tailieunhanh - The Ethics of Aesthetics

The literature on aesthetic labour provides some definitions. Martin describes aesthetic labour as ‘the requirement to have the management-determined mix of appearance, age, weight, class, and accent characteristics.’(2001, 106). He cites the work from Strathclyde University with ‘a hotel seeking to project a total image concept, with the hotel building representing the hardware and the staff the software’ (2001, 106). He remarks further that staff are expected to mould themselves into the required characteristics. Martin builds on the work of Lamb (1999) whose views on the subject of discrimination states ‘Qualified staff whose “faces don’t fit” are being shown. | The Ethics of Aesthetics Don Ritter Berlin Germany http Abstract. The article explores the relationships between aesthetics ethics and new media art by discussing the process influences and consequences of aesthetic judgements. The text proposes that the aesthetic judgements of artworks created in any medium including new media function as mechanisms for propagating certain ethical values. Keywords aesthetics ethics promotion new media art function of art 1 Introduction When an artwork is examined according to its mechanism we pursue an understanding of what it is. When an artwork is examined according to its function we pursue an understanding of what it does. This article will outline a perspective for distinguishing the function from the mechanism of artworks created in any medium including those created with new media technologies. Using this perspective the text will explore the relationships between aesthetics ethics and new media art by discussing how people decide that particular artworks are good the influences of their aesthetic judgements and the consequences of their judgements. 2 Aesthetics A primary goal in the field of aesthetics is to investigate aesthetic judgements the decisions people make when they decide What is art and What is good art 1 Although some writings on aesthetics are prescriptive in their approach this text will not provide a precise definition of good art nor will it advise readers to use specific criteria for judging art. Instead it will discuss how people make aesthetic judgements. The Institutional Theory of Art set forth by George Dickie in 1974 proposed that works of art are art as the result of the position or place they occupy within an established practice the artworld. 2 According to this theory the established network of curators galleries and museums that sell and exhibit professional artworks are responsible for determining what is art and what is not. The classification used within this text is