To Share or Not To Share...
That is the ethical question that was recently raised on the Art Unraveled Yahoo Group. What to do when you return from taking classes at an art event and your friends want to know what you learned... in detail.
Do you tell them in enough detail that they can go off and do it themselves? Or do you tell them that you paid the money to take the class and maybe even traveled to take it, incurring more expense, and that they should go take the class themselves if they want that much detail?
The middle ground here, I feel, is to generally show them what you learned but not to give them all the details.
I've really enjoyed reading all of the points of view that have been expressed on the group about this. And thanks to those who posted for reminding me about the people who don't take the workshop but want all of the details of each one anyway plus copies of the handouts! (And at least for the handouts, it is clearly an infringement of copyright to make copies of those for anyone.)
I've come across teachers who prefer you to purchase their published books to use in lieu of a handout in class. This could be a way to boost sales, a way of keeping you from copying the handouts to give to friends (because aren't people less likely to copy a whole book than just a few pages?) or just plain laziness. Or maybe even because they feel that they have already written it once, why do it again? Some teachers don't give handouts with any details on them. Could the fear of being copied be part of the reason for this?
The only instance I can think of where it might be okay to teach something exactly as you've learned it is when the teacher has announced that they won't be teaching it in the future. And even then, I'd still ask the teacher's permission. Maybe they just feel that demand for that class has been satisfied so they're not offering it for a while.
I've long felt that it is really hard to find a place on the earth to put your foot down where nobody else has trod before. And even if I do find such a place, it still might overlap or touch on someone else's footprint. An idea I have might touch on someone else's idea. It's also possible and probable that given the materials and a creative stimulus, two people in different times and places could come up with the same or a very similar idea.
If you want to keep a technique to yourself, then you need to hole up in your studio with it and not even show it to anyone else. How many times have any of us looked at a project in a magazine or book and figured it out without taking the class? Why does anyone publish their work? Recognition, compensation, and satisfaction, are just a few reasons. The whole point of magazines like Cloth Paper Scissors and the Somerset titles are to inspire you to do what is shown and then go beyond that to make the techniques your own in some ways.
Some members of the AU Yahoo Group are currently working on a technique fat book based on what we learned at Art Unraveled this year. The point is not to have 40 absolutely unique techniques in this book, it is to show off what we learned and that we have learned! We look forward to a fat little book full of individual takes on workshops, some of which will be shown more than once. It's happened in past AU technique books and you can barely tell that people took the same classes.
There's nothing wrong with showing people what you've learned. There's nothing wrong with telling them how it is done in a conversational way. But if you are going to teach them how to do it, then you need to put in the time and effort to develop the class yourself and not just to mimic the teacher who taught you. It is our nature as artists to be creative and to add our own bits and embellishments. But not all of us are teachers or course developers.
When faced with this situation, you could always just tell these people that you don't want to teach because you aren't comfortable sharing someone else's ideas in more than a general way. If learning it was really that important to them, they'd find a way to take the class somewhere, some how. I've been through this in the past and just had to say no to someone who wanted all the information that I paid to learn. It's hard at the time but doing it is made easier by giving them the benefit of the doubt in that perhaps they just didn't realize what they were asking. If you tell them that you don't feel it is ethical to share someone else's information, they might back off because they didn't think of it that way. You can always suggest alternate ways for them to learn it. And if they only learn in a classroom or teacher/student situation, then they need to go take the class.
Ever since I took ethics classes in college, I've felt that discussions of ethics generally end up asking more questions than they answer. In this case, the next logical question is whether I actually want to be friends with these people!
Do you tell them in enough detail that they can go off and do it themselves? Or do you tell them that you paid the money to take the class and maybe even traveled to take it, incurring more expense, and that they should go take the class themselves if they want that much detail?
The middle ground here, I feel, is to generally show them what you learned but not to give them all the details.
I've really enjoyed reading all of the points of view that have been expressed on the group about this. And thanks to those who posted for reminding me about the people who don't take the workshop but want all of the details of each one anyway plus copies of the handouts! (And at least for the handouts, it is clearly an infringement of copyright to make copies of those for anyone.)
I've come across teachers who prefer you to purchase their published books to use in lieu of a handout in class. This could be a way to boost sales, a way of keeping you from copying the handouts to give to friends (because aren't people less likely to copy a whole book than just a few pages?) or just plain laziness. Or maybe even because they feel that they have already written it once, why do it again? Some teachers don't give handouts with any details on them. Could the fear of being copied be part of the reason for this?
The only instance I can think of where it might be okay to teach something exactly as you've learned it is when the teacher has announced that they won't be teaching it in the future. And even then, I'd still ask the teacher's permission. Maybe they just feel that demand for that class has been satisfied so they're not offering it for a while.
I've long felt that it is really hard to find a place on the earth to put your foot down where nobody else has trod before. And even if I do find such a place, it still might overlap or touch on someone else's footprint. An idea I have might touch on someone else's idea. It's also possible and probable that given the materials and a creative stimulus, two people in different times and places could come up with the same or a very similar idea.
If you want to keep a technique to yourself, then you need to hole up in your studio with it and not even show it to anyone else. How many times have any of us looked at a project in a magazine or book and figured it out without taking the class? Why does anyone publish their work? Recognition, compensation, and satisfaction, are just a few reasons. The whole point of magazines like Cloth Paper Scissors and the Somerset titles are to inspire you to do what is shown and then go beyond that to make the techniques your own in some ways.
Some members of the AU Yahoo Group are currently working on a technique fat book based on what we learned at Art Unraveled this year. The point is not to have 40 absolutely unique techniques in this book, it is to show off what we learned and that we have learned! We look forward to a fat little book full of individual takes on workshops, some of which will be shown more than once. It's happened in past AU technique books and you can barely tell that people took the same classes.
There's nothing wrong with showing people what you've learned. There's nothing wrong with telling them how it is done in a conversational way. But if you are going to teach them how to do it, then you need to put in the time and effort to develop the class yourself and not just to mimic the teacher who taught you. It is our nature as artists to be creative and to add our own bits and embellishments. But not all of us are teachers or course developers.
When faced with this situation, you could always just tell these people that you don't want to teach because you aren't comfortable sharing someone else's ideas in more than a general way. If learning it was really that important to them, they'd find a way to take the class somewhere, some how. I've been through this in the past and just had to say no to someone who wanted all the information that I paid to learn. It's hard at the time but doing it is made easier by giving them the benefit of the doubt in that perhaps they just didn't realize what they were asking. If you tell them that you don't feel it is ethical to share someone else's information, they might back off because they didn't think of it that way. You can always suggest alternate ways for them to learn it. And if they only learn in a classroom or teacher/student situation, then they need to go take the class.
If they are still insistent, there's always the good old-fashioned "NO!"
Ever since I took ethics classes in college, I've felt that discussions of ethics generally end up asking more questions than they answer. In this case, the next logical question is whether I actually want to be friends with these people!
posted by Wabbit at
12:53 PM
1 Comments:
I suppose the question over knowledge is whether it becomes you own once you have learned it. Where would we be in the art & craft world if no one shared what they knew? On the other hand, teaching a whole class in exactly the same way as someone else is a bit much. I don't think anyone could rightly expect that when someone else has paid good money to take a class. :o)
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