Award Title

I have been struggling with what I want my award title to be and found it difficult to find the right words that summarise the topic that I want to research.  I did find the SIGs and other people’s blogs and comments helpful in narrowing it down.

I know that the things I want to research include:

·         Impact of costumes on the performer, audience and production

·         Explore what motivates designers and producers

·         How a costume can work for both designer and performer

·         The effects a costume has on personal body image

·         The overlap of theatrical costumes into mainstream fashion and pop music

·         Costumes that are more than just material

I have been looking for a title that showed what I wanted to research and allowed enough scope for me to look into all the areas I want to.  I tried coming up with anything just to see what I thought:

I wrote down lots of titles:

·         Psychology and Costumes

·         Body Image and Costumes

·         Costumes

·         Costume Impact

·         Theatrical Costumes

·         Costume aesthetics

·         Extreme Costumes

·         Costume Concepts

I felt that some of the titles would restrict my research and others were too generic.  Eventually I have decided on this, so let me know what you think.

BA (Hons) Professional Practice (Costume Concepts and Image)

Professional Ethics Reader

The reading has given me a more holistic view of ethics.  In the dance profession ethics has been an important part of my professional behaviour.  I believe I have strong personal ethics, which I understand are my virtues; based on my experience and training I understand the unwritten codes of conduct and I am aware of the differences in some cultures and the links with their laws and religions.  What I have not given a lot of thought to is the tensions that might arise and the different ways and processes of looking at an ethical problem.

The NHS case study was quite difficult mainly because of my lack of understanding of the many organisations that were potentially involved and their roles and responsibilities; however, I did conclude that regardless of how many organisation or people involved they all had an ethical responsibility to provide good quality care for their patients and clearly they failed to do that for a large number.

The second case study, the photographer, although much simpler to understand and it resulted in far less fatalities was more difficult to argue.  My initial view was regardless of what he was told my personal view was he should have helped the girl however, when I used the different approaches and processes:

·         Consequentialism,  Deontology and  Virtue ethics

·         meta ethics; theoretical normative; and applied ethics

·         descriptive and normative ethics

 it helped me understand the tensions between his professional ethics, cultural ethics and ultimately his personal ethics.

The reading has given me a lot to consider when I plan and execute my professional enquiry.  For example: 

·         Importance of carrying out a function in a good way – sound ethical practice

·         Need to consider more than the interviewee – employers, institutions, peers, managers

·         The use of the Ethics check list

·         Importance of Digital data security

·         The potential impact on:

o   how I behave

o   context

o   changing circumstances

o   local factors

·         The use of the three processes;

o   Meta ethics – analytical activity understanding the meaning

o   Theoretical Normative;

§  Moral axiology – good and evil

§  Virtue ethics – moral excellence in a character

§  Theory or obligation – morally permissible

o   Applied ethics – acceptable resolutions

·         The  different ways of going about an ethical problem

o   Descriptive ethics – objective description

§  does not examine or question

§  simply states the case

§  Factual questions – did you have

o   Normative ethics – exams the norms or principles

§  Normative questions – was it right to have

§  Questions about duty

§   Raises deontology questions

§  Axiology questions

§  Questions whether and act is right or wrong

·         How to get from premise to conclusion

o   Premise – facts of the situation

o   Norms of behaviour

·         The importance of how I got to a conclusion

o   Was it a logical argument

o   Is there another way of looking at the situation

·         Different approaches and contexts to consider in arriving at an understanding

5b – Code Of Practice

I looked into the codes of practice/regulations that steer the ethical framework in my many places of work. 

I first looked into my performing jobs as I did in the previous task.  I first explored equity to see if there were any general guidelines for Musical Theatre Performers on there but I didn’t come up with anything.  I spoke to people I have worked for and looked online but found there were no standard set of written rules.  There were some common rules (time keeping, appearance, general respect for resources and senior management) but more common sense and thing I just knew and have been ingrained in me from my training.  Each company I have worked for have had their own code of conduct depending on the cast, place or production and in addition each Theatre (building, ship, resort) had their own code of conduct. 

I decided to use my last performing contract and the written code of conduct they had on the notice board:

o   sign in and out of the theatre whenever entering or leaving

o   be at company warm up on time everyday

o   be in the changing room and getting ready by the half

o   look after and keep changing room tidy

o   No interacting with the children cast off stage

o   Only be backstage when needed and listen to crew when there

o   Not to leave the theatre in costume

I also looked into my job at the prop company.   I am relatively new to this role so I asked my boss if there were any codes of practice.  Just like the performing jobs, I found no standard set of written rules.  This job involves dealing with other companies and often going on set or location depending on what is needed.  When I am in the office/warehouse I abide by their code of conduct; however, when I am on the client’s site I need to be flexible and embrace their code of conduct.  The codes of conduct when I work for the prop company include:

·         Appropriate dress code e.g. safe casual clothing in the stock rooms, smart casual when interfacing with clients

·         Appropriate time keeping

·         Accurate completion of timesheets

·         Maintain Health and Safety rules e.g. lifting items, keeping work area tidying etc

In addition I have to embrace the client’s code of conduct which might include:

·         Confidentially of information

·         Signing in and out of locations

·         Their Health and safety rules

When I compared my assumptions with the actual data, the information was not very different.  What I did conclude was my professional practice does not always write it down and issue it.  They rely on my professional training and the verbal guidance from peers and leaders.  I also realised that so much if it is common sense and respect for the art.

Both jobs require me to follow my own code of conduct and the specific client or locations code of conduct which is normally very similar but does occasionally have something specific.