Spring 2020 - ACE

a. 1) "Such developments, needless to say, have further problematized critical reaction to collaborative practices, involving as they do a series of ethical quandaries when it comes to considering how communities are co-opted, represented and in some instances exploited in the name of making art." As artists, we have to be aware of who are using to represent what we want to say, where we are presenting it, and to whom. All of these in mind, we should also be aware of the process while creating. The community will go through a change as well as the artist if presented. a. 2) "If the point is to shock the viewer out of complacency, do we merely arrive at the re-inscription of disgust and disdain associated with the original power structures that enabled these practices both to exist and to determine relations to power in the first place – and if so, what do such reactions encourage by way of a commitment to change, if that is indeed the goal of socially and politically...

a) Highlight 3 insights that your reading has helped bring to the surface. Use specific text evidence to link your insights. b) If you could ask the author 3 questions,  what questions might those be? c) What applications might this work have to your understanding of an ethical approach to community-engaged arts? d) Consider the work we have been exploring this semester thus far.  Choose one artist or project that resonated with you. What ethical considerations were in place on this project? a.  pg. 2 "What exactly is meant by the social or public sphere in collaborative artworks?-Are artists reflecting upon and co-opting already formed communities,... Or are they producing provisional communities that come together in experimental formations for the duration of a project?" The first thing that came to my mind when hearing a few examples of the extreme non consensual community art making was the word "experiment" because this seems more ...

Something that has recently come to mind is an artist’s intent, message, and what defines art. This was something I started to think about in depth while reflecting back on all of the productions I participated in last year, but more specifically the events that occurred during the setup of Graduation Main Gallery. To be more specific, last year somebody used black spray paint and tagged a message (one I unfortunately can not remember) in the Main Gallery with a very short 2 word phrase targeting the $2000 increase in the CalArts tuition. Note that the Main Gallery was not the only area tagged. The effect of this 4ft x 4ft graffiti ultimately slowed the setup of the Graduation Main Gallery down by hours because the space had to be painted over which I believe required everyone working in the space to hold their work until we were cleared to start working again. In reaction, the lighting designer of the space took a picture of the graffiti and shared a post on a Facebook group page sta...

Three key ideas discussed in the text that resonated with you and your interests or wonderings about community engaged arts: “In these projects, on the other hand, conversations become an integral part of the work itself. It is framed as an active, generative process that can help us speak and imagine beyond the limits of fixed identities, official discourse, and  the perceived inevitability of partisan political conflict.” “These projects require a shift in our understanding of the work of art- a redefinition of aesthetic experience as durational rather than immediate.”   “On the other hand, collective identity is often established through an abstract, generalizing principle (“the nation, the people”) that does as much to repress specific differences as it does to celebrate points of common experience.  Three questions sparked by the content and/or vocabulary of the text: What is a, “politically coherent community”? How can we continue to challeng...

Downey's perspective on contemporary art as it comes to culture and collaborative work was spot on with the question of ethics and intercultural collaboration. It's true that as society shines a harsher light on the treatment of different cultural groups and the history of wrongs brought against them, that work created by members of those groups is emphasized while work centered on those groups created by outsiders are critiqued (Downey 593). The discussion of aesthetics vs ethics was interesting to me, since the easiest ways to draw attention to one's culture are the super interesting traditions and food - the kodak moments as one would say. When using these types of events to draw outside attention to your culture, can they really be blamed for only taking away surface level knowledge or understanding when that's all that's being provided (Downey 596)? This draws attention to the acts and subjectively exploitative works of artists like Santiago Sierra and Artur ...

Key Learnings/ Ideas: Reflect on potential applications in your understanding of community-engaged arts practices or your understanding of your own artistic practice in particular: War Identifying the worth of a human- what elements determine a perpetrator from a victim in a situation as complex as war? Prisoners People from all backgrounds have vulnerabilities and contexts that led them to their states in life. Living in any condition comes with limitations- what determines how we live a life? At what point does punishment become too much to be humans? Using song to fully convey hyper specific thoughts and experience by use of emotion and tone. -"It Was Me Who Did It" Runaway Girls The power of human connection supersedes barriers of language and culture. People do not need to have common ground as long as emotion is conveyed to complement to message of a piece. While Theater of Witness feels too much like trauma porn to me (a step up from Sebastian Sierra's ...

An idea that really resonates with me is the mention of “...incremental shifts from object-based to context-based practices to, more recently, artworks that primarily utilize forms of collaboration and participation…” (Downey, 593). This very simply encapsulates, for me, the way in which art-making has become so much more of a conversation rather than a presentation. Another idea that resonates with me is the discussion about the fact that with nearly all art (and particularly the examples provided in the text), “...the very fact that the social, economic, and political conditions exist whereby such events can take place” (Downey, 595). This illuminates the often taken-for-granted concept that we are capable of engaging in community art  which frequently surpasses a “...political limit point and an ethical threshold...” (Downey, 595). In other words, we possess the ability to create more and do more, but this power comes with crucial levels of ethical and aesthetic accountabilit...

no clue. If I had to pick anything related to what we've been talking about in class, it would be to peruse a gallery space for communities artists to create and sell their art. Just like the one we saw in    Mercado La Paloma. Id like to engage with Santa Clarita and make a satellite gallery where the community can go view, perchaice and find support through CalArts. or create an art piece that lives as a inspirational legacy for that city or town or neighborhood.

- One thing the article helped bring insight on was the role of power relations in collaborative art. When reading about the repetitive aesthetics of Zmijewski’s collaboration piece of surveillance my first first initial thought was that there were several unethical factors. It made me question where the line is drawn when it comes to collaborative art or art in general, or if there even is a line that can be drawn in any form of art. Although some people may find the art within the repetition in the project directed by Zmijewski and how his positional power in directing the distributed power with the collaborators, I personally found it hard to see any aesthetics in this example and only saw the ethical problems. - The participation in observing in the process of creating art was something I feel like I could understand two sides of in the example that is Marten’s film. One is the concept that through Marten’s film, the consumer/audience will watch it and take the impact his wor...

Insights  “To be patronised once by a disingenuous colonialist does not make it any less patronising second time round by an all-too- knowing artist in the name of film-making.” “Are artists reflecting upon and co- opting already formed communities – regular visitors to galleries, for example” “All three artists, in short, have paid individuals money to debase themselves in the name of artistic production.” Questions How do you think these ideas of artists making art for already formed communities applies to social media like instagram and youtube where the audience is very specific and follows the artist closely.  Do you think that instagram promotes artists to pay individuals “ money to debase themselves in the name of artistic production.”? How much do the pre formed communities influence the artist? d) Consider the work we have been exploring this semester thus far.  Choose one artist or project that resonated with you. What ethical considerations...

"In the context of participative observation as a form of collaboration, Swiss-born Olaf Breuning would appear keen to exploit the differences between ethnographic authority and artistic authorship whilst simultaneously blurring the lines between humour and forms of exploitation" (Downey, 597). This is interesting to me because there is a fine line between humor, self-depreciation, and depression. Authority and authorship are also very interesting, drawing the comparison between what we create and what we can be told to do.  "Breuning could, if he was so inclined, nevertheless argue (pace Sierra) that such a work, far from being exploitative, represents and draws attention to the systems within which individuals are exploited" (Downey, 597). This is really important because bringing awareness to individuals who are being exploited explains situations to those who are not in that position.  "However, the collaborative aspect of Home, the manner in wh...

a) Highlight 3 insights that your reading has helped bring to the surface. Use specific text evidence to link your insights. 1. It's very interesting the connection that the author is making between community engaged art and ethnography. I know a little bit about ethnography and it's historically problematic gaze, so it help that this connection is being made. "This is not so much to posit the collaborative artist as an ethnographer per se, or ‘outside observer’, as it is to note the extent to which participative art practices often involve a close, if not intimate, degree of familiarity and involvement with given social groups over extended periods of time." This quote perfectly lays out the fundamental association in a way that's really eye opening for me. 2. The idea of aesthetics vs ethics has always been such an interesting thing for me to think about. I've watched countless ethnographic films and can pull a lot of enjoyment and meaning from them...

Highlight 3 insights that your reading has helped bring to the surface. Use specific text evidence to link your insights. One insight is when Downey spoke about doing art with no purpose.  Another thing, related the first, was when the author was talking about making art when it is detrimental to another human being a group of people is equally, and in my opinion more, terrible as making art that has no purpose.  The last is when Downey mentioned people not being given credit for their participation in art; like the boys in the photograph from Ghana.  If you could ask the author 3 questions,  what questions might those be? What are some possible solutions to stop exploitation of artistic collaborators?  Is compensation always financial; does compensation come in any form other than material goods and money?  How would you suggest to educate artists about how to be more mindful when collaborating? What applications might this work have to...

In 20 Dollars , one of the artists throws money at Ghanian children. The author says of this, “To be patronised once by a disingenuous colonialist does not make it any less patronising second time round by an all-too knowing artist in the name of film-making.” This was a general feeling I had throughout this text. I just felt as though most of the work’s focus was misguided. It seemed like they were just trying to stick it to the “man” (establishment, the west, society) without any regard for the humans right in front of them. In Home , Breuning “notes that men and women look the same in Papua New Guinea.” This is meant to show what is wrong with global tourism, but this highlight on negativity doesn’t encourage me that there is any change. His portrayal of a douche doesn’t convince me that douches will stop being douches. “Provocation here begets a form of viewer antagonism that is nonetheless a form of engagement, but is that an ethics of engagement or just provocation?” I believe p...

a) aritsts involvement in other countries can often have a negative impact / what are the ethics of infuriating another country with foreign art /  there is a crucial collaboration that needs to happen in projects like this. b) what is the point of the project? will these people in this other country have credit for their involvement? do you feel like you're exploiting these people? c) they seemed cautions in doing a project like this but I cant help but feel like no matter how "careful" you are its still wrong somehow.

a) Highlight 3 insights that your reading has helped bring to the surface. Use specific text evidence to link your insights. Collaborative art practices should ask these questions of themselves: What are the goals of a project, is it egocentric, is it benefiting or hurting those involved, and are those involved collaborating through consent and respect or not? A work should be judged on its ethical efficacy rather than what makes it interesting as art. To do something in the name of art that disrespects or demeans another person or group is just as bad as doing it without purpose.  b) If you could ask the author 3 questions, what questions might those be? I feel like anyone can argue that their art is commentary even if it is exploitative in its means, so how would you define the line between ethico-political commentary and exploitation/misrepresentation?  What ways would you suggest to limit the exploitative art practices? How can we make artistic...