Artist self censorship (Was Chinese net-censorship) Noise
Excerpts from internet.cypherpunks: 8-Mar-96 Re: U.S. State Dept critici.. by JFA T. QC, Canada@citene & later Declan B. McCullagh.
There is no such thing as "self-censorship". Either you stick to your values, and then it is *not* censorship, or then you do not, and then, it is neither.
Self-censorship does happen, and it's a growing problem in the arts community. (I'm not a commercial artist, so this is my understanding from other panelists and speakers at a conference I spoke at last month.)
Making art more palatable or less "extreme" to curry favor with corporate patrons, or to get that NEA grant, or to get that faculty position is self-censorship, and it does happen.
There is a photographer by the name of Jock Sturgis who is famous for his photographs of naturalists and their children on the beaches of California and France. Sturgis' home was raided by the FBI and all of his photographs, equipment, & records were seized under suspicion of producing child pornography The photo equipment, records, and photographs were returned but not after making Sturgis' life a living hell... Sturgis' work which has critical acclaim throughout art circles and has published two books profiling naturalists, has been quoted to saying that before taking a picture he usually asks himself about how this picture is percived, something the he never thought twice before the FBI raid. Mr. Avon should think twice before commenting on self censorship does not exist, for that could be the difference from having the door kicked in by the black ninja turtles with the FBI or toning down your work. --
Excerpts from internet.cypherpunks: 9-Mar-96 Artist self censorship (Was.. by Anonymous@REPLAY.COM
Mr. Avon should think twice before commenting on self censorship does not exist, for that could be the difference from having the door kicked in by the black ninja turtles with the FBI or toning down your work.
Here's some info from http://world.std.com/~kip/ on the Angeli "child porn" case that's going on now in Cambridge, MA. I was visiting Harvey Silverglate's law offices last week and saw the photographs, and they're anything but pornographic. They're essentially the same as the photos my grandparents have of me and my cousins naked in the tub. But that's cold comfort when you're locked up and doing time. -Declan Toni Marie Angeli, for a Harvard photography course, decided to make her four-year-old son Nico the subject of her final class project, The Innocence of a Child's Nudity. After discussing the project with her professor, Angeli began her project with a few shots of Nico and made the fatal mistake of taking her roll of film to Zona Photographic Labs on Rogers Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Zona owners were "alarmed" and called the Cambridge police, who went to Zona, looked at contact sheets prepared by Zona without Angeli's authorization, and decided that the pictures were "gross." Zona and the Cambridge police set up a sting operation, requiring Zona employees to lie, so that the police could come to Zona and confront her about her "pornography" when she came to pick up her negatives. On November 2, Angeli went to Zona, accompanied by Nico and by her husband, Luke D'Ancona. An altercation ensued when Angeli realized why the police were there. Angeli was handcuffed, manhandled into a back room, beaten and choked. During the scuffle a lamp was knocked over, and a picture fell off the wall. A hollow core door was also damaged when Angeli kicked out as she was being escorted to the police van. Angeli was never charged with child pornography, but she was charged with disorderly conduct, malicious destruction of property under $250, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. (The police claimed that Angeli threw the lamp.). Angeli's trial began on January 24, 1996, and a verdict was brought in on January 30. She was acquitted of the assault-and-battery charges, but convicted on the two other counts. The judge sentenced her to pay damages, to 50 hours community service, and to 18 months of probation. Angeli refused to sign the probation contract, stating that she wished to make no admission of guilt. The judge then sentenced her to 30 days at MCI Framingham. We are currently trying to raise money to pay for her appeal. It now appears that Angeli's conviction was based on perjured testimony from Detective William Phillips.
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Declan B. McCullagh -
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