The Choice?

All I do is highlight, bring to attention, make you see. I do not wish
for you to make any actions towards or in reference to my work, for
me, it's about a simple idea, a tiny thought, just the smallest of
notions planted in your conscience is more than enough. I do not make
you donate or push the button, I do not force you to make a decision,
although, what if I did? With my work it is your choice to see it how
you wish, a key part of my work is to evident this fact, you have a
choice. Is that a good thing though? Morally can you even choose? Is
it right even to consider your options? With life on the line, where
does right and wrong come into it? Is the preservation of life the
accepted 'right'? To even think about the choice a wrong? Or is that
just what we are led to believe? Maybe if I gave you a even harder
choice to make you'd see/feel it more in my work. "if you don't press
the button someone, somewhere, will die". Is this too much to confront
the auidence with? Can I shock you into acting perhaps? Scare you into
a decision? If your own life was on the line, how would you act?
Hollywood is fixated on portraying the horrors that people can commit
in dire situations, though these are often pale in comparison to the
horrors that happen in everyday reality. These movies/documentaries
make the Everyman fearful of not himself, like they should be, they
instead become fearful of the other, their neighbour. The attrocities
of our capabilities are rarely a self realisation, more a adding
caution and apprehension to any and everyone around them. We should
not mistrust others but mistrust ourselves. When it comes down to it,
our life or theirs, which would you choose? What if the pressure was
on? Live or die, in the rush, the chaos, do you really think you'll be
making the morally right decision? The socially accepted choice? Kill
or be killed, instinctually, there is not much choice, our
complexities, our so called 'power' and higher evolutionally minds
fixated on that tiny glimmer of 'what if' 'maybe' 'prrhaps'.
Hesitation, it is what our aparent higher placement inthe food chain
has given us. To stare into the tigers eyes, there will be no
hesitation in his choice, he knows you are deadly, he feels the need
to feed, it is in his design and his character, to rip you to shreds
at the first oppurtunity. You, well you will be lost in thought and
moral questions "this tiger could be endangered" the hilarity of the
thought. Our nature, is to run, to save ourselves, the surivial of
'me'. Staring into the oncoming bloody death indeed we will be, we
will be caught up in how to escape this situation, rather than
focusing on the task at hand, to remove the threat, not run from it.
The fear of living is almost as great as the fear of dying. In our
perplexitions of both, we never know for certain if we are indeed
alive, or dead. Is this, just another, choice? Do we, can we, decide
to live? We can certainly choose to die, but do we have any choice in
the matter of living? Should we? Is this existence something we should
even question? Many would say no, many would say to live because you
have life, the gift of being. Though a gift implies some sort of
choice doesn't it? To choose to accept or not? You can even take the
nicely packaged box home, your choice to open it or not also isn't it?
Can simply put it at the back of the cupbaord and forget about it and
leave it to collect dust. Many would question this, many would hate
you for it, to deny life when you have been graciously given the
'gift' of it. Choice, seperates each and everyone one of us, and
unites us universally. To be or not to be? Well that's all well and
good, but how about the choice behind even asking that question?

The Intention

A button, a big red button. What would you do if there was just a big

red button in front of you? The temptation of a button, so big and so
red is a tough thing to resist. The ease and the simple gratification
of pushing it because you can, satisfying your curiousity. A button is
made to be pressed is it not? What is a button that goes on without
being pressed? Is it a button then? A button gives a sense of purpose
and a process of something happening, the allure of pushing it is on
one part to find out it's purpose and intention. What then if I
present you with a button that when pressed, takes a life. Would you
push that button? You cannot deny that you are indeed curious,
tempted, seduced by it. What if, perhaps, maybe, all things we rather
make certaintys. Dare you push a button that could potentially take
anothers life? The logic you hold tries to convince you it's
preposterous, though the insecure and questioning nature of your being
steals this certainty from you. You could be a murderer at the push of
a button, maybe, do you have the audicity to find out? Someone may die
from your tiny, small, insignificant action, is their life worth your
satisfied curiousity? Perhaps. Your essentially being given a 'kill
and get away with it' button, what if tou don't get away with though?
Here lies a true moral test. You need not part with anything of your
own or sacrifice anything on your own part, it is simple, easy and
almost effortless. What do you believe? Will a small press of a button
destroy a life? A gentle push kill someone? A innocent button murder
for you? Who is indeed the wicked here? The button is just a button,
your pressing it for your own expectations of what that button should
do, a demand from the button to deliver and showcase it's purpose in
being a button.
Is taking another human beings life this easy? Have you considered
the implications? The guilt? The responsibilty? The morality of the
situation? If indeed there is.
Who is held accountable here? The button? Surely you will argue it is
the button who is the killer as your simply acting out the buttons
purpose, by pushing it. Gratifying and justifying it's existence as a
button. But the button is just a button, a middle man if you will, you
are the pusher of the button, beginning the chain of events that could
culminate in the ending of a life. It starts with you. You can go on
tour everyday life with no troubles or woes in simply living, but your
every action and decision can be the accomplice to the destruction of
another, cause and effect. In my buttons means it is no more
responsible than your smallest of actions that can build the potential
of effect that ends in someones demise.
This brings about the question of 'intention'. Is this what seperates
us from those we determine to be 'criminals'? Though does this mean we
can all be guilty of manslaughter? My box, nor my button, not even
myself, have the intention to harm, to hurt, to kill, to murder. I'm
simply stating a fact. Someone will die, somewhere. That's no fault of
mine, the box, or the button, not even yourself. Unless you choose to
be. You are the guidance of your morality, the captain of your
responsibilty, the commander of your guilt, the pilot if your intention.
Are you guilty? Are you responsible? Are you intending harm? Are you
morally just? Your choice, I'm afraid.

The Button

Title of button work: "it's easier than it looks" Perhaps?
I have now given you it in such ease all it takes is just the push a
button. A large red button. Who can resist the allure of the seducing
crimson of soft lipstick, sweet cherrie, lush velvet and bloody
murder. I'm not even having you morally put a price on the death of
another. What lies before you is simply, the means. Te means to cause
harm, pain and suffering, if you believe so. You wish to feel the
primeaval euphoria of taking a life? Push the button, see how it makes you feel.
The purity of the button makes it far more alluring than hat of parting
with your money to have someone die. I'm not asking anything of you,
all you have before you is choice. Push the button or don't, your
choice I'm afraid.

The Statement

We are all so obsessed with the value of our lives, the cost of our being, the worth of our souls, body and minds. But what value do we put on death? How much is another persons life worth to us? What moral and ethical dilemma do we reach In holding ourselves accountable for the passing of another? Someone we perhaps don't even know or have any connection to? What do you believe will happen when you donate to the box? I'm not making you a killer, I'm not turning you into a murderer, you are. If you choose to. This work assaults your very morality, what it means to be human, to be accountable and responsible for the potential death of someone, somewhere. Are you the wicked or is the box the wrong doer?what is considered right and wrong here? What if you saw someone else donate to the box? What judgement would you pass on them? Do you believe they are evil? Tempting fate, changing destiny? What are the very limits to your morality? What is the value of death?

The Right or The Wrong?

"To die is to know that your alive" - HIM.

What is this fear that my work presents to you? The implications of what my box may or may not be able to do rings certain bells within your mind about what is 'wrong' about it. Is this the conscience? What is it about this so called little voice in the back of our heads that holds so much over our characters? Over our actions and considerations. The power it holds over us indeed confining, is it even right to listen to it? What if this is simply the sophistication of our species evolution to provide us with a survival voice within? What if the animalistic and hunter aspect of our heritage had a voice? "Go on, just take it", "Strike now and they'll not even be able to fight back", maybe we still hold this within us but others are more in contact with us than ourselves, we call them insane perhaps, lock them up for 'crimes'. The Angel and Devil on our shoulders, of course it isn't that simple, it never is. With our humanity we complicated even the simplistic. We strive for more than we have or there is. The greed of our species knows no bounds. We are compelled to know more, to have more, for there to BE more. Are we ever, truly, happy?

"The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis." -
Dante Alighieri

The Responsibility.

In reference to my work 'The Value Of Death' (the donation box), I seem to stumbled across a aspect of the human psyche which i believe may separate certain social 'classes' and belief. There is a evident choice in whether to feel responsible in the death of another in placing a donation in the box. It's not so much about what you believe a death/life is worth in what donation you choose to give. No, it also has the consciousness attached to it. From whatever it may you place within my box, it is your own morality and choosing to whether to feel responsible for another's death. This can happen to such individuals to such a degree they fear the prospect, the very notion of being a component in another human being's death. Tempting fate, changing destiny, many would believe these to be such things that human beings have no right to meddle within or change. Though I ask when (if) all we have true responsibility over is in fact ourselves, our souls, mind and body, our existence, how can we ever feel accountable for the loss of any life around us? No matter the distance or circumstance.

Where does the line stop/begin or begin to blur on where taking life 'too far' materialize? In disregard for life and its rarity do we create a offensive to all that 'is'? Religions tell us we should be thankful and praise worthy of the lives we are 'given'. Even science tells us that our very existence is such a 'miracle', the exact conditions of our planet, the thousands of sperm, the lineage of our species and here we are. Many question though, If it is indeed possible, how/why is is so special? Do we have any justification in putting a price on life? We often become so obsessed with the mysterious and enigmatic 'death' of the other and thyself, some could say we never truly 'live'. The meaning and reason behind living is a quintessential question(s) in the mind of the human. We are so compelled by our very being that it is said we don't use the opportunity to the full potential. If we had any logic it would seem we would not question this 'life', we would 'live' it, wouldn't we? The eternal mystery of what is and what is not is the plague of the human psyche, our nature, our world, our structure, our laws, our ways, our workings, nothing goes without questioning, we are the forever question marks of the universe apparently. Searching for the answer to ourselves, within the stars, within the world, within our own biology, within our own minds. We are compelled to know, compelled to understand, Not much is a simple 'given' anymore. From our very beginnings we set out hunting, searching, gathering, looking for more, processing everything we encounter.

The way we work is that we are the very centre of the universe in our view. The notion that we are not is the assault upon the self worth and the confidence of the individual. To even be confronted with the idea that we simply do not matter is a fear we rare express because of its deep and fatal blow it bestows upon us. We live in a world of escapes and alternatives, for those of us who cannot accept and cannot comprehend the possibility of the seemingly nothingness of reality, we divulge into the many consumeristic options available to us. The many no longer face their fears instead they barricade themselves within their boxes with fancy gadgets and materialistic comforts designed to give them a sense of worth in world so diluted its become the impossible to find a light to shine in the mere darkness of being.

The Other Box

"Any intervention in a complex system may or may not have the intended result, but will inevitably create unanticipated and often undesirable outcomes"
The basis of the law of unintended consequences.
There is no denying that my work has connections and links to the recent Film The Box(2009), starring James Marsden, Cameron Diaz & Frank Langella. Diaz and Marsden star as a couple who receive a box from a mysterious man(Langella) who offers them one million dollars if they press the button sealed within the dome on top of the box. Of which he says; "I have an offer to make. If you push the button, two things will happen. First, someone, somewhere in the world, whom you don't know, will die. Second, you will receive a payment of one million dollars. You have 24 hours."

This Quote is heavy influence upon my own quote I use throughout my art.
The construct and the look of the box in question is of keen interest to me.

The Guise Of Freedom Takes On Many Forms

Morality;

"late 14c., "moral qualities," from O.Fr. moralité, from L.L. moralitatem (nom. moralitas) "manner, character," from L. moralis (see moral (adj.)). Meaning "goodness" is attested from 1590s."

"descriptively to refer to a code of conduct put forward by a society or,
some other group, such as a religion, or
accepted by an individual for her own behavior or
normatively to refer to a code of conduct that, given specified conditions, would be put forward by all rational persons."

–noun,plural-ties
1.
conformity to the rules of right conduct; moral or virtuous conduct.
2.
moral quality or character.
3.
virtue in sexual matters; chastity.
4.
a doctrine or system of morals.
5.
moral instruction; a moral lesson, precept, discourse, or utterance.

Morality, if keeps us from screaming and loosing our minds in the perils of choice in everyday living. Conformist views shape the politics of life of the everyman. We are shaped by rules that are not our own. Moral choices are made for us in our so called democratic centres for 'leaders' of our country. Who has any more right than anyone else to manage a sovergin state? True democracy would give the chance to the Everyman to do all they can. We instead live in a class system where particular morailty choices are expected of us. We upset the requirement of a selfish goverment and we are apprehended by members of the law that are no more morally right than our very selfs. Whose more right in each of our lives than we ourselves? Whose 'law' is anymore absolute than of our own?