correct / incorrect
BA Major Design
BA Visual Communication Project
Winter semester
In 1999, the Spanish artist Santiago Sierra had tattooed a line on the backs of six young unemployed people against payment of 30 dollars each («250 cm line tattoed on 6 paid people»). Taboo breaks in art often were turning points towards new avant-gardes. They refer to ethical questions and destroy moral conventions. If one reads today’s news, one recognizes manifold attempts in which political groups question the ethical values protected by social norms. Through deliberate, gross taboo violation, they aim at the substance of democratic societies. Social norms enable us to live together in a society. They represent an ethical orientation for the individual and his social behaviour. They are not fixed and their relevance and acceptance are subject to social change. What is new is that this process is partly misused for social regression. We are currently encountering worldwide tendencies that promise a ‹liberation› from allegedly misguided freedoms and want to restrict established ethical values and political rights. Since the definition of what is politically ‹correct› or ‹incorrect› is subject to constant social change, individuals are increasingly challenged to rely on their individual moral judgement. However, this should never fall below the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. The aim of this project is to understand the mechanism of taboo breaks, border transgressions and rule violations and to use it creatively. Correct or incorrect — the design conventions must be learned and may be questioned again and again.
