Wednesday 28 May 2008

Ongoing concern

I am still worried about this censorship business (here).
My concern is not, I think, that there should be absolutely no censorship. It is rather that if art is to be deliberatedf upon then I don't think the police are the ones who shoudl be doing the deliberating.
They may be the ones who need to go in and turn off the lights, but I don't think that in the end Superintendent Plod shoudl be the one deciding what is good and bad art.
Nor do artists need to be quite so precious and get all thingy because something called 'art' is critiqued as being exploitative.
I had a look at what is left of the said photos (which bizarrely have been made quite obscene by the imposition of censorial bars across various parts of various anatomies....another point altogether) and my impression is that they are not neutral, they are over the line.
Of course as a society we can say it is inappropriate, and even illegal for children to be treated in such a way. But maybe there is a case for any nude art being 'classified' (as films are) before they are put on display.
Then it is OK for police to act appropriately, but they should not be deciding what is and what is not art.

2 comments:

Stephen James Bloor said...

I agree with you that there needs to be some form of "classification" on art about what is appropriate and what is not. Of course this would cause a great out cry from the artistic world that we are limiting their freedom of expression.

However, if your freedom of expression hurts others in some way then can we really that it is correct.

We say that murder is wrong the serial murderer might claim that is his freedom of expression.

We say shop lifting is wrong but the young woman caught might claim this her freedom of expression.

We might say nudity on public beach is wrong and the nudist would say that is his freedom of expression.

I think freedom of expression is great but there is a difference between freedom of expression that gives life and freedom that causes harm. Some might even call the freedom that causes harm sin.

Stephan Clark said...

I don't have problem with things being classified I just don't think that as a principle police should be responsible for defining the limits of law and then resposnible for enforcing it.
It's not just about art I think