Other: Art Related to Animal Rights
Baker and Kusot/Moore readings
By Kyle Leighton (05/19/14 00:21:23)
Baker believes that Malamud's critical view on ethics regarding artists is unnecessary, and explains how although scholars such as Pluto have stated the artists lack ethics, he still feels as though artists should be left to incorporate animals with trust that they will use "integrity" in their ethical behavior and actions with the animals.
Baker states that looking at the ethics of the art before immersing one's attention in the art itself will disable viewers to take the art seriously, possibly disallowing potential "contributions to understanding human-animal relations".
Baker is critical of the Rat Piece in the sense that it called upon questions of value in an area where these questions had already been answered, however, Baker also falls back to claiming how scientists refered to the artist as 'perverted', and that this in a sense disallowed people to see what Jones was really trying to convey.
Baker is defending the Rat Piece in a way, because his philosophy of viewing the art before judging the artists ethics takes roll in this art piece. He believes that Jones has a message about the nonintervening audience and humanity that cannot be understood with the criticism of animal ethics.
Baker thinks that we can trust artists with ethical responsibilities, partly because we have to, because artists contribute ideas to society that can only be heard by the audience trusting the artist.
I agree with baker that we must trust the ethics of the artist, however, I do believe that lines must be drawn and that animal cruelty shouldn't have a place in the world of art.

The Bee text brings up interesting issues regarding the science behind the importance of bees, and how this has caused society to understand the cultural importance of their existence. The text explains how present day artists who use live bees in their art are exploring a species and idea that humans depend on, as well as the entire ecosystem.


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