Roles of ethics in arts
Photo of the social experiment "Helena" in which the artist, Marco Evaristti, put goldfish into clearly plugged blenders to see if the viewers would press the button.
There were numerous factors involved in the situation however the media did have a huge role in influencing the people's choices as they did want the participants to press the button to cause controversy. Furthermore, the ways of knowing would also provoke the results such as imagination as the only temptation I personally would have in that kind of situation is the outcome for the fish such as what would happen to the fish if I pressed the button along with emotions because people would have the courage to press the button or fear the consequences of other people's actions.
It is shocking to believe that there were people who did truly press the button to watch the fish die since there were less emotions connected to the fish rather than if it were another kind of animal which would be more obvious about revealing its pain. In fact, studies reveal that fish do not feel pain hence the outcomes of the experiment were connected more to curiousity than sadism. Nonetheless, if we were to take another social experiment into consideration, the results would be different. In the 1950s, Harry Harlow of the University of Wisconsin tested infancy dependency on baby monkies. The baby was taken from his biological mother and was given two "mothers", one made out of cloth and the other of wires. The scientist used intimidation and made the cloth "mother" "superior" hence the baby would always run to the other mother. In 1985 though, his experiment was ceased since as it was mistreating animals as well as humans.
Marco Evaristti developed a social experiment called "Helena" in which goldfish were put into blenders which were conspicuously plugged to see the viewers reactions.
When first contemplated upon, it seem as if ethics has no correlation to the concept of art as it is solely of form of expression. Yet, when this form of expression does project a reaction of offense or harm, that is when ethics begins to play a huge role. In the example of the social experiment of Helena, the artist, Marco Evaristti, put the lives of goldfish in risk as they were placed in blender which were clearly plugged. People had the option of pressing the button though it would cause controversy. This brings in the concept of morality which is "the understanding the distinction between right and wrong according to that understanding" and ethics "is the philosophy of how the morality guides individual and group behavior." Therefore, when I first read about this article, the emotions which I felt were fear, anger and shock. This was caused because the goldfishes lives would be put in risk hence I would be afraid of when someone would press the button. Next, I would feel anger because other people are pressing the button and killing the fish and lastly shock because people truly did press the button.
Photo of the artist, Marco Evaristti, with the social experiment of Helena
Personally, when I read about the second social experiment, the emotions I felt only intensified. I felt pity for the babies, fear as to what would to them in the future and anger for the doctor being so insensitive about the baby monkies and developing such a cruel experiment. Nonetheless, I was not the only one; as shown through this link, the author argued that the cruel experiment severaly harmed the monkies and nobody had stopped it from happening.