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10
TELL THE TRUTH.
The rabbit joke is relevant because it occurred to me that looking for a cabbage in a butcher’s shop might be like looking for ethics in the design field. It may not be the most obvious place to find either. It’s interesting to observe that in the new AIGA’s code of ethics there is a significant amount of useful information about appropriate behaviour towards clients and other designers, but not a word about a designer’s relationship to the public. We expect a butcher to sell us eatable meat and that he doesn’t misrepresent his wares. I remember reading that during the Stalin years in Russia that everything labelled veal was actually chicken. I can’t imagine what everything labelled chicken was. We can accept certain kinds of misrepresentation, such as fudging about the amount of fat in his hamburger but once a butcher knowingly sells us spoiled meat we go elsewhere. As a designer, do we have less responsibility to our public than a butcher? Everyone interested in licensing our field might note that the reason licensing has been invented is to protect the public not designers or clients. ‘Do no harm’ is an admonition to doctors concerning their relationship to their patients, not to their fellow practitioners or the drug companies. If we were licensed, telling the truth might become more central to what we do.
TELL THE TRUTH.
The rabbit joke is relevant because it occurred to me that looking for a cabbage in a butcher’s shop might be like looking for ethics in the design field. It may not be the most obvious place to find either. It’s interesting to observe that in the new AIGA’s code of ethics there is a significant amount of useful information about appropriate behaviour towards clients and other designers, but not a word about a designer’s relationship to the public. We expect a butcher to sell us eatable meat and that he doesn’t misrepresent his wares. I remember reading that during the Stalin years in Russia that everything labelled veal was actually chicken. I can’t imagine what everything labelled chicken was. We can accept certain kinds of misrepresentation, such as fudging about the amount of fat in his hamburger but once a butcher knowingly sells us spoiled meat we go elsewhere. As a designer, do we have less responsibility to our public than a butcher? Everyone interested in licensing our field might note that the reason licensing has been invented is to protect the public not designers or clients. ‘Do no harm’ is an admonition to doctors concerning their relationship to their patients, not to their fellow practitioners or the drug companies. If we were licensed, telling the truth might become more central to what we do.
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Actually, on what may be a related note, today I saw "The Globe Mysteries". It was a version of the old (medieval) mystery plays, or dramatizations of Bible stories, condensed down to a select few including: Creation, Cain & Abel, Noah's Ark, Abraham & Isaac, the Birth of Christ (along with a very odd comic interlude about stealing a sheep), Miracles, the Crucifixion, Resurrection/Ascension to Heaven, and the Last Judgement. The choice of the play had to do with the year's theme, that of The Word of God. It was a little strange, though, to be watching a play of Bible stories that wasn't actually about the Bible or the stories. It was just a play. The performance came off as hollow and wordy (fortunately, the Angel Gabriel was really hot*) - this was a piece that misrepresented itself, I think. Mystery plays cannot really be produced as if they were "just" plays; they are far too intrinsically bound up in the intent to teach religion to be shown without the religion. This show rang false, even though it was very cleverly staged - it was a piece that was untrue to itself and therefore could not be true to any audience (to - ironically - borrow a Polonius moment). We must tell the truth to ourselves in all that we do as well as to others.
*Why, yes, I did happen to end up on the side of the "damned" during the Last Judgement.
For the last time
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