1. Interview with Shannon Jackson performance art historian and the author of Social Works
2. The introduction to Theater of the Oppressed by Augusto Boal, about the form of theater he developed to help ordinary people develop the skills to fight back against the oppression that they experience in their daily lives.
Here is a pdf of his work book of exercises to practice those daily life creative political skills, called Games for Actors and Non-actors.
And a trailer to a film about Theater of the Oppressed.
3. An glossary definition of participation written by artist Andrea Liu for the New Museum. Here is a blog with links to lots of her work. Here is a link to search the whole social practice glossary project that the New Museum coordinated called Whose Terms?
(((((((Hey Y'all no fancy pikatures but we got dis! xoxo from florida m {P.S.}feel free to edit into classic format.)))))))))
(Thanks for getting this page started Michael!)
ReplyDeleteShannon Jackson
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Once I started to think about it, I really felt that we could start to link expanded art histories from the visual
art world with expanded art histories from the theater world. In fact, if we think about Constructivism,
Duchamp, or minimalism, if we think about Brecht and Meyerhold, there is a pervasive interest in the
exposure of the support. Support is both a social question and an aesthetic pursuit in the visual arts and in
theatre.
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CL: Do you feel that, in making a connection between social practice and performance, you end up
advocating for a new framework for performance?
SJ: Well, I would not say that it is a new frame so much as it is a different emphasis. I think that whenever
people write about performance, we emphasize different qualities about it. Sometimes, we emphasize its
artifice, some its temporality, some its embodiment, some its ephemerality, some its excess.
In this project, ensemble is the dimension of performance that I emphasize most. Performance has always
been this highly coordinated event with multiple people; the systemic organization of people in time and
space with materials has been its raison d’etre for a couple of centuries. How do we make an ensemble?
How does ensemble make us? Those questions—with all of their histories and all of their headaches
—resonate with the central questions of social practice now
In thinking about social art as performance. When merging these two realities when does the work/performance start, when does it end?
Does the collaboration between artists and creatives count as performance? Does it count as Social Practice? Or does it only count when once a “non-artist” becomes a collaborator?
Typically performance has an "audience," however with the notion of participant and engaged audience member, is their participation throughout the collaboration a part of the featured work?
Shannon Jackson, page 3
ReplyDelete“That made me interested in certain kinds of expanded art practices that not only celebrated freedom, but also explored interdependent relationships of obligation and care and sometimes even responsibility. If a political art discourse becomes too enthralled with breaking down institutions, then it ignores the degree to which we are in fact dependent upon institutions. Yes, the ‘institution’ constrains; but it also sustains. Can we stay complicated about this? My hope is that by thinking about support as a complex system, as a social question but also as an aesthetic question, we can activate a different conversation."
Liu, page 2
“We need to ask how the participant in “participatory art” is conceived: Does he or she co-share power with the artist? There is a danger of a participant being instrumentalized by the artist, giving the illusion of participation to both yet without the participant having any real agency—in some cases the relationship can verge on ventriloquy. If the participant does not in fact have or gain agency by participating in the work, does this lessen the value of his or her participation?”
Boal
“Bertolt Brecht reacts to this poetics by taking the character theorised by Hegel as absolute subject and converting him back into an object. But now he is an object of social forces, not of the values of the superstructures. Social being determines thought, and not vice versa. What was lacking to complete the cycle was what is happening at present in Latin America – the destruction of the barriers created by the ruling classes. “
QUESTIONS
Directly from Shannon Jackson:
How do we make an ensemble? How does an ensemble make us?
Liu:
What ways can a participant’s subjectivity be recognized?
For a participant to become an activated spectator, is it only the artist’s delineated terms that brings them to that state? Are there other spaces?
Thanks Michael! 😜
ReplyDeleteQuotes:
ReplyDeleteJackson, p5: "To some, an explicit social mission redeems the art object; to others, it compromises it. For some, the social is figural, for others, it is literal. Conversely, the same interaction that reads as social engagement to one group might seem to be a narcissistic violation of social ethics to another.”
Liu p2: "We need to ask how the participant in “participatory art” is conceived: Does he or she co-share power with the artist? There is a danger of a participant being instrumentalized by the artist, giving the illusion of participation to both yet without the participant having any real agency—in some cases the relationship can verge on ventriloquy."
Boal p1 "In this book I also offer some proof that the theatre is a weapon. A very efficient weapon. For this reason one must fight for it. For this reason the ruling classes strive to take permanent hold of the theatre and utilise it as a tool for domination. In so doing, they change the very concept of what ‘theatre’ is. But the theatre can also be a weapon for liberation."
Questions:
What are examples of theater being used as a tool for domination in contemporary society? How can we instead use it as force of liberation?
"How do we make an ensemble? How does ensemble make us?", Quoted from Shannon Jackson
"Is it possible that the democratic aspirations of an activated spectator within participatory art can only find their fullest realization in efforts that are more clearly identified as activism?" Quoted from Andrea Liu
“Theatre of the Oppressed”
ReplyDelete“…theatre is a weapon. A very efficient weapon. For this reason one must fight for it. For this reason the ruling classes strive to take permanent hold of the theatre and utilise it as a tool for domination. In so doing, they change the very concept of what ‘theatre’ is. But the theatre can also be a weapon for liberation. For that, it is necessary to create appropriate theatrical forms. Change is imperative.”
“– the destruction of the barriers created by the ruling classes. First, the barrier between actors and spectators is destroyed: all must act, all must be protagonists in the necessary transformations of society.”
“Whose Terms? A Glossary for Social Practice: Participation” - Andrea Liu
“What are the stakes when an artist embeds, utilizes, or activates viewers in an artwork? Is the decision to abandon the distinct dividing line between viewer and artwork an attempt to diffract, diffuse, or defer authorial intention? Is it to resist the artwork’s status as discrete and therefore easily commodifiable? Once we consider the viewer (formally) as part of the artwork, it seems we are in need of a more specific ontology of the viewer” (p. 2)
“The distinction between a participant who is treated as a token object, as opposed to one whose subjectivity is recognized, seems crucial.” (p.2)
“I wonder, is participatory art, which was originally conceived in opposition to individual authorship and the commodified art object, merely subsumed by neoliberalism’s structures of networks, mobility, project work, and affective labor?” (p. 3)
“Performance: The Body Politic” Interview with Shannon Jackson
“If a political art discourse becomes too enthralled with breaking down institutions, then it ignores the degree to which we are in fact dependent upon institutions. Yes, the “institution” constrains; but it also sustains. Can we stay complicated about this? My hope is that by thinking about support as a complex system, as a social question but also as an aesthetic question, we can activate a different conversation.” (p. 3)
“Support is noticed less when it is working for you; it is more often noticed when it breaks down or is taken away.” (p. 4)
“Those questions—with all of their histories and all of their headaches —resonate with the central questions of social practice now” (p. 8)
Questions:
How do claims of “autonomy within participatory art projects” affect how a piece is contextualized. Does anonymity of participants in larger social practices push the project out of the realm of “art” and into activism? Is a body of work still art if the public identifies it as solely activism (i.e., Occupy)?
Is the evolution of a “participant into a “subject” in a work of art such as Jermey Deller’s “Battle of the Orgreave” represent what Liu defines as active participation (i.e no longer a passive viewer of individualized consumption, active participant in an artwork and can repair social bonds damaged by capitalism)? How does the artist’s intention to create active participation in a community influence autonomy of participants? Do the simply become a pawn in the artist’s stratagem?
How has the attempt to generalize or define art, specifically focusing on social practice, worked to constrain its own potentials? Shannon Jackson asks us “can we stay complicated about this?”, what is the benefit of leaving the conversation open and complex? What are some limitations? How might we find a way to do both when discussing issues within a large community?
-Kayla
Shannon Jackson pg. 4
ReplyDeleteCL: Do you think that the nature of the relationships to the state or other institutions is specific to the kind of experimental performance and social works we’re talking about here, or would you say this applies in a more blanket way to all artwork?
SJ: As to whether it applies to all artwork, I guess I would say that it does. Painting depends upon frames and canvases but also upon the gallery system. Theatre depends on stage managers and agents. But I do think that certain art forms are less able to deny that they need a supporting apparatus and that some have a vested interest in looking the other way. The works that I ended up selecting were all works that I think are posing questions about our relationship to interdependent systems, state based or otherwise.
Andrea Liu
Roland Barthes’s “Death of the Author” (1967) spurred the “birth of the reader”—in turn we might also consider the “birth of the spectator” and, subsequently, the “birth of the participant.” And yet it is arguable whether the participant of socially engaged art can experience the level of agency or autonomy that Barthes advocated for the “reader.”
Augusto Boal
What was lacking to complete the cycle was what is happening at present in Latin America – the destruction of the barriers created by the ruling classes. First, the barrier between actors and spectators is destroyed: all must act, all must be protagonists in the necessary transformations of society. This is the process I describe in ‘Experiments with the People’s Theatre in Peru’.
Questions:
Does language create limitations in social practice/performance art? Can social practice/performance art be more effective without verbal communication, need for language? How?
The Experiments with the People’s Theatre in Peru was in collaboration with the nations Integral Literacy Operation/Operacion Alfabetizacion Integral (ALFIN) in Lima and Chiclayo Peru in 1973. “In any country the task of teaching an adult to read and write poses a difficult and delicate problem. In Peru the problem is magnified because of the vast number of languages and dialects spoken by its people. Recent studies point to the existence of at least 41 dialects of the two principal languages, besides Spanish, which are the Quechua and the Aymara. Research carried out in the province of Loreto in the north of the country, verified the existence of 45 different languages in that region. Forty-five languages, not mere dialects! And this is what is perhaps the least populated province in the country. This great variety of languages has perhaps contributed to an understanding on the part of the organizers of ALFIN, that the illiterate are not people who are unable to express themselves: they are simply people unable to express themselves in a particular language, which in this case is Spanish. ALFIN project formulated two principal aims:
• to teach literacy in both the first language and in Spanish without forcing the abandonment of the former in favor of the latter.
• to teach literacy in all possible languages, especially the artistic ones, such as theatre, photography, puppetry, films, journalism, etc.”
What are the barriers that exist between actor/performer and audience? Is it physical, spatial, intellectual, language, etc?
In light of what Shannon Jackson says about support systems, what are the systems you depend on, whether independent or state based?
Quotes:
ReplyDelete1. "Theater of the Oppressed belongs to the oppressed. That's where it belongs, and no where else" (from the video)
2. "My hope is that by thinking about support as a complex system, as a social question but also as an aesthetic question, we can activate a different conversation" - Shannon Jackson
3."[...] artists who work in social practice and performance are also very concerned about engagement with receivers. If that it is your goal, it can be incredibly interesting to work with someone in education who thinks continuously about what it means to engage people, to address them, to challenge them." - Shannon Jackson
Questions:
1. (from Andrea Liu) "I wonder, is participatory art, which was originally conceived in opposition to individual authorship and the commodified art object, merely subsumed by neoliberalism’s structures of networks, mobility, project work, and affective labor?"
2. Instead of an artist trying to remove themselves from the context of the work what is it really that the artist is trying to avoid and why? Why would an artist consider their "self" as a negative or positive influence on the work?
3. I'm curious how artists in social practice are received by the public and those they are working with if they are a solo artist vs. if they are working in a collective or group of artists.
Quotes:
ReplyDelete“...the barrier between actors and spectators is destroyed: all must act, all must be protagonists in the necessary transformations of society.” -Boal
“If a political art discourse becomes too enthralled with breaking down institutions, then it ignores the degree to which we are in fact dependent upon institutions.” -Linden (Shannon Jackson)
“Support is noticed less when it is working for you; it is more often noticed when it breaks down or is taken away. So drawing attention to our interdependence upon support is philosophically interesting. Some kinds of systems enable freedom and democracy, even if we would rather complain about how much they constrain us.” -Linden (Shannon Jackson)
Questions:
“Is it possible that the democratic aspirations of an activated spectator within participatory art can only find their fullest realization in efforts that are more clearly identified as activism?” -Liu
“If the participant does not in fact have or gain agency by participating in the work, does this lessen the value of his or her participation?” -Liu
To help clarify the above question, what are some contrasting examples of socially engaged art regarding the degree of participant agency?
Quote 1: Augusto Boal:
ReplyDeleteall theatre is necessarily political, because all the
activities of man are political and theatre is one of them.
Question 1: What are some noteworthy differences between (a) art that pretends to be apolitical, but really upholds the power of those who currently benefit from the political and economic status quo, and (b) art that is genuinely disengaged from political questions and has no impact on power or social relations? Are there times that the second kind of apolitical art is exactly what I/we need? When? What is politics exactly, and what does political mean?
Quote 2: Shannon Jackson: (I strung together several of her quotes about performance that connected to my own understanding of why I need to build skills in this area…)
“a movement toward painting and sculpture underpins post-dramatic theater, but a movement toward theater also underpins post-studio art.”
[In Performance Studies] We think about the role of performance in ritual activity and in organizing collectives and communities…
…artists who work in social practice and performance are also very concerned about engagement with receivers. If that it is your goal, it can be incredibly interesting to work with someone in education who thinks continuously about what it means to engage people, to address them, to challenge them
Performance has always been this highly coordinated event with multiple people; the systemic organization of people in time and space with materials has been its raison d’etre for a couple of centuries. How do we make an ensemble? How does ensemble make us? Those questions—with all of their histories and all of their headaches—resonate with the central questions of social practice now.
Question 2: how do I use my time in Portland and in grad school to learn performance skills in the broad sense—“what it means to engage people, to address them, to challenge them“ and connect this with my often more hermit-y visual skills? How do I draw on the performance skills I DO have, which have to do with the daily practice of navigating the world, presenting myself differently in different spaces? How do I expand that, beyond a self-awareness of what I am personally doing, to interacting and collaborating intentionally with other people in public space for a specific effect?
Quote 3: Shannon Jackson on social infrastructures:
I think that we all rely upon supporting systems—whether they are repairing our highways, picking up our garbage, installing our exhibits, or folding our socks—more than we realize that we do. Support is noticed less when it is working for you; it is more often noticed when it breaks down or is taken away. So drawing attention to our interdependence upon support is philosophically interesting. Some kinds of systems enable freedom and democracy, even if we would rather complain about how much they constrain us.
Question 3: (Less of a question than a musing) I am also very interested in infrastructure, especially the systems we tend to take for granted—that are invisible to us. Jackson seems to be talking about civilizational infrastructure… I have been interested for a long time in basics like urban water delivery and sewers, electric grids, pedestrian pathways through cities built for cars…. but what about deeper/more intimate infrastructures—language, for instance, or body language, or cultural traditions? What if I was able to engage with some sort of deep infrastructure in some of the project ideas I’m nurturing?
QUOTES:
ReplyDeleteJackson
"In this project, ensemble is the dimension of the performance that I emphasize most. Performance has always been this highly coordinated event with multiple people; the systemic organization of people in time and space with materials has been its raison d'etre for a couple of centuries. How do we make an ensemble? How does an ensemble make us? Those questions - with all of their histories and all of their headaches - resonate with the central questions of social practice now." p7
Liu
"YAY!!!! I'M ACTIVATED NOW!!! No longer a passive viewer of individualized consumption, I have become an active participant in an artwork and can now begin to repair the social bonds damaged by capitalism! KICK-ASS!!!!" p1
"I wonder, is participatory art, which was originally conceived in opposition to individual authorship and the commodified art object, merely subsumed by neoliberalism's structures of networks, mobility, project work, and affective labor." p3
QUESTIONS:
What does collaboration and the ensemble look like in successful socially engaged performative projects?
Social practice projects (and social practice theater) often privilege exchange through the use of language. When utilizing silence and non-verbals (by performers and the audience), what does successful "active spectatorship" look like?
"If the participant does not in fact have or gain agency by participating in the work, does this lessen the value of his or her participation?" (from Liu)
I'd love to discuss in detail the quote I listed from Liu page 3. What does it mean/look like if/when participatory art is subsumed by neoliberalism's [free-market capitalisms] structures of networks, mobility, project work, and affective labor?" What is the affected labor she mentions? ((In my experience of choreographing and creating performance works I think about the fact that performers are rarely paid anything for their time and participation in another choreographers project. The payment is in the reward of the work, the trade of physical labor - I perform for you, you perform for me, or even in the ways performers do other's work because it changes their being and their bodies. Institutions also often pay performers (and social practice artists) with similar stipends that they pay artists who make/install objects. Lastly, audience participants are so commonly working within a cultural construct in which the only safe places to move one's body in an unconventional way is in a dance or theater class, making collaborative construction of works that are non-verbal challenging. How do these factors play into the way performance works are evaluated through a social practice lens of ethics and success.))
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIs it possible to have a “dythirambic song” proto-theatrical experience like what Boal describes without some kind of “scaffolding” or facilitator? If so, how does such an endeavor begin?
ReplyDeleteIn Liu’s characterization of participatory art as “rejecting individual authorship in favor of collectivism,” is there a way to truly transcend the natural tendency of one or more people to emerge as leading or dominant voices in collective effort, or do systems of power represent themselves fractally in smaller and smaller units?
What is the audience for the type of work Liu and Jackson describe? Beyond the transformative effect on the participants who are presumably often not artists, is it meant to reach a “non-art” audience?
“I think that community art sometimes gets a bad rap because it seems under-complicated formally, and so-called avant-garde art gets a bad rap because it is not legible enough to be politically effective. My hope is that there could be a bit more tolerance and mutual education on all sides.” Jackson pg. 6
“Is the decision to abandon the distinct dividing line between the viewer and artwork an attempt to diffract, diffuse, or defer autorial intention?” – Liu pg. 2
“Theater was the people singing freely into the open air; the theatrical performance was created by and for the people, and could thus be called dithyramic song.” – Boal pg. 2