Socially Engaged Art Practice: Authorship, Dialogue and Community

In this course we undertake experiments with "social practice" and "social sculpture", where the structure and direction of the relationships that constitute the art situation are activated to become politically engaged. This kind of art practice sets up a constructed situation as a framework in which participants have, or are intended to have, agency in the production of the work. The experimental nature of the construction of situations does not determine what the artwork is in advance of its audience. It is constituted by the dialogue or interaction that the situation elicits. The course will centre on student-led projects developed within specific contexts, which will require context-specific research and knowledge acquisition. These projects will not necessarily be undertaken individually, and the way in which students become involved in each other's projects will be an important exercise in negotiating different roles. Social practice is also becoming an important form of outreach for museums and so the projects will address the future implications of this as well as situating their methods in relation to the history of dialogue and participation in art practice.