what is m.a.r.s?

Most mediated images of suffering attempt to elicit seemingly benign responses from the viewer. In this sense, they are a form of propaganda: either actively calling for the prevention of further or similar suffering; or passively ‘bearing witness’. To make, circulate, publish, exhibit or curate images of suffering bodies, bodies in pain and corpses is therefore to draw attention to suffering in a specific way; it is to make a statement that cannot be made by other means and in a manner that calls upon viewers to respond. This raises profound moral challenges that deserve specific attention.

It is in response to these challenges that MARS (Morality and Representations of Suffering) has evolved. We are a multidisciplinary group of practitioners and academics who offer a forum within which to debate moral issues around images of suffering; we seek to ask questions that can all too easily disappear in the face of more concrete concerns . Our project thus seeks to extend the scope of debate beyond issues of desensitization and sensationalism, and to include documentary, news and other such images, both still and moving. In particular, we are interested in:

• issues of image and ownership; particularly the relation between the image, image producer, persons depicted and viewers
• issues of consent
• issues of censorship and imposition of imagery.
• issues around religious and cultural beliefs and attitudes

A key objective of MARS is to recognise the ‘practitioner experience’ in the exploration of these issues. Bringing together a diverse range of practitioners and academics, MARS is thus fundamentally informed by, whilst seeking to inform, moral dimensions in the production and dissemination of images of suffering in a pragmatic yet scholarly manner. Starting with a number of informal workshops to tease out issues and to establish an agreed agenda, we hope to initiate a research project that brings together practitioners, academics and the public in an international context.

m.a.r.s grew out of collaboration between academics and practitioners in the the Memory of Fire Brighton Photo Biennial. For more information on Memory of Fire please visit their website: http://www.bpb.org./2008/

Events

18th April 2009
Human Suffering on Display Ethical issues in documenting pain, disfigurement and death in war and other conflicts
Imperial War Museum

Following on from the 2008 Brighton Photo Biennial – MEMORY OF FIRE: THE WAR OF IMAGES AND IMAGES OF WAR, curated by Julian Stallabrass – this interdisciplinary seminar aims to bring together war and other photographers; museologists and curators; media publishers and editors; and academics concerned with ethical analysis and issues of the use of images, to discuss two central ethical issues raised in the display of human suffering:

• the acts of photographing such suffering and of displaying and/or publishing such photographs;

The relations between such images and the people whose suffering they portray.

Invited delegates will discuss four short presentations, with a view to beginning a more sustained conversation and possibly producing some form of publicly accessible publication arising from the presentations and discussion (which will be recorded).

Link to report of this event

14th November 2009
Morality And the Representation of Suffering Brighton (Boardroom, Faculty of Arts Buidling, Grand Parade, Brighton)
10.30 am start

In response to feedback from the day in April, and to assist with a better sharing of ideas, MARS is organising a conversation in November. The conversation will primarily be focused on the practitioner perspective in order to develop constructive discussion which, while it may be informed by academic understanding, will not be dominated by it.

We aim to start with a 10-minute talk from Seamus Murphy and Sean Miller to bring to the fore what things look like for practising war photographers. From that, we hope to pull out what we think are the central issues; add any others participants think appropriate; and put together an agenda for the rest of the day in which people might simply (and briefly) introduce topics for discussion. In so doing, we hope to generate some real conversation throughout the day .

The conversation will be recorded, so that if a project emerges from this in the future, we could bring together the concerns expressed by practitioners and theoreticians to develop a more substantial funded programme. Such a programme could work on the basis of the MARS network, and run jointly by the groups/centres the four of us represent.

If you’d like to take part, and/or if you’d like to suggest other people who might like to join us could you please reply to Bob Brecher r.brecher@bton.ac.uk.

Emma Bell
(Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics & Ethics, University of Brighton)
email: E.J.Bell@brighton.ac.uk
Emma Bell is lecturer in Film and Screen Studies. She started her career teaching in the departments of Film and Philosophy at the University of East Anglia before moving to Brighton in 2008.

Bob Brecher
(Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics & Ethics, University of Brighton)
email: R.Brecher@bton.ac.uk
Bob Brecher's is founder of the Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics & Ethics (CAPPE) at the Univesity of Brighton. His research interests span meta-ethics, applied ethics and the interface between the two, with particular interests in issues of moral responsibility, including that of academics, health and medical ethics and the moral analysis of political realities, most centrally the contemporary debate on the morality of torture and of its suggested legalisation.

Sarah Maltby
(The War and Media Network & Sociology Department, City University)
mailto: sarah.maltby.1@city.ac.uk or maltby@warandmedia.org
Sarah is a lecturer at City University, London. Her research interests are related to the intersection of media, war and terrorism particularly with regard to contemporary military and media practice. Sarah is also founder and co-ordinator of the War and Media Network.

Lucy Robinson
(Centre for War & Society, Sussex University)
email: l.robinson@sussex.ac.uk
Lucy is a lecturer at the University of Sussex. She is currently working with veterans of the Falklands War and veteran support groups.

Monica Allende Sunday Times
Jim Aulich Manchester Metropolitan University
Alison Assiter University of the West of England
Vivienne Boon University of Surrey
Helen Cadwallader Brighton Photo Biennial
David Campbell
Justin Carville
Nicola Clewer University of Brighton
Steve Edwards Open University
Reynir Hutber University of Brighton
Liz Jobey Granta
Marek Kohn University of Brighton/journalist
Alison Locke Photographer
Paul Lowe London College of Communication
Stuart McKenzie Defence Media Operations Centre
Will Michels Photographer/Curator
Seamus Murphy Photographer
Lucy Noakes University of Brighton
Ben O’Loughlin Royal Holloway University of London
Caitlin Patrick University College Dublin Eire
Hilary Roberts Imperial War Museum
Zev Robinson Artist, Spain/Canada
Amelia Shepherd Photographer
Sean Smith Photo-Journalist, Guardian
Kate Soper London Metropolitan University
Julian Stallabrass Courtauld Insitute
Anne Tucker Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Sonja Wirwohhl Wiener Institute
Geoff Woods Photographer
Barbie Zelizer University of Pennsylvania