" About morals, I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after. " - Ernest Hemingway
There's a thought provoking moral dilemma that has arisen on previous occasions, although fortunately not often, but it recently came to the fore once again. I decided to poll a group of artists and other people whose opinions I respect for their input on this. The results were most interesting in that they were divided into two distinct fields from a male and female perspective. Those who responded knew that I might blog about this but out of respect for their privacy, I am not going to use names but will offer some quotes from their responses.
The question ?
If you were to enter a piece of your work into a competition for an organization you belonged to, let's say for the sake of argument a guild or a professional affiliation, and then as a member of that group, you had a private vote to select winners in certain categories which included your own work, would you feel you had to vote for your own piece, or if you looked at all the entries and saw something that was amazingly super fantastical that spoke to you, would you still feel comfortable in voting for yourself over that other work?
If I were a politician, I would have no compunction in voting for myself, as I feel in that capacity, it is expected of one. However, back to art - if another person's work speaks to you loudly, is technically sound, creative as hell and emotionally touches you, could you overlook that and still vote for yourself? I have always had very mixed feelings about this question and the answers I received have given me further food for thought.
Amazingly enough, the majority of women said they would have no problem voting for someone else's work if it really moved them. The majority of the men said they would probably not vote at all if they were put in a position of having to vote for a category that their own work was in. A few responses were very cut and dried but most leant one way while offering some other " what ifs".
One of my longstanding and dearest male friend's opening line was " It is my surmise that only people who have morals, worry about moral dilemmas". I might have expected that from him (-: However, he continued with " Choose the one you feel more comfortable with and go for it, no regrets."
Female response: " Sometimes you are just taken by another's skill and creativity but even more the spirit of the piece takes you. Then, that's the piece you go with! "
Male response: " I would step down from any position that I would be forced to judge my own work, outside of my studio. I would step aside rather than enter the domain of conflict."
Female response: "No dilemma here. Use your gut not your head."
Female response: " I vote for the one I deem best regardless of who created it - including me! I think though that the majority of people who enter assume everyone votes for themselves."
Male response: " A designer should never be allowed to vote in an exhibition where they have submitted work...case closed!"
Female response: " I would have to vote for someone else's work over mine if it just grabbed me on so many levels."
Male response" I suppose one could avoid the issue by not voting at all, although I suspect that might not be the right thing to do."
Female response: "
If someone else's work dazzled my socks off, I would have to vote for it. It would nag at me, if I did not, even if my work was in their category. But on the other side, no matter how pleased I am with my design, my confidence never matches the effort. Even though I would be pleased; I would be vacillating. But in a category where my work was above the other entries in creativity and execution; no problem voting for my work."
Female response: " Bias will be towards your own work, often because of the personal investment but if I saw another piece that really wowed me and I liked it even better than my own, I'd vote for it."
Male response: " You have invested time, energy and money into your piece. Knowing you , it would not have been entered if you thought it was second rate. Why would you vote for someone else's work? "
From a lady with great wisdom, whom I highly respect : " Your question is a difficult one. I think if your work shows a unique aspect which the others do not, you should have no qualms about voting for your work. I can understand your wish to be fair to others but there are times when we put our talents aside when we should promote them."
I found it fascinating the similarities in the male responses and again, in the female responses. That was something I definitely did not expect.
I guess for me personally, the quote from yesterday's Philosophy Friday sums it up nicely " Always trust your intuition; it will rarely lead you astray."
