The Thin White Duke, Art and Ethical Limits

The Thin White Duke, Art and Ethical Limits Presented by: Dr. Akhtar and Prof. Probert Date: 5 March 2023 Warning - This lecture considers the ethical limits of art. It does so though the example of a David Bowie 'artwork' that draws on the theme of totalitarianism generally, and the Nazi regime specifically. - The lecture will reference some comments made by Bowie which audience members may find offensive. - (1) is the aesthetic value of an artwork conditioned by its ethical properties? - (2) If so, is this true in all or only some contexts? - (3) Where true, does this mean ethically defective artworks are aesthetically diminished? An Ethical Framework for Evaluating Artworks\ - (Berys Gaut Art, Emotion and Ethics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007)) • Moralism • Autonomism • Immoralism Moralism - A de minimis principle - 'Aesthetic relevance' Immoralism - (Anthony Julius, Transgressions: The Offences of Art (London: Thames and Hudson, 2002) p 24) • “Artworks, which are ethically problematic, in time return the reader or viewer, somewhat clearer-eyed, to the regularities of the briefly transgressed code" - (Matthew Kieran, 'Forbidden Knowledge: The Challenge of Immoralism' in José Luis Bermúdez and Sebastian Gardner (eds) Art and Morality (London: Routledge, 2003) p 72) • "imaginatively experiencing morally defective cognitive-affective responses and attitudes in ways that are morally problematic" - (Anthony Julius Transgressions: The Offences of Art (London: Thames and Hudson, 2002) p 49) • "depends upon, without [always] acknowledging, a residual pedagogic/moral case for art" - (Anne M Eaton, ‘Robust Immoralism' (2012) 70(3) Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism 281-292, 287) • "keeps that resistance in play so that we continually feel its pull. In this way, [an artwork] trades on our moral convictions while simultaneously turning us against them, thereby putting us in conflict with ourselves." - "ethical attitudes [are] manifested in the responses works prescribe their audiences to have" (Gaut, 2007, p 50) - (Andrea Sauchelli, 'Ethicism and Immoral Cognitivism: Gaut versus Kieran on Art and Morality' (2012) 46(3) The Journal of Aesthetic Education 107-118, 108) • "If the moral character of a work of art is relevant to the appreciation of the work of art itself" it is aesthetically relevant The Thin White Duke and Fascism - (David Bowie quoted in David Buckley, Strange Fascination: Bowie: The Definitive Story (London: Virgin Books, 2005) p 233) • "the most powerful set of symbols that have ever been invoked in terms of political history." - "A Mad aristocrat" - "An amoral zombie" - "An emotionless Aryan superman" - (Cameron Crowe, Interview with David Bowie, Playboy Magazine, September 1976) • “The only way we can speed up the sort of liberalism that's hanging foul in the air at the moment is to speed up the progress of a right-wing, totally dictatorial tyranny and get it over as fast as possible.” - (Michael Foucault, Preface to the English edition, Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1983) p xiii) • Fascism is "in our heads and in our everyday behavior [it] causes us to love power, to desire the very thing that dominates and exploits us"’ - 'Fame' (Young Americans album 1976) • - 'Fame, puts you there where things are hollow' (Cameron Crowe, Playboy, September 1976) • “People say they want freedom, but when they get the chance, they pass up Nietzsche and choose Hitler, because he would march into a room to speak and music and lights would come on at strategic moments. It was rather like a rock 'n' roll concert. The kids would get very excited girls got hot and sweaty and guys wished it was them up there. That, for me, is the rock-'n'-roll experience.” - Luis Buñuel, 'Preface to the Script for Un Chien Andalou' (1929) La Revolution Surrealiste (no. 12) • “The inane herd that saw beauty or poetry in something which was basically no more than a desperate impassioned call for murder.” - 'Station to Station' (Station to Station album 1976) • 'The return of the Thin White Duke, throwing darts in lovers eyes, here are we, one magical moment, such is the stuff, from where dreams are woven' Judging Bowie's Artwork - 'Station to Station' (Station to Station album 1976) • - 'I'm thinking that it must be love' 'Station to Station' (Station to Station album 1976) • 'Drink to the men who protect you and I, Drink, drink, drain your glass, raise your glass high' - (St Paul, Letter to the Ephesians, 6:16) • "the shield of faith you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one." - 'Golden Years' (Station to Station album 1976) • - 'Run for the shadows in these Golden years' 'Station to Station' (Station to Station album 1976) • 'Got to keep searching and searching, And oh, what will I be believing' (James Curcio, Masks: Bowie & Artists of Artifice (Chicago: Intellect, 2020) p. 61) - (Peter Doggett, The Man Who Sold the World: David Bowie in the 1970s (London: The Bodley Head, 2011) p 245) • "an intensely hypnotic weave of electronic certainty and human vulnerability"