Practicable: From Participation to Interaction in Contemporary Art

by Samuel Bianchini (Editor), Erik Verhagen (Editor)

Overview

Critical analyses, case studies, and artist interviews examine works of art that are realized with the physical involvement of the viewer.

How are we to understand works of art that are realized with the physical involvement of the viewer? A relationship between a work of art and its audience that is rooted in an experience that is both aesthetic and physical? Today, these works often use digital technologies, but artists have created participatory works since the 1950s. In this book, critics, writers, and artists offer diverse perspectives on this kind of “practicable” art that bridges contemplation and use, discussing and documenting a wide variety of works from the last several decades. The contributors consider both works that are technologically mediated and those that are not, as long as they are characterized by a process of reciprocal exchange.

The book offers a historical frame for practicable works, discussing, among other things, the emergence and influence of cybernetics. It examines art movements and tendencies that incorporate participatory strategies; draws on the perspectives of the humanities and sciences; and investigate performance and exhibition. Finally, it presents case studies of key works by artists including and offers interviews with such leading artists and theoreticians as Claire Bishop, Thomas Hirschhorn, Matt Adams of Blast Theory, Seiko Mikami and Bruno Latour. Numerous illustrations of artists and their works accompany the text.

Contributors
Matt Adams (Blast Theory), Jean-Christophe Bailly, Samuel Bianchini, Claire Bishop, Jean-Louis Boissier, Nicolas Bourriaud, Christophe Charles, Valérie Châtelet, Jean-Pierre Cometti, Sarah Cook, Jordan Crandall, Dominique Cunin, Nathalie Delbard, Anna Dezeuze, Diedrich Diederichsen, Christophe Domino, Larisa Dryansky, Glória Ferreira, Jean-Paul Fourmentraux, Gilles Froger, Masaki Fujihata, Jean Gagnon, Katrin Gattinger, Jochen Gerz, Piero Gilardi, Véronique Goudinoux, Usman Haque, Helen Evans and Heiko Hansen (HeHe), Jeppe Hein, Thomas Hirschhorn, Marion Hohlfeldt, Pierre-Damien Huyghe, Judith Ickowicz, Eric Kluitenberg, Janet Kraynak, Bruno Latour, Christophe Leclercq, Frédérik Lesage, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Peter Lunenfeld, Lawrence Malstaf, Julie Martin, Seiko Mikami, Dominique Moulon, Hiroko Myokam, Ernesto Neto, Mayumi Okura, Eddie Panier, Françoise Parfait, Simon Penny, Daniel Pinkas, Chantal Pontbriand, Emanuele Quinz, Margit Rosen, Alberto Sánchez Balmisa, Frederik Schikowski, Arnd Schneider, Madeline Schwartzman, Luke Skrebowski, Vanessa Theodoropoulou, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Andrea Urlberger, Erik Verhagen, Franz Erhard Walther, Peter Weibel, Renate Wiehager, Catherine Wood, Giovanna Zapperi, Anne Zeitz, David Zerbib

Edited by Samuel Bianchini and Erik Verhagen with the collaboration of Nathalie Delbard and Larisa Dryansky.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262034753
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	10/28/2016
Series:	Leonardo
Pages:	952
Product dimensions:	7.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Samuel Bianchini, an artist and researcher, is Associate Professor at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (EnsAD), PSL Research University Paris where he is the head of the "Reflective Interaction" Research Group of EnsadLab, the school's laboratory.

Erik Verhagen, an independent curator and an art critic, is Associate Professor of Contemporary Art History at Université de Valenciennes.

Margit Rosen is a Researcher and Curator for ZKM | Center for Art and Media Technology.

Simon Penny is Professor of Art at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at the University of California, Irvine, teaching mechatronic art, media art history and theory, and interdisciplinary seminars interfacing contemporary cognitive science and philosophy of mind with the arts. Trained as a sculptor, he has spent much of his career building interactive art environments with custom robotic and sensor-based systems.

Anna Dezeuze, is the editor of The 'Do-it-yourself' Artwork: Participation from Fluxus to New Media and co-editor, with Julia Kelly, of Found Sculpture and Photography from Surrealism to Contemporary Art. Her writing has appeared in Oxford Art Journal, Women & Performance, Performance Research, Mute, and Art Monthly. She is a Lecturer in Art History at the Ecole Supérieure d'Art et de Design Marseille Méditerranée.

Diedrich Diederichsen is Professor of Theory, Practice, and Communication of Contemporary Art at the Academy of Fine Art in Vienna.

Peter Lunenfeld is Professor of Design Media Arts at UCLA.

Sarah Cook is a curator and researcher working at the intersection of art, digital and electronic media, and science. She is the coauthor (with Beryl Graham) of Rethinking Curating: Art After New Media (MIT Press), and in 2004 cocurated the touring exhibition, “Database Imaginary.” She is Dundee Fellow at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee.

Anna Dezeuze, is the editor of The 'Do-it-yourself' Artwork: Participation from Fluxus to New Media and co-editor, with Julia Kelly, of Found Sculpture and Photography from Surrealism to Contemporary Art. Her writing has appeared in Oxford Art Journal, Women & Performance, Performance Research, Mute, and Art Monthly. She is a Lecturer in Art History at the Ecole Supérieure d'Art et de Design Marseille Méditerranée.

Catherine Wood is Curator of contemporary art/performance at Tate Modern and is currently curating, with Jessica Morgan, the upcoming exhibition, "The World as a Stage." Recently, she programmed "Theatre Pieces," a series of live works for the Tate Triennial 2006. She has regularly published articles in Afterall, Frieze, Art Monthly, and Untitled and has contributed numerous essays to exhibition catalogs.

Janet Kraynak is a New York-based art historian.

Erik Verhagen, an independent curator and an art critic, is Associate Professor of Contemporary Art History at Université de Valenciennes.

Peter Weibel is Chairman and CEO of the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe. With Bruno Latour, he coedited ICONOCLASH and Making Things Public as well as other ZKM volumes, including, most recently, Sound Art and Global Activism (all published by the MIT Press).

Thomas Hirschhorn (b. 1957) is a Swiss artist known for large sculptures and ambitious projects, often constructed of everyday, makeshift materials.

Bruno Latour, a philosopher and anthropologist, is the author of We Have Never Been Modern, An Inquiry into Modes of Existence, Facing Gaia, Down to Earth, and many other books. He coedited (with Peter Weibel) the previous ZKM volumes Making Things Public, ICONOCLASH, and Reset Modernity! (all published by the MIT Press).

Samuel Bianchini, an artist and researcher, is Associate Professor at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (EnsAD), PSL Research University Paris where he is the head of the "Reflective Interaction" Research Group of EnsadLab, the school's laboratory.

Nicolas Bourriaud was the co-director of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and an art advisor for the Victor Pinchuk foundation in Kiev. His previous books include L'ère tertiaire, Esthétique relationnelle, and Formes de vie.

Claire Bishop is the author of Installation Art: A Critical History and a contributor to many art journals, including ArtForum, Flash Art, and October. She is a Lecturer in History of Art at the University of Warwick.

Table of Contents

Series Foreword xi

Credits and Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction: Practicable-Art in the Conditional Samuel Bianchini Erik Verhagen 1

I From Cybernetics Onward 23

1 Gordon Pask's Cybernetic Systems: Conversations After the End of the Mechanical Age Margit Rosen 25

2 The Artist as Homo Arbiter Formae: Art and Interaction in Jack Burnham's Systems Essays Luke Skrebowski 39

3 Two Decades of Interactive Art: Digital Technologies and Human Experience Simon Penny 55

II Art Scenes and Movements in Search of Participation 75

4 Against the Spectacle: The Construction of Situations Vanessa Theodoropoulou 77

5 From Program to Behavior: The Experience of Arte Programmata in Italy, 1958-1968 Emanuele Quinz 91

6 "The Breath Is Up to You": On Some Works by Hélio Oiticica, Lygia Clark, and Lygia Pape Glória Ferreira 113

7 À la Recherche d'un Nouveau Spectateur: The Function and Significance of Play in the Participatory Environments of the Croupe de Recherche d'Art Visuel Marion Hohlfeldt 127

8 Katsuhiro Yamaguchi: Performances and Environments Christophe Charles 143

9 Tactical Media and the Aesthetics of Participation Eric Kluitenberg 159

III From the Vantage Point of the Humanities and Social Sciences 179

10 Echoes of Pragmatism in Current Artistic Practices Jean-Pierre Cometti 181

11 Art/Anthropology Interventions Arnd Schneider 195

12 Habitable: Spectator Participation in Everyday Life Anna Dezeuze 215

13 From the Practice of Roles to the Facts of Consciousness: Art and Its Qualities Pierre-Damien Huyghe 235

14 Collaborating and Participating: A Connection Worth Examining Véronique Goudinoux 253

15 Public Operation: Net Art, Sociology, and Practicable Media Jean-Paul Fourmentraux 265

16 The Contractual Definition of the Work of Art: A Contribution to the Discussion of the Dispositif in Art Judith Ickowicz 279

IV Art in Action: On Performance 295

17 Why Participate? On the Concrete Experience of Participatory Performances Katrin Gattinger 297

18 Haptic Vision: The Female Body and "Practicable" Art Giovanna Zapped 313

19 Traveling Microbus Hordes: A Mobile Audience Diedrich Diederichsen 329

20 Demo n.O Peter Lunenfeld 345

V Bringing About Interaction, Grasping, and Seeing: Exhibiting Practicable Works of Art 359

21 Toward a Dramaturgy of Interactivity Jean-Louis Boissier 361

22 Stop, Drop, and Roll With It: Curating Participatory Media Art Sarah Cook 377

23 Taking Hold of Images: Some Thoughts on the Free Handling of Photographs in Contemporary Art Nathalie Delbard 397

VI Some Key Works: Case Studies 409

24 Robert Rauschenberg's Oracle: "A Laboratory for Testing Perceptions" Christophe Leclercq 411

25 Lygia Clark's Caminhando Anna Dezeuze 421

26 Charlotte Posenenske: Mimetic Minimalism and Practicability Renate Wiehager 431

27 The Artwork as Password: On Some Pieces by Piotr Kowalski Jean-Christophe Bailly 441

28 Robert Morris's Bodyspacemotionthings: Participation Reenacted Catherine Wood 449

29 "Therapeutic" Participation: On the Legacy of Bruce Nauman's Yellow Room (Triangular) and Other Works Janet Kraynak 459

30 Welcome! On Dan Graham's Opposing Mirrors and Video Monitors on Time Delay Françoise Parfait 469

31 On Cruelty in Art: Marina Abramovic, Rhythm 0 Cilles Froger 479

32 Viewer-Instrumented Play: Very Nervous System by David Rokeby Jean Gagnon 493

33 When Objects Speak in Images: Krzysztof Wodiczko's Homeless Vehicle Project as an Instrument of Public Discussion Christophe Domino 503

34 Reflections on Jeffrey Shaw's Golden Calf, 1994 Daniel Pinkas 513

35 Janet Cardiff's Walks Andrea Urlberger 525

36 The Gravity of Art: On Carsten Höller's Untitled (Slide), 2011 Madeline Schwartzman 531

37 Exhibiting the Museum: The Hybrid Spaces of Workspace Unlimited Dominique Moulon 543

VII Words from Artists and Theoreticians: Interviews 551

38 "Creating a Living Responsive Environment" Julie Martin Christophe Leclercq 553

39 The Action Is the Original Franz Erhard Walther Erik Verhagen 569

40 From Interaction to Public Authorship Jochen Gerz Marion Hohlfeldt 583

41 In Search of Relational Art Piero Gilardi Emanuele Quinz 595

42 "Open Fields of Enactment" Peter Weibel Marion Hohlfeldt 607

43 Reading Beyond Interactivity Masaki Fujihata Dominique Cunin Mayumi Okura 621

44 "Form Is a Position" Thomas Hirschhorn Eddie Panier 633

45 Observational Practices: A Conversation on Rhythm, Pace, and Crowd Interaction Jordan Crandall Anne Zeitz 643

46 "Is There a Revolution?" Rirkrit Tiravanija Chantal Pontbriand 655

47 "A Direct Dialogue with One's Own Perception" Seiko Mikami Hiroko Myokam 667

48 Everything Is Sculpture Ernesto Neto Glória Ferreira 667

49 Out of Control Rafael Lozano-Hemmer Alberto Sánchez Balmisa 691

50 Blast Theory: Playing with Publics Matt Adams Frédérik Lesage 705

51 "The Granularity of Participation" Usman Haque Valérie Chatelet 719

52 Critical Design: Art and Politics of Public Spaces HeHe Helen Evans Heiko Hansen Jean-Paul Fourmentraux 733

53 Exhibiting the Visitor Lawrence Malstaf Dominique Moulon 747

54 "I See Each of My Works as a Tool" Jeppe Hein Frederik Schikowski 759

55 Composing the Political Arts: On the Modes of Being of Artworks and Their Public Bruno Latour Samuel Bianchini Jean-Paul Fourmentraux 771

56 "Use Is Almost Meaning in Three Dimensions" Nicolas Bourriaud Larisa Dryansky 781

57 "The Myth of the Active Subject" Claire Bishop David Zerbib 795

Bibliography 809

Contributors 849

Index 877