An Ethics of Engagement Assignment

a) Highlight 3 insights that your reading has helped bring to the surface. Use specific text evidence to link your insights.

1. Collaborative art practices should ask these questions of themselves: What are the goals of a project, is it egocentric, is it benefiting or hurting those involved, and are those involved collaborating through consent and respect or not?
2. A work should be judged on its ethical efficacy rather than what makes it interesting as art.
3. To do something in the name of art that disrespects or demeans another person or group is just as bad as doing it without purpose. 

b) If you could ask the author 3 questions, what questions might those be?

1. I feel like anyone can argue that their art is commentary even if it is exploitative in its means, so how would you define the line between ethico-political commentary and exploitation/misrepresentation? 
2. What ways would you suggest to limit the exploitative art practices?
3. How can we make artistic commentary practices more consensual without forcing participants to demean themselves or relive past trauma?

c) What applications might this work have to your understanding of an ethical approach to community-engaged arts?

I think the one big thing that this reading repeatedly points out is that there must be a consensual relationship between collaborators, participants, and viewers and that the representation of a person or group, regardless of artistic intent and aesthetic, must be sensitive and carefully thought out. 

d) Consider the work we have been exploring this semester thus far.  Choose one artist or project that resonated with you. What ethical considerations were in place on this project?

Looking into The Roof is on Fire project, here are some ethical considerations that were taken:

1. The students were an avid part of the collaboration
2. The students were able to represent themselves honestly and were not asked to do or say anything that would demean them
3. The piece was not sold as a mark of how teenagers are stereotyped or pressurized but rather addresses those issues through the eyes and voices of the collaborators