Ditte Vilstrup Holm

The Poetics of Participation The Organizing of Participation in Contemporary Art Holm, Ditte Vilstrup Document Version Final published version Publication date: 2019 License CC BY-NC-ND Citation for published version (APA): Holm, D. V. (2019). The Poetics of Participation: The Organizing of Participation in Contemporary Art. Copenhagen Business School [Phd]. PhD series No. 8.2019 Link to publication in CBS Research Portal General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us ([email protected]) providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 06. Oct. 2021 COPENHAGEN BUSINESS SCHOOL IN CONTEMPORARY ART THE ORGANIZING OF PARTICIPATION THE POETICS OF PARTICIPATION: SOLBJERG PLADS 3 DK-2000 FREDERIKSBERG DANMARK WWW.CBS.DK ISSN 0906-6934 Print ISBN: 978-87-93744-58-5 Online ISBN: 978-87-93744-59-2 Ditte Vilstrup Holm THE POETICS OF PARTICIPATION THE ORGANIZING OF PARTICIPATION IN CONTEMPORARY ART Doctoral School of Organisation and Management Studies PhD Series 8.2019 PhD Series 8-2019 The Poetics of Participation The organizing of participation in contemporary art Ditte Vilstrup Holm Main supervisor: Timon Beyes Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy Copenhagen Business School Co-supervisors: Søren Friis Møller, Head of Studies, The National Film School of Denmark Ole Winther, Head of Division, The Agency for Culture and Palaces Doctoral School of Organisation and Management Studies Copenhagen Business School Ditte Vilstrup Holm The Poetics of Participation: the organizing of participation in contemporary art 1st edition 2019 PhD Series 8.2019 © Ditte Vilstrup Holm ISSN 0906-6934 Print ISBN: 978-87-93744-58-5 Online ISBN: 978-87-93744-59-2 The Doctoral School of Organisation and Management Studies is an active national and international research environment at CBS for research degree students who deal with economics and management at business, industry and country level in a theoretical and empirical manner. All rights reserved. No parts of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Acknowledgements This thesis could not have been written without the support and contribution of numerous people. I would like to sincerely thank all the case study participants that allowed me access to their ‘participation’ and who volunteered their time and reflections in the process. A special gratitude is reserved for Louise Straarup, Inger Krog, Hanne Lise Thomsen and Kenneth Balfelt. I would also like to sincerely thank my colleagues at the Agency for Culture and the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy for inspiring conversations and critical reflections on my work, not the least my fellow PhD-students whose company supported the completion of the thesis. Thanks to the participants in the network Take Part for feedback on initial parts of my thesis, to Robin Holt who offered constructive suggestions at the end of my writing process and to Susan Ryan for the language editing that carried me through to the end. A special thank is due to my co-supervisors Søren Friis Møller and Ole Winther, who offered invaluable advice at the early stages of developing the PhD-project, and to my main supervisor Timon Beyes for continuous support, guidance and discussions. Thanks also, and in particular, to Henrik Hermansen for ongoing support. Finally, I want to emphasise the support of my family: my parents and my in-laws, who continuously offered assistance to secure the stability of family life in the process, and, with love, Dag, Joanna and Felix, for bearing with me in the final process of completing the thesis. Summary This thesis engages with the organizing of participation in participatory art that constitutes the so-called social turn in contemporary visual art. The purpose of the research project is to generate new knowledge about participatory art, in particular, by investigating the organizational processes involved in these practices. To this end, an in-depth, qualitative case study of the organizing of participation for a public work of art was conducted. Using sociologist John Law’s notion of modes of ordering as a tool to sharpen an analysis of the patterning effects discerned from fieldwork observations, the thesis argues that the organizing of participation in contemporary art is an effect of four main interacting modes of ordering, termed artistic autonomy, administration, the site, and public interest. First, the thesis respectively explores the modes of ordering as singular ordering patterns in the networks of the social, and then describes how they interact and the effects of that interaction in the case study. The thesis thus contributes to a new ‘organizational turn’ in art theory that considers the way in which artistic practices are concerned with the organizing and reorganizing of social ordering processes, while themselves being embedded within and filtered into other organizing practices. The thesis also contributes to organization studies’ interest in the relationship between art, aesthetics, and processes of organizing, suggesting that contemporary art theory and organization studies both ponder the question of how artistic practices generate new forms of organizing that counter society’s prevailing economic rationale. Resumé Denne afhandling handler om organiseringen af deltagelse i den del af samtidskunsten. som også er kendt som den sociale vending. Formålet med dette forskningsprojekt er at skabe ny viden om deltagelseskunst, særligt ved at undersøge de organisatoriske processer involvereret i disse praksisser. Afhandlingen udgør et indgående kvalitativt casestudie af organiseringen af deltagelse for et offentligt kunstværk, som anvender sociologen John Laws begreb om organiseringsmåder til at præcisere feltarbejdets indledende observationer af mønstre som udtryk for effekten af særligt fire specifikke organiseringsmåder. Afhandlingen argumenterer for, at organiseringen af deltagelse i samtidskunsten er en effekt af primært fire interagerende organiseringsmåder, som benævnes henholdsvis kunstnerisk autonomi, administration, stedet og offentlighedens interesse. Først bekriver afhandlingen disse organiseringsmåder som individuelle organiseringsformer i det netværk, som casestudiet udgør. Derefter beskriver afhandlingen effekten af organiseringsmådernes interaktion i casestudiet. Afhandlingen bidrager til en ny organisatorisk vending i kunstteorien, som fremhæver, hvordan kunstneriske praksisser er optaget af at organisere og reorganisere samfundets organiseringsformer, mens de samtidig selv er indlejret i og udgør en del af andre organiseringsformer. Dermed bidrager afhandlingen også til organisationsstudiernes interesse for forholdet mellem kunst, æstetik og organiseringsprocesser, mens den påpeger, at aktuel kunstteori og organisationsstudier adresserer det samme spørgsmål om, hvordan kunstneriske praksisser genererer nye former for organisering, som modvirker samfundets dominerende økonomiske rationale. Content Introduction 1 Research objective 4 The thesis’ contribution to art history 5 The thesis’ contribution to organization studies 7 The poetics of participation 8 Contents of the thesis 9 Chapter 1: Art, aesthetics and processes of organizing 11 Art and aesthetics in organization studies 12 Art history’s problems with participatory practices 15 The relational model 18 The aesthetic-critical model 20 The ethical model 28 The durational model 37 The organization-creation model 46 Concluding remarks 57 Chapter 2: From fieldwork to theorization 58 Origins of the PhD project 59 Choosing a case 61 Case study methodology 62 Fieldwork 67 The commissioning process (2013-2016) 69 Inside Out Istedgade (2014-2016) 70 Istedgade Green Spots and Sustainable Detours (2014-2018) 70 Additional fieldwork (2015-2017) 71 John Law 71 Modes of ordering 74 Abducting modes of ordering 77 Chapter 3: A work of art for Istedgade 81 The multiple origins of a public artwork 81 My introduction to the case 84 An illustrated process map 86 The ethics of citizen participation 88 Artistic autonomy 90 Artistic collaborations 91 In the public interest 93 Aesthetic tools of persuasion 94 Collaborative organizing 95 From fieldwork to empirical material to modes of ordering 96 Chapter 4: A sketch of the modes of ordering 97 The illustrated process map 97 Artistic autonomy 98 Administration 99 Public interest 101 The performance of The Little Mermaid 103 The site 105 From the sketch to modes of ordering 107 Chapter 5: Four modes of ordering 109 Artistic autonomy 109 Administration 117 The site 123 Public interest 128 The status of the modes of ordering 136 Chapter 6: Balancing acts 140 Persuasive translation 141 Consensus and dissensus 143 The public value of process-based participatory art 145 The public interest of the public vote 148 The public interest of a work of high aesthetic quality 151 Situational balancing acts 154 Consensus and dissensus revisited 155 Chapter 7: ‘It doesn’t have to be green’ 158 Spots on Istedgade 158 The bureaucracy of public administration

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