Ethical Issues In Art Design And Media

AY2014/2015 Semester 1

The art and design industry, like any other industry, involves considerations of an ethical dimension. Some of these might seem straightforward, such as the need to protect creative ownership of a creative work by the use of copyright protection laws. It was an artist (William Hogarth) who first established the principle that visual material receives legal protection, however this same principle has, arguably, been used by creative industries to stifle creativity and competition. There is even an environmental aspect to something as seemingly innocuous as the shooting of a film. During the making of the film `The Beach?, environmentalists argued that the makers of the film did irreparable harm to Thailand's Phi Phi Island national park when they re-modeled it to conform to their expectations of what a tropical beach should look like. There are also the many ethical considerations that are associated with visual representation: how are peoples from different cultures variously portrayed in art and what does it tell us about those who make this art? These, and other related topics, will be covered by this course. It will consist of lectures and discussions and is designed to introduce the student to this complex but important subject.