This essay examines a little-known but important installation entitled Insure the Life of an Ant, conceived by artist Mike Malloy and displayed at the O.K. Harris Gallery in New York in April of 1972. This provocative and idiosyncratic piece confronted gallery-goers, who became viewer–participants, with the option of killing or saving a live ant displayed like a sculpture on a pedestal, either by pushing a button or not. The artist made the piece, which can function almost like a psychology experiment, to engender a “moral dilemma”. I explore the particular role of affect in a participatory art installation, distinct from response to inanimate art. I investigate the roles of emotion and reason in dealing with the work; whether ratiocination can be considered an “anti-affect”; and how the tension between competing thoughts and feelings helped create a psychological drama. The essay looks at how an art space can operate as a zone of moral exceptionalism to encourage questionable actions. It also locates the piece in relation to the emergence of a more behaviorist art in the early 1970s, as discussed by critic Gregory Battcock, and the larger notion of postmodernism. Other contexts investigated include art and animal rights and issues of sentience and speciesism; social and military violence, including capital punishment and the Vietnam War; the 1961 Milgram experiment; Hannah Arendt’s concept of the “banality of evil” as a Nazi war criminal defense; and other works of art involving maltreatment or violence toward both human and non-human animals, including those by Marina Abramović, Marco Evaristti, and Edward and Nancy Reddin Kienholz.

中文翻译：

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迈克·马洛伊《确保蚂蚁的生命》中的影响和道德


本文探讨了一个鲜为人知但重要的装置作品，题为《确保蚂蚁的生命》，由艺术家迈克·马洛伊 (Mike Malloy) 构思，并在 O.K. 1972 年 4 月，纽约哈里斯画廊。这件具有挑衅性且独特的作品面向画廊参观者，他们成为观众参与者，可以选择杀死或拯救一只活生生的蚂蚁，就像基座上的雕塑一样，可以通过按下按钮或不是。艺术家制作的这件作品几乎可以像心理学实验一样发挥作用，以产生“道德困境”。我探索了情感在参与式艺术装置中的特殊作用，这与对无生命艺术的反应不同。我研究情感和理性在处理工作中的作用；推理是否可以被视为“反情感”；以及相互竞争的思想和感情之间的紧张关系如何帮助创造了一场心理戏剧。这篇文章着眼于艺术空间如何作为道德例外论的区域来运作，以鼓励可疑的行为。正如评论家格雷戈里·巴特科克（Gregory Battcock）所讨论的那样，它还将这件作品与 20 世纪 70 年代初出现的一种更加行为主义的艺术以及更大的后现代主义概念联系起来。其他调查的背景包括艺术和动物权利以及感知和物种歧视问题；社会和军事暴力，包括死刑和越南战争； 1961 年米尔格拉姆实验；汉娜·阿伦特的“平庸之恶”概念作为纳粹战犯的辩护；以及其他涉及虐待或暴力对待人类和非人类动物的艺术作品，包括玛丽娜·阿布拉莫维奇 (Marina Abramović)、马可·埃瓦里斯蒂 (Marco Evaristti)、爱德华·雷丁·基恩霍尔兹 (Edward and Nancy Reddin Kienholz) 和南希·雷丁·基恩霍尔兹 (Nancy Reddin Kienholz) 的作品。