Art, communities and social change: excavation of a situated practice

Abstract

This thesis examines some of the hands-on practicalities utilised in the development, realisation and delivery of socially situated art. Taking that aspect of aesthetics concerned with the rules and principles of art, it constructs a perspective through which such work may be usefully critiqued and understood. The material studied is drawn from my own community-based practice of the last thirty years.

The methodology I have used is one that reflects the practice itself, starting from what is ‘known’ through active involvement, but rarely articulated. Rather than an argument of concepts, I have worked outwards from the practice, laying out the experiences and extrapolating the issues that derive from them. A range of projects are outlined for use as case studies, from which practical and theoretical questions arising through the work’s realisation have been identified. A series of current projects constituting the practice element of this research have then been subjected to scrutiny in the light of the newly excavated methodologies, and implications identified for future work. Current debates on the location of the aesthetic in such practice are then considered in relation to the new knowledge derived from experience.

My intentions originally included deriving insights from this body of practical work to comment on the wider sphere of socially engaged practice and the institutions and policies that impact on it. However it has seemed more productive to focus on that knowledge afforded by the work itself and to let it stand as a measure against which the validity and authority of the wider cultural context may be viewed. In this way I intend to provide new insights that can inform understanding of art based on productive social engagement, enabling it to be better valued and more appropriately supported.

Date of Award	Sept 2009
Original language	English
Sponsors	Department of Education and Learning
Supervisor	Declan McGonagle (Supervisor) & Kerstin Mey (Supervisor)