The Necessity of Agency:Social Practice in Late Capitalist Modes Of
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The University of Maine DigitalCommons@UMaine Electronic Theses and Dissertations Fogler Library Spring 5-12-2018 The ecesN sity of Agency:Social Practice in Late Capitalist Modes of Cultural Production Susan L. Smith University of Maine, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons Recommended Citation Smith, Susan L., "The eN cessity of Agency:Social Practice in Late Capitalist Modes of Cultural Production" (2018). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2875. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd/2875 This Open-Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE NECESSITY OF AGENCY: SOCIAL PRACTICE IN LATE CAPITALIST MODES OF CULTURAL PRODUCTION By Susan L. Smith B.F.A. University of Maine, 2011 M F.A. University of Maine, 2014 A DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Interdisciplinary in Social Practice and Critical Theory) The Graduate School The University of Maine May 2018 Advisory Committee: Laurie E. Hicks, Professor of Art, Co-chair Owen F. Smith, Professor of Intermedia, Co-chair Joline Blais, Professor of New Media Michael Grillo, Professor of Art History Susan Groce, Professor of Art Carol Ayoob , Professor of Art Copyright 2018 Susan L Smith ii THE NECESSITY OF AGENCY: SOCIAL PRACTICE IN LATE CAPITALIST MODES OF CULTURAL PRODUCTION By Susan L. Smith Dissertation Advisors: Dr. Laurie E. Hicks, Dr. Owen F. Smith An Abstract of the Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Interdisciplinary in Social Practice and Critical Theory) May 2018 As art has become more and more coopted in globalized capital, and the role of art as labor has become more and more obscured by questions of class and increased technological reproduction, socially engaged art (SEA) is a gesture toward the reclaiming of art as communal (and therefore inherently class-conscious) event. By a careful analysis of the role of the market in the identification of something as art, and the role of celebrity as a function of such a christening, I take a critical stance as a basic methodology for what is ultimately a class-based analysis of art, as suggested, for instance, by the work of Ben Davis. It is only by the careful working out of such class assumptions regarding not only art, but the act of writing about art, and certainly the act of writing about art in a dissertation within an institution that bears authority regarding the establishment of art practices, that the ground can be cleared for a constructive argument. This is an argument that has only gained in force in the art world itself as more and more artists have sought to create artistic eXperiences outside of the normative function of the gallery or the power structures of the university. By eXamining the class structure of art practice, the dissertation will assess the role of art as labor, and the role of art in production of community cultural development. Through various socially engaged projects, I analyze art not as an object- oriented means of production within a system of commodities, but as the encapsulating “house” of community. As such, art practice is that which opens onto self-realization of the collective within the horizon of the new. This, it should be noted, is also most often today seen as the role of science. The position of the eXpert haunts both art and science, but whereas it is a burden for art to carry such a vestige of neoliberal enlightenment, science readily accepts the figure of the eXpert in science as the one who enlightens. In this way, both art and science make truth claims, but science—in its aspects as cultural guardian of positivism—leads into a labyrinth of technology; art, on the other hand, leads into the open. Education, therefore, is not something that teaches art, but is in itself an art practice, a socially engaged practice that is fully in keeping with a class-based notion of art. Through the communal production of knowledge, art again has a particular truth- value that is established through communication. Art is both an inherently political discourse, but also that discourse which is established through the creative and intimate space of silence (again, a space that is foreclosed through the vantages of power). Through education, through the juXtaposition of “class” and “Class,” art establishes a radical aesthetics, in the old sense of radical—getting to the root. This radical act, then, is the radical act of site-specificity of the immediate temporality that constitutes the practice. As a landscaper prior to beginning my art practice, I understand art as “earthwork,” the tending and nurturing inherent in gardening, but also the clearing necessary for such an event to take place. As I have suggested, this is eXactly what is required for art as radical rootedness to come to the fore. Art is a temporal modality of being: it is inherently futural in its activation, though rooted in the past. That is what has drawn me to print as propaganda, knowing its rich history, but also its possibility as what Carse calls an “infinite game.” Art is a necessary communal practice that has been coopted to support the logic of late capitalism. This has uprooted it into the flow of commodities through the art market. EXperimental practices such as socially engaged art are necessary to destabilize and undermine this power structure to retain the grassroots, radically democratic nature of art. DEDICATION This paper and the accompanying creative production are dedicated to all of those who have worked alongside me as collaborators: fellow artists, students, community members, and my #uprooted partner in and for this art-as-life , Derek T. Smith. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Deep appreciation must be eXtended to my mentors and advisors. The support and guidance of Dr. Laurie E. Hicks, and generosity and eXpansive thinking of Dr. Owen F. Smith have been a constant in this process. I owe a debt of gratitude to Michael Grillo for starting me on the path of critical thinking, to Joline Blais for her awareness of the need for urgency, and to Susan Groce for opening me up to the possibilities of print. In Carol Ayoob, I have found a sisterhood of understanding the dance required to navigate this world. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION .................................................................................................................................. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................. iv LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................ vi Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 1 2. METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................................... 19 3. SOCIALLY ENGAGED ART: DEFINING THE PRACTICE ............................................................ 33 4. SYSTEMS, STRUCTURES AND INSTITUTIONS ........................................................................ 59 5. ARTIST AS LABORER ............................................................................................................. 81 6. EDUCATION AS ARTFORM ................................................................................................. 105 7. THE ROLE OF DOCUMENTATION ....................................................................................... 129 8. THE PROJECTS ................................................................................................................... 148 Introduction............................................................................................................149 Systems of EXchange...............................................................................................155 Site-Specific Works.................................................................................................171 Community Driven Processes.................................................................................198 Academic Collaboration..........................................................................................215 Printmaking as Socially Engaged Action: Paper with a Purpose.............................221 9. CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................... 244 v BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................................275 BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR ..................................................................................................... 282 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Please Love Austria, Christoph Schlingenseif .................................................. 61 Figure 2. Artists Tower of Protest, Mark Di Suvero ....................................................... 83 Figure 3. Migration Rickshaw, Theaster Gates .............................................................. 90 Figure 4. Cut Piece, Yoko Ono .......................................................................................