Friday, September 08, 2006
Art & Ethics
For anyone who is interested, I will reprise the first day's lecture for Professional Responsibility class on Wednesday, Sept. 13 at 5:50 at 7th and James Baptist Church in Waco. The lecture will be in Harper Hall, which is in the building next to the main sanctuary. All are welcome. The church is located, uh, at the corner of 7th and James.
For those of you not taking PR, I have structured the class around three principles: Honesty, engagement, and humility. To frame these principles, for the first class I used art from several eras. You can access a list of the paintings and a powerpoint slideshow here-- just click on "Professional Responsibility" and then choose the powerpoint.
For those of you not taking PR, I have structured the class around three principles: Honesty, engagement, and humility. To frame these principles, for the first class I used art from several eras. You can access a list of the paintings and a powerpoint slideshow here-- just click on "Professional Responsibility" and then choose the powerpoint.
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My favorite is the Degas pastel. I love Degas. Of course, the one that disturbed me most was the one of the "Damaged Child" in OK. I look at that and really wonder what that kid's life was like. Wow.
SML--
That is a disturbing photo. One of the really disturbing things about it is that she, in a slightly different context, might be seen as the epitome of beauty in our society-- the gaunt look, the hang of the clothes-- but she is in fact a starving child in the dust bowl.
In class, the point is to show the need for engagement-- to be able to look at the real tragedy in a legal case, and deal with it, instead of averting our eyes and only dealing with the superficialities.
That is a disturbing photo. One of the really disturbing things about it is that she, in a slightly different context, might be seen as the epitome of beauty in our society-- the gaunt look, the hang of the clothes-- but she is in fact a starving child in the dust bowl.
In class, the point is to show the need for engagement-- to be able to look at the real tragedy in a legal case, and deal with it, instead of averting our eyes and only dealing with the superficialities.
I think that's a very good thing for lawyers to learn. Because as people we tend to not want to look at the unpleasant things if we don't have to...the woman next door who's being abused, the children left abandoned, the beggar on the corner.
What's the purpose of the Mona Lisa pic with moustache??
What's the purpose of the Mona Lisa pic with moustache??
SML--
I think the Mona Lisa piece, which is basically Duchamp defacing a postcard, confused the students a lot, too-- they probably wondered why that was on there.
The idea for the whole thing came from a lecture at the Met by John Paoletti on Robert Rauschenberg. In the course of that lecture he talked about how much that Duchamp image has been used by other artists-- it has been pretty influential in the way artists think about art.
The point being, I though it was just stupid, but it turns out that regardless of my first impression, I needed to know about it to understand about Rauschenberg and others. The broad lesson is about dismissing things as meaningless without considering how others see it.
In class, I called on a student who knew the great pun about the painting. Duchamp wrote "L.H.O.O.Q." at the bottom. In English, of course, it sounds like "look," but if you say the letters in French (taking slang into account) it sounds like "She has a hot ass."
Which, I suppose, made the point about engagement.
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I think the Mona Lisa piece, which is basically Duchamp defacing a postcard, confused the students a lot, too-- they probably wondered why that was on there.
The idea for the whole thing came from a lecture at the Met by John Paoletti on Robert Rauschenberg. In the course of that lecture he talked about how much that Duchamp image has been used by other artists-- it has been pretty influential in the way artists think about art.
The point being, I though it was just stupid, but it turns out that regardless of my first impression, I needed to know about it to understand about Rauschenberg and others. The broad lesson is about dismissing things as meaningless without considering how others see it.
In class, I called on a student who knew the great pun about the painting. Duchamp wrote "L.H.O.O.Q." at the bottom. In English, of course, it sounds like "look," but if you say the letters in French (taking slang into account) it sounds like "She has a hot ass."
Which, I suppose, made the point about engagement.
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