Does Cancel Culture Kill Free Speech?
Site
NCAD Library, Dublin 8
Website: thechangelab.ie
Created
September, 2020
Group
Hannah Doyle
Trudy Feighery
Eimear Dolan
Elayne Adamczyk Harrington
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The ideology behind our work is to explore and interpret the Cancel Culture movement. We ask the question Does Cancel Culture Kill Free Speech? We look at the fear that people have of expressing their opinions, how opportunity for debate and integrity is crushed, and their thoughts homogenised. Through the lense of spoken, written and visual text, imagery and material we delve into the model of being CANCELLED…
Through investigation of cancel culture stories, articles and instances we focus on the impact of such cancelling to the cancelee. Who holds the power in this online shaming? Is it activism or harassment, guilty without trial? Hidden in plain sight, the online persona of trolls, slacktivists and ‘do-gooders’. Is open debate a thing of the past? Does the fear of judgement impede young people’s voices?
We engaged with Carl Óg, a young poet from Dublin whom we asked to create a written piece about Cancel Culture. His inspirational prose and insight as a young man helped us focus our efforts to create our work; adapting, redacting, obstructing and ultimately showcasing a series of works on paper which float in the gallery space alongside our research enquiries on the wall. Accompanying this work is the audio production of Carl Óg performing his poem.
Our aim was to lead viewers through our artistic process of investigation and research and to present our response and creative journey which led us to the final work on display.
The values we hold and our practices as Artists and Designers instill our approach to educational philosophy. By facilitating debate and fostering curiosity we want to create an opportunity for free speech amongst students.
We’d like to say a special thanks to Carl Óg for writing Cancel Culture and being a part of this project with us.
