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from the strike-up-a-conversation-about-censorship dept.
TEDxBrussels has had its license revoked after an organizer dragged the controversial performance artist, Deborah De Robertis, off the stage by force during her presentation there. The parent organization recently has issued a statement on this incident at TEDxBrussels
Today at TEDxBrussels, an independently organized TEDx event, speaker and performance artist Deborah De Robertis was forcibly removed from the stage by one of the event's organizers, who objected to the talk's content.
From Mashable:
According to the TEDxBrussels website, the presenter, artist Deborah De Robertis, was in the middle of a piece addressing past censorship of her artwork. The forcible removal of her from stage was so absurd, reports the Netherlands newspaper NRC Handelsblad, that audience members initially applauded thinking it was a statement about censorship.
From Flanders News:
The organisers of Monday's TEDxBrussels event are refusing to comment on what happened.
TED is a prestigious series of talks in which speakers get a maximum of 18 minutes to spread innovative ideas and tell how they can contribute to a better world. It started off as a 4-day conference in the US state of California.
From Flanders Today:
According to Focus Knack, TEDxBrussels – run by a group of volunteers – was told by De Robertis that she would not show images from her performances as part of her talk. When she did, they decided to shut it down. The New York-based Sapling Foundation, which owns TEDx, did not agree with the move.
TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Conferences started 1984 in California and cover most topics nowadays. The talks are intended to be thought provoking and are short, being 18 minutes or less in duration. Some may consider the talks too fluffy and lacking distinct solutions. The parent organization is a nonprofit, nonpartisan foundation with the agenda to make great ideas accessible and spark conversation. TEDx events are independently run and occur around the world. Until just now they used to also occur in Brussels.
From Flanders Today : TEDx Brussels loses license due to censorship
From Flanders News : TEDxBrussels loses licence after incident with controversial artist
From Mashable : TEDxBrussels organizer drags presenter off stage during anti-censorship talk
(Score: 4, Informative) by cocaine overdose on Tuesday March 13 2018, @07:30PM (7 children)
The video, for anyone interested. [dhnet.be]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 13 2018, @07:42PM (6 children)
Shouldn't have let her on stage if they were that concerned about the content of her artwork.
And they should have waited until her presentation was over and banned her for life if they felt she had violated their agreed upon rules.
But doing it in the middle of the presentation was just asking for the streisand effect.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by Snotnose on Tuesday March 13 2018, @08:31PM (2 children)
They should have turned off the projector and, if she decided to strip, cut the lights in the hall.
Hey, I found a great new hobby! Y'all should try it. It's called Monday Morning Quarterbacking, where you get to watch a video of a stressful event and say how everybody involved screwed up!.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday March 13 2018, @08:46PM (1 child)
Yeah, this just screams "I did it on purpose to force them to handle an impossible situation."
Regardless of how they handled the situation, Monday morning quarterbacks would be all over the alternative approaches and how they would have been preferable.
Score +1 for the provocative artist, -1 for the humorless organization that let her onstage in the first place.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 16 2018, @07:33AM
(Score: 3, Insightful) by driverless on Wednesday March 14 2018, @08:42AM
She agreed in advance not to show the controversial/offensive images.
She then did so anyway.
What were the organisers supposed to do? She deliberately and knowingly provoked them into a reaction, and she got what she wanted.
Also, what would have happened if it was a male speaker who showed those images? Would anyone anywhere have condemned the organisers in that case?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Wednesday March 14 2018, @12:52PM
Garbage logic.
What you've said is the "substituting the field of art for the field of war" equivalent of not letting a military general give a talk because he'd napalm the place?
What you have done and shown, and bombed, in the past is apsolutely orthogonal to what you will do and show in a talk, *even if the talk is about what you have previously done and shown, and bombed*.
They thought it was possible to give a talk about art being censorred without the need to show the censorred works.
*She* thought, or at least pretended, it was possible to give a talk about art being censorred without the need to show the censorred works.
It's possible, for example to give a talk about DeCSS decryption without having any DVDs on show.
It's possible to give a talk about torture without showing any thumbscrews.
Believe it or not, it's possible to give a talk about tha majority of subjects without any visual aids at all!
Anyway, he agreed to that.
That's a contract.
She reneged.
This should not be thought of as a censorship case against TEDx, this is a breach of contract case against her.
Aside - I fully support her right to expose blatent hypocrisy at the cost of her own modesty (which perhaps she doesn't value that highly). I totally disagree with the arty-farty-woo-woo she's wrapped her political statements in, she's weakened the argument supporting her action with it, to be honest, but still she has a point. It would have been better if she'd have just kept her legs open, but her mouth shut.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday March 14 2018, @03:54PM
They were concerned enough to have an agreement with her about the parameters her presentation would conform to. Thus removing their concern. Then she stabbed them in the back.
If she were not a nasty little troll (IMO), then she would have discussed censorship. Perhaps even shown suitably blurred images of her alleged art form. Discussed any number of things about how people react and why.
But she did not do that. I believe she had no intention of doing that. I believe her intent was to troll the organizers into an impossible situation. Which she did. I think the only useful thing to come of it is to discuss exactly how much force should be used to rightly deal with such situations. If I stand nude in Times Square, there is a possibility that force will be used to remove me. (And you might not want to see such a thing.)
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