Ethics/Censorship

For this months discussion forum Sana (illustrationlevel5.wordpress.com) and I hosted the talk on the topic of Ethics in a Digital World/ Censorship. This was an interesting issue and generated a lot of discussion within the group. We focused on the areas of censorship and manipulation by the media, by governments and by artists. Along with the ethical decisions we may have to make as designers.
A number of the group felt that the idea of letting your personal ethics decide the jobs you work on would be an ideal situation to be in but not one that would be available as a graduate. Ethics leading the way would be an option for established artists, able to choose who they work for. This wouldn't be possible for us starting out as illustrators as money would be an issue which could override personal ethics.
People then started discussing censorship, of both art and media, and whether this was a positive aspect of our society or infringing on our rights to choose for ourselves. We showed the group a number of examples where the work has been censored. Manipulation, stereotyping/satire and taboo/sensitive issues were put forward in illustrations and we asked the group there opinion on each one and the topic as a whole. Some stated that there would prefer the idea of censoring images/information from young children, who wouldn't be old enough to decide for themselves what they want to see/believe. This should be up to their parents to decide and not the government/media.

Sue Coe, BP Burns Turtles

                                                                        Image - http://www.artnet.com/artists/sue-coe/artworks

 As for the idea of art offending people/groups through such things as stereotyping, satire or a sensitive/upsetting issue, many agreed that when working they would have to remember and respect other cultures/beliefs/values. That it's an ethical grey area, where they want to show a message in there work but don't want to offend if they can help it. Although it was mentioned that even if we were to research these issues before creating work it would guarantee not upsetting people. When working on sensitive issues you will always be offending someone. Now that our work will be out on the internet, there is a wider audience than there would have been in the past, with more people having acess to our work. If we did create work that offend people early in our careers the internet would make sure it stayed around to maybe affect our job chances later?