“Is Politics Art?” Revisited

In 1975, Robert Walker, a photographer and member of l’Insurrection Art Company, created Is Politics Art?. The work is a series of 15 black and white photographs, displayed in a grid format. Each one features Walker, shaking hands with various museum directors, curators, artists, critics, funders and other key art world figures at a vernissage. The paparazzi style photography, and the overlaid titles that emphasize who’s who, are reminiscent of scandal sheets published in newspapers of the time. As the basis of my MA thesis work in Art Education at Concordia University, I will explore the continuing resonance of the thematics of Walker’s piece in contemporary visual practice and the arts community, the degree to which 'politics' may still be 'art', and the extent to which visual art may convey knowledge - or not. To do so, I will remake Is Politics Art? from a contemporary position, using video in place of still photography. My methodological approach combines two phases of qualitative interviews, ethnography, historical analysis and research-creation. This Tumblr will act as a repository for the media files associated with the project, a research journal, and a way to share my process with my thesis committee, project participants, family, and friends. Thank you to Robert Walker for graciously allowing me to revivify his work.

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The impact of conceptual art, George Dickie and the institutional theory, Arthur Danto and the art world.

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I went to a vernissage here today and ran into a woman that I met when I worked at the Banff Centre. I began talking to her partner about my project, and through the conversation found out that she is set to be the Head of Visual Arts for the Canada Council!! My heart jumped - how amazing would it be to interview that high level a power player?!? I swallowed my nervousness and asked. She agreed! The plan is to follow up with her in May. Thank you so much Sylvie Gilbert! And thank you vernissage. See what kind of connections are made when we go out and about? The Real "Is Politics Art?".

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Kathleen Vaughan, my most esteemed advisor, and I met via Skype this morning to prep for my interviews with Cheryl and with Slavica. We decided not to send a specific list of questions ahead but to rather send a suggestion of thematics I would like to cover in our conversation. So, each participant will receive an email with the Is Politics Art? image attached, a small blurb about the work, and a few words introducing possible conversation topics.

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People's attention attention to communicating and gathering information has become simultaneously more fractured as sources multiply and more focused as their searches become more specific. Information itself has become networked and more densely packed, making people's experiences with it more immersive and participatory... The ability of people to tell their own stories and share their own ideas has substantially broadened in the era of social media... And their ability to build, tap into, and learn from personal networks has bounded upward with the rise of social networking sites and other applications."

Rainie, Lee and Barry Wellman. Networked: The New Social Operating System. Massachusetts: MIT Press. 2012. pg. 256.

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New Literacies for Networked Individuals

1 - Graphic 

2 - Navigation

3 - Context and Connections

4 - Multitasking

5 - Skepticism

6 - Ethical

= Networking Literacy

From Chapter 10 of Rainie, Lee and Barry Wellman. Networked: The New Social Operating System. Massachusetts: MIT Press. 2012.

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This is an operating system that confers social and economic advantages to those who behave effectively as networked individuals, blending significant personal encounters and new media as they solve problems and build social support.

Rainie, Lee and Barry Wellman. Networked: The New Social Operating System. Massachusetts: MIT Press. 2012.

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Pakes, A. (2004) Art as action or art as object? the embodiment of knowledge in practice as research. Working Papers in Art and Design 3 Retrieved January 14, 12013 from URL http://sitem.herts.ac.uk/artdes_research/papers/wpades/vol3/apfull.html ISSN 1466-4917

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"The notion of the public domain as a political forum will be the focal point of the 13th Istanbul Biennial. This highly contested concept will serve as a matrix to generate ideas and develop practices that question contemporary forms of democracy, challenge current models of spatio-economic politics, problematise the given concepts of civilisation and barbarity as standardised positions and languages, and above all, unfold the role of contemporary art as an agent that both makes and unmakes what is considered public."

Applications due March 1, 2013.

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Twitter Is Amazing. I discovered an artist that's doing similar work - both conceptually and aesthetically.

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First and obvious search in the Twitter-world. Look at all the people/organizations/corporations I can follow! Where to begin... ??

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Twitter Activated!

I'm setting myself up a Twitter account today. Keeping my intro down to 160 characters reinforced the concept that Twitter-language is real. After edits, and re-edits, and word puzzingly (all the while feeling like a poser), I narrowed the introduction down to this:

A repository #research process. Putting into praxis #theories #examining #thesis. Me=newbie 2 Twitter. Want 2 learn the Twit-language. #integral 4 #MA degree.

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Notes From Henry Jenkins Talk January 10, Concordia University

The Transmedia Generation : Spreadable Media, Fan Activism, and Participatory Learning

political implications of new media

understanding the political lives of American youth in relation to participatory and new medias

zombie as an important icon for thinking about the protest – the metaphor is effective (affective) (undead, soulless, capitalist corruption)

visual attraction that grows interest

example: “occupy sesame event”

people embracing, on their own, commercially produced culture, but then reflecting on it with ownership

online activism/on the ground activism and back again (hybridity)

example: remixes, mash up made of the pepper spray cop from the occupy movement (created a global awareness)

process of pepper spray cop is the basis of book – Spreadable Media

“bottom up circulation” + grass roots circulation

example: Winnipeg health minister wanting to eat his cookies, remixed – memes circulating led to his resignation

memes become powerful and give mainstream media little choice to ignore them

circulation vs. distribution

circulation = hybrid and emerging, people are shifting how media flows

networked circulation of material

Neal Stephenson – viral media (“self-replicating information”)

Viral + language that surrounds us, gives up a sense of control, individual agency (deeply disempowering)

People gaining power to control the circulation of media content and culture

Not talking exclusively about Web 2.0

Participatory media is more expanded

Web 2.0 is a business model, it commodifys participatory media – we should be critical of the neo-liberal agenda that governs the Web 2.0 business

Distinction between participation in media vs. participation through media – the tensions are what we have to think about

Resources: Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Dream by Stephen Duncomb, Participatory Culture Handbook, Commodity Activism by Roopali Mukherjee and Sarah Banet-Weiser

Youth and Participatory Politics (website)

Case study – Invisible Children and KONY 2012

Scale of grassroots communication is global and huge

Focused flow of content, if it’s not picked up by mainstream media

“above all share this movie online”

culture makers / policy makers (headshots for KONY 2012 – look it up!)

social flow data-mapping

decentralizing where messages come from

passing a video along does not make you an activist, it gets you involved in the conversation and allows for a teachable moment

“it was spreadable, but not drillable” – politics of dispersal

digital natives vs. digital immigrants – highlyloaded words, a problematic metaphor (in a post-colonial society) – it erases value of the differences in experiences

“a more participatory culture” – we must think about those groups that are being left out

adults and youth interact with each other as a collaborative, non or less hierarchical way, adults can “watch youths backs” – to say a adult has no role to play online erases their wisdom and undermines youth’s respect for their experiences

“transmedia storytelling” – video games, podcasts, comic books, etc all support the same franchise (ie. Buffy)

"So You want to change the world? Okay, what do you want to change about the world?"

‘cultural acupuncture’

Example: 4CHAN

history of appropriation, reappropriation, appropriating the appropriated, etc.

Malcolm Gladwell’s critique of Twitter revolution was wrong

Technology and communication in social revolutions

All groups turn about all communication channels to their own use (not just one technology is used to spread ideas)

Those behind the digital divide are still innovative about their own use of technology

Example: I Am Undocumented

There are limits to the activist model presented here

Youth and Participatory Politics website says that 84% of youth say they would benefit by learning to how to vet online

Resource: Designing With Teacher

Resource: PLAY! Participatory Learning and You

Spreadability (spread wide) vs. drillability (dig deep) - Jason Mittel

Depth of content makes information relevant and meaningful

Hopefully the result of spreading would be that more people dig deep, more people have access to (and interest in) the information that is out there

All of the languages around these ideas are rooted in the language of Web 2.0

“authentic” – ambivalence, branding (as in marketing speak) has become the dominant language

what are the impacts without mass market circulation?

Tactics?

There are a lot of choices we make that indicate acts of agency (what to communicate, what platform to communicate with, who to communcate with, etc.)

The authour controls his or her story until it’s been put out into the world, the artist gives his/her creation to the public and gives up control (fair use, open culture)

The remix is very different from piracy, remix usually increases value for a creative production / rights’ holders

Central paradox with bringing participatory learning into the schools is that it is risky to undertake in the public system

Schools are the great equalizer (Dewey) but that are also regulated by the state

Participatory learning practices are risky for teachers

We wire the classroom to have online access, but hinder the computer (by banning social media sites, and network culture) – a good example is an English class studying Moby Dick, but not being able to do research online because the title says “Dick”

Focus on after school!!!!!

Create conversations with teachers about participatory learning

Can’t have a one size fits all model for this sort of thing

Example: The Dream Act (Obama)

Causal vs. conjectural impacts of activism online and social change (they can only be measured conjecturally)

Discursive exchanges, opening curiosity, intrinsic motivation

Common space, common interest, shared activites, being able to bring people together

The academy is traditionally strong on critique and weak on imagining possibilities

Turning politics into popular culture we can access the analogies and move into the deeper discourse

People use the language of popular culture to talk about their concerns

“digital networked politics”

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Project Synopsis (The Elevator Pitch)

Currently, I am completing my thesis project for a MA degree in the Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia University. My working title is, Asking “Is Politics Art?” All Over Again: Re-Staging Art for Participatory Learning and Institutional Critique. It explores ideas of community as curriculum, networked learning, critical pedagogy, and the higher education of artists in the Canadian academic art world. It is rooted in interviews with community members, ethnography, and historical research. The final outcome will consist of a research blog, a Twitter feed archive, a 15 channel video installation, and a traditionally written thesis.