OUGD501: Lecture; Ethics, what is good?

Ethics, what is good?

Thinking how we can be ethical creatives in the world. Speculating what it is to be a good person. Vital that we have an understanding, we live in a unjust/ capitalist system, based on exploitation and inequalities. How we can exist in this unfair system and yet hold our heads up high and show we are good people and are fundamentally ethical. Broadly challenge opinions and explain them, leave us with questions about figuring out what is right and wrong and what is ethical.

First things first manifesto 1964 by Ken Garland. Less of a manifesto in a political sense, but a manifesto in the sense that it was signed by loads of artists and designers. Produced in the boom of consumerism. Artists felt frustrates that creative designers were wasting there talent on marketing pointless trivial commodities. Proposing a reversal of priorities, in an ethical way; its un ethical to waist talent. Signed by politicians as well, published in magazines.

In the 80s it was forgotten and re written in 2000, published in ad busters, an anti capitalist magazine, a very political group. Slight re-draft, changed the tone to a more critical state, advertising comes across a lot more stick in this re-draft.

First paragraph of the 2000 first things first. Points out that advertising is shown to us as the great thing, making lots of money.

Use advertisers and graphic designers as the same profession, which we are not. Advertising is making people buy things we don’t need, accusing us to buying in to this system. Roping us all in as being complicit in a system of global exploitation.

Not just complicit in the evil capitalist system, we are also changing the way in which people think about each other and interact with each other.

The tone is starting to become very dictatorial, very preachy and very judgmental, a bit to simplistic.

What they are saying is that, if you work to market, advertise or brand companies who make any sort of consumer items, in some way you are being unethical. We shouldn't’t perpetuate capitalism and consumerism. Use are talents to show the ‘evil’ of capitalism. ‘Culture jamming’ (high jacking bill boards). ‘Buy nothing day’

The artist who signed the manifesto are really rich artist, so it’s easy for them to be ethical, its easy for them not to work in an unethical company. It’s easy to look down your nose at people who work in unethical jobs, at designers who are just starting out. Designers just starting out don’t have the luxury of choosing whether they work for an ethical/ unethical company. The system of exploitation that allows sweat shops to happen is unethical.

Advertising constructs memes very well, which circulate through the world virally, very effective. Given the power that creative advertisers have, what would happen if people chose to do something great in the world, use it to over throw capitalism.

Famous book, by Victor Papanek, not an academic, but very passionately written: Design for the real world. A lot of design was wasteful and didn't’t enrich the world but harmed the world, made things worse. The message from the book was a cry for ethics.

He is preaching about wanting people to use their skills to do something important in the world.

Papanek came up with this car bumper. An American motor company said they weren’t making bumpers in safer, and to change it would mean an extra 500 dollars would be added to every cars value. So Papanek designed a bumper, but it on his car and drove it into the senit building in the city that he lived. Got put on trial and raised controversy about designing, and design solutions.

According to Papanek there are so many problems in society that need attention, and if we put our minds to it these could be sold.

We cant escape capitalism, its what we live in. We live in a system where we’ve got to slave away to pay are rent, bills etc. We have to work in the consumer/ capitalist system, but this does not make us bad people. How do we decide if we are good people? Or ethical individuals in an unethical individual in the system? Starting to go into philosophy.

Subjective relativism, the world is this, I am something else, I go about in the world in the way I see fit. If everyone believes in that philosophy you get social activism.

Cultural relativism; figure out what culture you’re in, what time you’re living in and live among the basis of that. In a globalized world we have some sort of shared values because we all live on the same planet, we have to live along side each other.

Society we live in have shared values.

Divine command theory: Based on us given a set of rules and us living by them. These three theories are not particularly workable.

Immanuel Kant, great philosopher.  He fundamentally argued that we are distinguished because we have reason, we don’t follow our gut instinct. We rationalize and think things through. He said you actions be framed by a system of general rules, rules of determining what is ethical and what is not.

Maxim: the act what I'm doing, what it really means. Take this rule, and say if everyone did what I did, would that be ok?

Example, if I see a charity I will never give any money. If everyone does this, charity would become unethical. Would this work? No, it is unethical, everybody needs charity, charity in a general sense, so the charity of someone's help.

Mill was interested in the amount of pleasure/ or bad your actions have. The use your actions have for society. Something is ethical if it increases total happiness and vise versa. If you can see a broad benefit of what you’ve done that is ethical.  Difference between ethical and desirable. Acting ethically is about sacrificing your liberty.

Social contract, Hobbs and Rousseau. If everyone basically did what every they want, you are left with everyone screwing each other over. We all agree for the common good we have laws regulations, for the sake of the stability of the world. To be ethical is to think about the common good rather than individual gain.

Thinking about our actions and extracting maxism is a good way of thinking about what is good and what is not.

Think/ have a workable ethic for ourselves.

What Papanek was really about was genuine design as a vehicle for solving the problems of humanity. The designers role was to help the under privileged and under developed to provide them with ideas to help them improve their lives. He made a workable radio that could be made by rubbish which you could make from the streets of Africa, powered by radio dung. Made not for profit, designed for the greater gain.

What people get wrong is that I think that advertising is evil. It’s the fact that there is more stuff we can do that change the world with our talents. A tithe is something that you give away to stabilize peoples lives/ society. Designers could do this, devote 10 % of your time for really worthwhile ethical causes.

BURGIN - link also between possession (capital) possession (partner)- commodification of human relationships.(Williamson)

The perversity of Capitalism can be summed up simply by statistics. Sourced from D’Amato ‘Meaning Of Marxism p.9

Poverty is horrible, but is obscene when one realises that enough income is generated to wipe out global poverty completely