Corporate Profile (2014)

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Corporate Profile (Figure 1), is a site specific art piece that critiques how corporate researchers use personal information on Facebook to create ads that are geared towards the users wants and interests. The banner critiques a vague misconception of corporate ethics. The banner criticizes corporate ethics by comparing capitalism and corporate insatiability to GREB standards. After the production of the banner, I realize that analyzing corporate research with a GREB lens is problematic and unproductive. 

GREB strives to ensure ethical CBR and participatory action research, while advertisers and corporate institutions follow a separate ethics model. Corporate Profile profusely depicts a mindset that is often exercised by social media users who mistake corporate ethic standards with law, GREB and social research ethic values. Thus, by labeling corporate research as unethical would be incorrect since corporations follow a distinct set of values that are approved by law and a specific ethics code (Filisko, 2013).

Corporate Profile, 2014. Site specific installation, jet ink on banner, 10×8 ft. Kingston, Ontario, CA

Photographs by Craig Berggold (PhD student at Queen’s University)