19th December- Research; 'Education for Socially Engaged Art by Pablo Helguera
19th December- Research;
'Education for Socially Engaged Art; A materials and techniques handbook.'
by Pablo Helguera
About the author:
Pablo Helguera (Mexico City, 1971) is a New York based artist working with installation, sculpture, photography, drawing, socially engaged art and performance. Helguera’s work focuses in a variety of topics ranging from history, pedagogy, sociolinguistics, ethnography, memory and the absurd, in formats that are widely varied including the lecture, museum display strategies, musical performances and written fiction.
His work as an educator has usually intersected his interest as an artist, making his work often reflects on issues of interpretation, dialogue, and the role of contemporary culture in a global reality. This intersection is best exemplified in his project, “The School of Panamerican Unrest”, a nomadic think-tank that physically crossed the continent by car from Anchorage, Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, making 40 stops in between. Covering almost 20,000 miles, it is considered one of the most extensive public art projects on record as well as a pioneering work for the new generation of artworks regarded under the area of socially engaged art.
His work as an educator has usually intersected his interest as an artist, making his work often reflects on issues of interpretation, dialogue, and the role of contemporary culture in a global reality. This intersection is best exemplified in his project, “The School of Panamerican Unrest”, a nomadic think-tank that physically crossed the continent by car from Anchorage, Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, making 40 stops in between. Covering almost 20,000 miles, it is considered one of the most extensive public art projects on record as well as a pioneering work for the new generation of artworks regarded under the area of socially engaged art.
'...how to use art in the social ream' px (introduction)
The books focus' on socially engaged art running alongside education. This is a relationship which makes sense to establish due to the interaction between action and social relations. (Author came to art and education simultaneously). Education, children not as empty containers to fill with knowledge- 'The goal was to reenvision the child not as an empty container to be filled with facts but as an individual with rights, great potential, and diversity ( what Malaguzzi described as 'the hundred languages of children').' Goes on to discuss the Reggio Emilia Approach calling for creative/collaborative child lead sessions.
Socially engaged art and its definite need for connection across disciplines/knowledges.
'While there is no complete agreement as to what constitutes a meaningful interaction or social engagement, what characterizes socially engaged art is its dependance on social intercourse as a factor of its existence.' p2
Social practice and socially engaged aiming to avoid preconceived conception of pre meaning within art making and art production.
Between disciplines
'Social practice' obscures the production and removes the art area, therefore removing autonomous authorship of the artist.
Raises question of if it belongs to art at all- something I have personally struggled with and tried to deal with throughout my degree. Justification as well as validation, for me it is the creative base in which the art is born which renders it as socially prescribed, its audience existence is the social act.
'...socially engaged art is specifically at odds with the capitalist market infrastructure of the art world: it does not fit well in the traditional collecting practices of contemporary art, and the prevailing cult of the individual artist is problematic for those whose goal is to work with others , generally in collaborative projects with democratic ideals.' p4
The above reflection/conclusion is one I have drawn repeatedly when considering social art. A way in which you are able to seperate art practice into an anti-capital action. However my own reflections draw further into the ways that artist production can become anti-capitalist.
'Socially engaged artists can and should challenge the art market in attempts to redefine the notion of authorship...' p5
Socially engaged art functions by attaching itself to issues and concepts which usually belong to other fields.
' It is this temporary snatching away of subjects into the realm of art-making that brings new insights to a particular problem or condition and in turn makes it visible to other disciplines.' p5
My own work and practice has worked across practices with a great connection to science with my tyndall centre placement/collaboration. This creative view allows problems and therefore solutions to be viewed from different angles.
Symbolic and actual practice
Habermas's work on communicative action, arguing social action is more than manipulation of circumstances for desired goal but is more firmly rooted in lasting effects on sphered of politics and culture with true emancipatory effect.
Community- Chapter 2
A.The construction of a community
Public role passing public receptor as all art is social/ focus on art which is socially engaged in terms of community based practice.
SEA often has agenda but less in the act of protest but in platform for participation in concepts.
'Jacques Ranciere's oft-quoted words 'a community of narrators and translators' This means that its participants willingly engage in dialogue from which they extract enough critical and experimental wealth to walk away feeling enriched, perhaps even claiming some ownership f the experience or ability to reproduce it with others.' p13
B. Multi-layered participatory structures
1- nominal participation
2- directed participation 1/2 Singular
3- creative participation
4- collaborative participation 3/4 Extended
Helps define goals for participatory art/evaluating work
Participation falls into voluntary, non voluntary and involuntary.
This has made me consider the ways in which art production falls into participation and non-participation. To what extent can these ideas be exposed, does the manufacturer of paint play a non-willing role in the production of a painting? these ideas get considered in public art however modes of production are just as vital when considering and critiquing a lifetime of any given artwork.
C. Virtual Participatory: Social Media
Interconnectivity of today's world. Social media can be helpful way to prolong life of an artwork which is started in person.
D. Time and Effort
'Many problems in community projects are due to unrealistic goals in relation to the expected time investment'. p19
Projects struggle to be reproduced in communities and groups which the artist hasn't had the same time or level of understanding of the group they are working with.
E. Audience Questions
'We build because audiences exist.' p22
'They are not static spaces for static viewer' p22
David Berreby - us and them concept (work already has a recipient in mind without realising it. Therefore reaching a limited number of people)
Allan Bell 'audience design'
Reflections in this section show the ways in which the echo chamber functions and continues to exist when considering any field of research be that artwork or wider concepts such as scientific findings.
'So if an arts organisation is to be thought of as a 'speaker' it is possible to conceive of it as operating -through its programs and activities- in multiple social registers that may or may not include art 'intelligentsia', a more immediate contemporary-art audience with its inner codes and references, and the larger public.' p24
Draft diss section-
The echo chamber is often evidenced from repetition in individual and clique presence at cultural and research events. There is further structural frustration which exists internally in the art world; due to the existence of stigma regarding art’s use value in society, a stigma which many work to protect. Various sociologists have argued this, ‘David Berreby most notably- that as humans we are predisposed to express a tribal mindset of ‘us’ versus ‘them’, and each statement we make is oriented in relation to a set of pre existing social codes that include or exclude sectors of people.’ (Helguera, 2011 p.22).
Chapter 3- Situations
'The key to a successful project lies in understanding the social context in which it will take place and how it will be negotiated with the participants or audience in question.' p30
A common problem of socially engaged work is that communities don't understand value of conceptual work/creativities presence.
'...artists-free agents- insert themselves into the most unexpected social environments in ways that break away from disciplinary boundaries, hoping to discover something in the process.' p34
Social work vs Social Practice
Social work and social practice interchangeability?
Artists work aims to provoke reflection upon issues as well as eliviat however social work is solution.
Chapter 4- Conservation
'Conversation is the center of sociality, of collective understanding and organisation.' p40
Dialogical art/practice, largely seen as SEA today. Most dynamics of conversation that have been considered look at the topic than what interaction actually does. Further, most investigation is in modern art.
Art and speech/value and its limitations being flawed due to pre-conceived concepts, ideas and notions.
Truth and insight through process- could this be a visual conversation.
Participatory dialogue and mutual interest- in conversation and artworks
'...construct relationships in which the exchanges are mutual and both parties offer help and new insights...'p49
Chapter 5- Collaboration
'...artist is expected to be the conceptual director of the project.' p51
Respecting that difference in knowledge does not mean faltering/hierarchy of intelligence.
Myles Horton once remarked 'my expertise is in knowing not to be an expert' p52
Accountability
False assumption- 'artists can act as a neutral entity, an invisible catalyst of experiences.' p53 To fully relinquish authorship in an anticapitalist push is a way of cleansing the artist of privilege. (Claire Bishop).
Expertise
Role of artist in social work confuses where their expertise lies. 'The expertise of the artist, like Freire's, in being a non-expert, a provider of frameworks on which experiences can form and sometimes be directed and channeled to generate new insights around a particular issue.' p54
Framework of collaboration
Community engagement important to ensure commitment however if the community make all the decisions then the art becomes another form of social welfare which is not its responsibility. Does not allow for reflection and critical engagement for artistic development and creative progression.
Chapter 6-Antagonism
'Confrontation implies taking a critical position on a given issue without necessarily proposing an alternative.' p59
Antagonistic approaches confront people in different ways: Voluntarily, non-voluntarily and involuntarily. Most defining factor is vocab and convo which happens before event. Actions comment boldly, often on political issues. They aren't always aggressive but offer a sort of trick or irony to them.
Chapter 8- Documentation
Artist is usually sole owner of documentation of artwork (solidarity collective, collaborative ownership) 'In contemporary art and in art history in general, the voice of the public is generally missing...' p73
If the artwork is aimed at the public however, should it not be them on which leads the critique.
'The tendency to use documentation as proof of a practice and as the relic...'73
Genuine relic is a non-presentable thing however, the legacy left?
p75
Public record of evolution of project
Chapter 9- Transpedagogy
'...to refer to projects by artists and collectives that blend educational processes and art-making in works that offer an experience that is clearly different from conventional art academies or formal art education' p77
A powerful revision of education which can only happen in art's unique patterns of exploration.
Chapter 10- Deskilling
Need of better education in what the art world/real world interaction can be. There is a need for a considerable re-structuring of art curriculum and movement/education. In what way can art enrich through SEA and how will it not be allowed to dissolve into other fields altogether. There needs to be a depth of teaching across fields to ensure the use value of artwork and art engagement is understood.
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