry and linking to what
> many may think to be a manifestation of a power/ethics of gross
> inequality, but this then throws up some (hopefully) more interesting
> questions -
>
> Is it unethical to record personal statements found in public, perhaps
> placed there according to very different views to your own, and cut them
> into an art-work? If a writer transcribed this video, and put it in a
> poem? If the writer on the defensive said that the poem itself critiqued
> such showings?
>
> Edmund
>
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