Ethical Art Consumption: Can I Still Listen to Kanye?
Matthes’s Book
In the Information Era, films, paintings, songs, and nasty tweets get around quickly. One moment you’re blasting Heartless in the car with your little sister, and the next, Kanye posts a swastika and gets suspended from Twitter. In a matter of minutes, your favorite artist went from hit song to hate crime. The question is - how should you react? After all, it isn’t like you yourself posted that heinous emblem of anti-semitism. However, it is plausible to think that you are somehow supporting him in his beliefs by listening to his songs. Should you delete the song? Delete Twitter? Turn down the volume?
Oftentimes, when we learn bad things about our favorite artists, we don’t know how to react. All of a sudden, consuming art from these people carries an ambiguous weight to it. Associate Professor of Philosophy at Wellesley College, Erich Matthes, grapples with this uncertainty in his new book, Drawing the Line: What to do With the Work of Immoral Artists from Museums to Movies. Matthes calls some of our common forms of protest into question, and argues that there is an ethical mode of consumption of art from immoral artists. In doing so, he establishes a framework under which art can be evaluated on both its artistic merits and the life of the artist.
As an element of the Parr Center Presents lecture series, Matthes’s presentation on Tuesday, February 7th, provided key insights on how we might navigate these murky philosophical waters.
If you asked a friend why they refuse to listen to Kanye’s music, a typical response might be “I don’t want to support someone who is anti-semetic.” While this explanation seems to make sense intuitively, Matthes points out that this statement alone fails to capture the full extent of our intentions when it comes to conveying our disapproval. Attempting to withdraw support implies that we are a consequentially significant means of support for the artist in the first place, which is not the case when you have a superstar like Kanye.
The background of the artist can provide insight into philosophical questions just as much as the ideas underscored in the piece itself. This means that, in many cases, engaging with art from immoral artists can act as a space for consumers to navigate the intersection of their aesthetic and moral lives. According to Matthes, ethical consumption of art is not solely about minimizing the financial contribution to immoral artists, but rather being an informed and engaged viewer who critiques the art with genuine inquiry and interest. Although this type engagement doesn’t necessarily provide a tangible objection to an artist’s immorality, this perspective places importance on the expression of values (via acts of solidarity for the victim, for example) as a mode of interaction in the artistic realm and develops our feelings of moral outrage past the shallow threshold of mere streams or likes. More universally, Matthes encourages us to broaden our methods of engagement to accommodate for reflective objections to ethically charged circumstances.
Matthes’s Q&A - Cancel Culture
Matthes’s presentation led to one of the Speaker Series’s most lively and engaged Q&A sessions yet. One of the most interesting threads was related to the rise of cancel culture as a means for dealing with immoral artists. Matthes insisted that this mode of response doesn’t satisfy the ends we have in mind. This is because cancel culture is subject to elite capture, a process by which a small and powerful group of individuals use their influence to steer public decision-making processes, causing information asymmetry that is detrimental to the greater population. Additionally, it focuses on discrete individuals rather than institutional reform. This causes the public to hyperfixate on the cancellation of one individual while the systems contributing to the injustice continue to function unhindered. Overall, Matthes’s presentation and Q&A session showcase his commitment modes of ethical engagement that are attentive to the root causes of injustice and oriented towards substantive reflection on these topics.
Speaking with Matthes
Professor Matthes was equally well spoken, witty, and friendly one-on-one as he was at the podium. I enjoyed a brief exchange with him while we discussed how we might avoid becoming insincere when transferring our consumption of art from immoral artists into a more private sphere. He was admirably humble and willing to grapple with challenges to his argument with genuine curiosity and an eye towards strengthening his views. It was no surprise that discussion of his presentation continued far past the end of the lecture, with professors and students continuing to deliberate after the session.
Matthes’s book came at just the right time. Not only is the topic of immoral artists relevant to our everyday lives, but Matthes’s writing balances the depth of inquiry with a concise and insightful writing style. Combined, these factors help facilitate a rich discussion of one of the most salient philosophical issues of our time.
The Speaker Series pod eagerly awaits the release of Professor Matthes’s second book, What to Save and Why – an inquiry into the ethics of preserving artifacts, heirlooms, and other items that carry a historical/sentimental value.