Blog essay for Musicology Now, published 12-5-17. Considers the challenge of watching/staging this canonical opera and (in)famous character in the age of Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, and so many other powerful men who have abused women.... more
Blog essay for Musicology Now, published 12-5-17. Considers the challenge of watching/staging this canonical opera and (in)famous character in the age of Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, and so many other powerful men who have abused women. What do we do with Don Giovanni (the character AND the opera) after the undeniable revelations of #metoo?
The National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2007) establishes a working set of guidelines for the ethical conduct for research within Australian Universities. One of the primary principles relates to questions of “public... more
The National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2007) establishes a working set of guidelines for the ethical conduct for research within Australian Universities. One of the primary principles relates to questions of “public good.” The question of public good comes under the principle of beneficence. Beneficence involves an ethical judgment about whether “the likely benefits of the research must justify any risks of harm or discomfort to the participants, to the wider community, or to both.” (National Statement, p. 13)
The question of minimizing risk and discomfort becomes a key point of tension when artists become engaged in artistic research and their ‘research’ becomes subject to the guidelines of The National Statement. Driven by the aesthetics of the sublime, the avant-garde impetus demands that art produces discomfort and brings its audience into crisis. For artists this discomfort and crisis is precisely art’s benefit, whilst for an ethics committee such discomfort may be deemed an unacceptable risk. Here-in lies a conflict between the notion of beneficence as defined by the code and those recognized by the artistic community.
It raises the question: What is the value of art to a society if it becomes so comfortable that it no longer provokes artistic shock? Through an examination of the work of socially engaged artists Amy Spiers and Catherine Ryan, this essay examines how artists reconfigure the notion of beneficence as a principle that incorporates provocation and discomfort.
