LA 430: Ethics of Art and Design

Spring 2002

Instructor: Crispin Sartwell; Office: B435; Phone: 2302; mindstorm@pipeline.com

Required texts:

Cooper, Ethics: The Classic Readings

Senie, The Tilted Arc Controversy

Attfeld, Utility Reassessed

People who will eventually be artists and designers must grapple in a serious way with the ethical and legal issues that will arise in their practice. These include: Who am I working for, and what is their place and my place in the economy and polity? What are the limits of free expression? What is the place of art in public spaces and of artists in public discourse? What is the relation of art to technology and of technology to social issues? Is art a luxury of the rich and are artists their servants? What kind of sexual or political content is appropriate to art and design in various contexts? Should governments fund the arts and if so how?

Virtually every professional school in the country - business, medical, legal, and so on - offers their students education in the relevant ethical issues, as well they might; they want their graduates not only to be skilled but to be responsible, to have a positive effect on the communities in which they participate.

Required work for the course consists of weekly 1-2 page essays on topics assigned in class, as well as mid-term and final papers of 5-7 pages. I will suggest and discuss topics for the longer papers, but you may also pick topics suggested by the readings that particularly interests you. You will be able to re-write any paper if you are dissatisfied with the grade. Each longer paper will account for 25% of the grade, and the weekly essays for the other 50%. In addition, I will take classroom participation and improvement through the semester into account when assigning the grade.

Schedule:

Jan 28:

intro, the case of Leni Riefenstahl

Feb 4:

in Cooper, Plato

Feb 11:

in Cooper, Aristotle

Feb 25

in Cooper, Kant

March 4

in Cooper, Mill

March 11

in Cooper, Kierkegaard, first paper due

March 18

Senie, chapters 1, 2

April 1

Senie, chapter 3

April 8

Senie chapter 4, conclusion

April 15

in Attfield, Whiteley (12), introduction

April 22

in Attfield, Coleing (1), Crowley (4)

April 29

in Attfield, McKellar (5), Bell (6), final paper due

May 6

in Attfield, Attfield (15)