Extra Interesting Readings
The two following readings are texts that I used to inform one of my Creative Cultures essays last year, I feel like they are also applicable to what I will be talking about in my proposal and will help strengthen my argument.
By Mark Coeckelbergh
"Various arguments have been provided for drawing non-humans such as animals and artificial agents into the sphere of moral consideration: animals have been attributed rights or equal consideration of interests."
"Corresponding justifications given for these attributions include the inherent value or capacity to suffer (animals), being alive or being part of a spiritual-ecological whole (plants), or a high degree of system interactivity, autonomy and adaptability (artificial agents)."
"First, I argue for a shift from an ontological to a social-philosophical approach: we should try to grasp conceptually the quasi- social dimension of relations between non-humans and humans."
"The capacity to suffer/being alive"
"The approach I will now propose shifts attention away from what non-humans are towards what ‘we’ (humans/non-humans) do together. I highlight their (quasi) social dimension: the moral relevance of their relations with humans and other non- humans. I argue that we should draw non-humans into the sphere of moral consideration not only because of what they are (features) or do as such (consequences) but because of their relations with us, in particular their (quasi- co-operation) with us. Instead of using the language of rights or value that focuses on the moral relevance of individual capacities non-humans, I wish to put the emphasis on the quasi-social dimension of non-humans, that is, their relations with other non-humans and with humans."
"How can we incorporate non-humans, make them part of the social body, the social corpus?"
"Instead, it considers the relations between humans and non-humans as social relations. We (living, non-living things, and humans) do things together. I propose to use the term co-operation to refer to at least part of the relations between these natural and artificial, human and non-human entities."
"However, it does not strongly depend on the co-operands (all) being humans, moral agents, having certain capacities, etc. It does not depend on what the co-operands are but on the relations between them."
"If this brief sketch of a turn towards a ‘(quasi-)social philosophy’ for a world of humans and non-humans is plausible, then we can use this descriptive account as a basis to discuss problems of justice in that world. Can non-humans be part not only of the sphere of moral consideration, but also of the sphere of justice? My main argument runs as follows: To the extent that various entities in this hybrid world ‘live’ together and ‘do’ things together, that is, to the extent that they co-operate, they constitute what the contractarian tradition calls ‘a co-operative scheme’, which is in that tradition a sufficient reason for discussing justice and distributive justice. I will conclude that once we come to understand our world partly in terms of co-operation between various entities and life forms, we no longer have a good reason to exclude non-humans from the moral sphere and our related conceptual frameworks."
"If we take seriously the fact that the human world depends on the non- human world, then it is not even necessary to blur the categorical line between the moral status of humans and that of non-humans to understand non-humans as an integral and necessary part of a wider co-operative (quasi-)social scheme. Humans and non-humans are interdependent in various ways. And on closer inspection, what we call a ‘social’ scheme (our, human social scheme) is rather a social-artefactual- ecological scheme: its co-operation is not restricted to inter-human co-operation but depends on more hybrid forms of co-operation, for instance between humans and (certain) non-humans."
"Consider current human-animal relations. Humans and some kinds of animals are mutually dependent on each other for their food and living. Now there are circumstances imaginable under which problems of injustice arise: if their co- operation resulted in a wide gap between advantaged (humans) and disadvantaged (some kinds of animals), then it would make sense to discuss this problem in terms of justice or injustice. For instance, using our innate capacity for intelligence and control, we have domesticated animals and use them for our purposes (transport, food, clothing, etc.). We could argue that when animals suffer from these activities, this is an unfair situation since we are only able to use or abuse them in this way in virtue of our specific natural capacities such as our higher intelligence. Since animals lack these capacities they cannot resist our practices. Just as the relation between intelligence and social class is an issue of justice in the social, human world, one could consider the same problem in the human/animal world."
"The sphere of justice should not be restricted to human beings."
"Which interactions with what kind of (non-human) entities count as co-operative?"
"I propose to change the requirement ‘that the entity have a capacity for co-operation’ (an ontological requirement) into ‘that the entity co-operates’ (something that can be observed or experienced)."
"What matters for inclusion into the sphere of morality and justice is (the extent to which) humans and non-humans depend on one another and co-operate, that is, do things together. For instance, pets and humans live in a relation of dependency and often co-operate, whereas a wild animal of the same species (hence, having roughly the same ontological properties) would not usually qualify for engaging in such a relation, and could therefore not be drawn into the sphere of justice on contractarian grounds."
"Dependence and co-operation are not necessarily beneficial to all parties to the same degree. After all, in our attitude towards humans we do not require that all our dealings with them are always beneficial in order to take them into moral consideration."
Visual Culture Jam: Art, Pedagogy, and Creative Resistance
By David Darts
"A brief excursion back through history reveals how enduring the ties between art, culture, politics, and power actually are."
"The human experience is now more visual and visualized than ever before, and visual culture is not a just part o f our everyday lives, it is our everyday lives."
"As students become attuned to the previously unperceived, they can be encouraged to reconsider the commonplace and question the taken-for-granted."
"Critical pedagogues have long called for an education that approaches everyday experiences, particularly in relation to popular culture, as sites for ideological struggle and resistance."
"Critical art education is seen as a tool for exposing and addressing oppression and encouraging social transformation."
"To be of genuine pedagogical value, resistance must be re-envisaged as a generative site of consciousness-raising, a location where students and teachers together are able to critically reflect upon and effectively challenge repressive practices and dominant structures that reinforce the inequities of the status quo. Resistance thus conceived becomes both disruptive and creative, a site of thoughtful opposition and a place for reflective inquiry and meaningful engagement."
"In fact, the visual arts have been used for decades to reveal tears in the social fabric, thereby exposing the caesuras between fundamental societal values (i.e. justice, democracy, freedom) and the dominant discourses and normative practices of the status quo."
"Since the early 18th century, oppositional artists have utilized their work to inspire, offend, and enrage audiences, to awaken the unconscious, and to communicate ideas and emotions otherwise difficult to articulate."
"By calling attention to the social, political, cultural, and religious mechanisms and restrictions that inform our actions and temper our beliefs, artists are able to expose us to ourselves, to each other, and to the world we are attempting to cultivate together. This artistic troubling of our identities, our beliefs, and our actions (and inactions) is often disorienting and almost always discomforting. It frequently trembles the ideological ground On which we are accustomed to standing."
"If art education is to empower students to perceive and meaningfully engage in the ideological and cultural struggles embedded within the visual, art educators will need to first render these struggles visible."
"Greene (l995) explains that the arts can be used as a pedagogical strategy to move students into spaces of awareness and resistance."
"When students develop a deeper understanding of their visual experiences, they can look critically at surface appearances and begin to reflect on the importance of the visual arts in shaping culture, society, and even individual identity."
"The making of art has long been valued as a physical manifestation of an artist's social, cultural, and individual identity because it reflects, critiques, and supports the exploration of what it means to be human for viewers."
"And, by promoting active participation in the sociopolitical sphere through creative cultural production, art educators can begin to shift their students towards more active and responsible forms of engagement with the inequities and injustices of the status quo."
By David Darts
"A brief excursion back through history reveals how enduring the ties between art, culture, politics, and power actually are."
"The human experience is now more visual and visualized than ever before, and visual culture is not a just part o f our everyday lives, it is our everyday lives."
"As students become attuned to the previously unperceived, they can be encouraged to reconsider the commonplace and question the taken-for-granted."
"Critical pedagogues have long called for an education that approaches everyday experiences, particularly in relation to popular culture, as sites for ideological struggle and resistance."
"Critical art education is seen as a tool for exposing and addressing oppression and encouraging social transformation."
"To be of genuine pedagogical value, resistance must be re-envisaged as a generative site of consciousness-raising, a location where students and teachers together are able to critically reflect upon and effectively challenge repressive practices and dominant structures that reinforce the inequities of the status quo. Resistance thus conceived becomes both disruptive and creative, a site of thoughtful opposition and a place for reflective inquiry and meaningful engagement."
"In fact, the visual arts have been used for decades to reveal tears in the social fabric, thereby exposing the caesuras between fundamental societal values (i.e. justice, democracy, freedom) and the dominant discourses and normative practices of the status quo."
"Since the early 18th century, oppositional artists have utilized their work to inspire, offend, and enrage audiences, to awaken the unconscious, and to communicate ideas and emotions otherwise difficult to articulate."
"By calling attention to the social, political, cultural, and religious mechanisms and restrictions that inform our actions and temper our beliefs, artists are able to expose us to ourselves, to each other, and to the world we are attempting to cultivate together. This artistic troubling of our identities, our beliefs, and our actions (and inactions) is often disorienting and almost always discomforting. It frequently trembles the ideological ground On which we are accustomed to standing."
"If art education is to empower students to perceive and meaningfully engage in the ideological and cultural struggles embedded within the visual, art educators will need to first render these struggles visible."
"Greene (l995) explains that the arts can be used as a pedagogical strategy to move students into spaces of awareness and resistance."
"When students develop a deeper understanding of their visual experiences, they can look critically at surface appearances and begin to reflect on the importance of the visual arts in shaping culture, society, and even individual identity."
"The making of art has long been valued as a physical manifestation of an artist's social, cultural, and individual identity because it reflects, critiques, and supports the exploration of what it means to be human for viewers."
"And, by promoting active participation in the sociopolitical sphere through creative cultural production, art educators can begin to shift their students towards more active and responsible forms of engagement with the inequities and injustices of the status quo."
"Ultimately, if art education is to move students beyond modes of passive spectatorship and towards more generative and thoughtful forms of cultural production and resistance, art educators will need to help students make meaning of, and creatively respond to, their everyday visual experiences."