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The Lure of the Social is an intimate and personal exploration into the key individuals, institutions, and gatherings that make up the field of socially engaged art. In this book of encounters, the reader follows Gretchen Coombs on her journey through what could be considered the most significant shift in art world practices in the last two decades. The book navigates a spectrum: at one end, the author works closely with socially engaged artists as part of her ethnographic research; at the other, she tries to find critical distance from which to write about their art projects and the institutional structures that support their work, such as art schools and conferences. Readers are introduced to artists, their work, and the key debates and issues facing this emergent field. In the course of her study, Coombs analyzes the contradictions and paradoxes of this field of practice and gives expression to the artists working to make art relevant in times of social and political uncertainty.
Creative Practice Ethnographies focuses on the intersection of creative practice and ethnography and offers new ways to think about the methods, practice, and promise of research in contemporary interdisciplinary contexts. How does creative practice inform new ways of doing ethnography and vice versa? What new forms of expression and engagement are made possible as a result of these creative synergies? By addressing these questions, the authors highlight the important roles that ethnography and creative practice play in socially impactful research. This book is aimed at interdisciplinary researchers, scholars, and students of art, design, sociology, anthropology, games, media, education, and cultural studies.
What would it mean to substitute care for economics as the central concern of politics? This anthology invites analysis, reflections and speculations on how contemporary artists and creative practitioners engage with, interpret, and enact care in practices which might forge an alternative ethics in the age of neoliberalism. Interdisciplinary and innovative, it brings together contributions from artists, researchers and practitioners who creatively consider how care can be practised in a range of contexts, including environmental ethics, progressive pedagogies, cultures of work, alternative economic models, death literacy advocacy, parenting and mothering, deep listening, mental health, disability and craftivism. Care Ethics and Art contributes new modes of understanding these fields, together with practical solutions and models of practice, while also offering new ways to think about recent contemporary art and its social function. The book will benefit scholars and postgraduate research students in the fields of art, art history and theory, visual cultures, philosophy and gender studies, as well as creative and arts practitioners.
Undesign brings together leading artists, designers and theorists working at the intersection of art and design. The text focuses on design practices, and conceptual approaches, which challenge the traditional notion that design should emphasise its utility over aesthetic or other non-functional considerations. This publication brings to light emerging practices that consider the social, political and aesthetic potential of "undesigning" our complex designed world. In documenting these new developments, the book highlights the overlaps with science, engineering, biotechnology and hacktivism, which operate at the intersection of art and design.
The value of design for contributing to environmental solutions and a sustainable future is increasingly recognised. It spans many spheres of everyday life, and the ethical dimension of design practice that considers environmental, social and economic sustainability is compelling. Approaches to design recognise design as a practice that can transform human experience and understanding, expanding its role beyond stylistic enhancement. The traditional roles of design, designer and designed object are therefore redefined through new understanding of the relationship between the material and immaterial aspects of design where the design product and the design process are embodiments of ideas, values and beliefs. This multi-disciplinary approach considers how to create design which is at once aesthetically pleasing and also ethically considered, with contributions from fields as diverse as architecture, fashion, urban design and philosophy. The authors also address how to teach design based subjects while instilling a desire in the student to develop ethical work practices, both inside and outside the studio.
This issue of Transpositiones showcases a range of interdisciplinary and critical approaches to classic and alternative conceptions of cognition and sources of knowledge. The articles reflect on the many types of sensory and extrasensory knowledge available to non-human beings and wonder whether and in what ways can we, as humans, perceive, conceptualize, and respect these knowledges. The authors highlight how the existence of multiple knowledges questions species boundaries and onto- and epistemological perspectives, in the process of learning not only about other beings but also from and along with them. This selection of texts attempts to contribute to overcoming the anthropocentric perception of subjectivity and to the abandoning of an optics based on the dualisms of nature and culture, spirit and matter, subject and object, animate and inanimate nature, physis and techne, etc., which are so firmly entrenched in the Western intellectual tradition.
With a domestic market of around 70 billion dollars, the Indian fashion industry employs over 60 million people and accounts for a sizeable chunk of the country's GDP. Despite this, models-the most visible yet voiceless actors of the industry-are rarely given the recognition they deserve. It is this overlooked demographic that forms the focus of Manjima Bhattacharjya's remarkable study, bringing these women's voices and perspectives to us. Tracing the rise of the modelling and beauty industry from the 1960s to the present day, Bhattacharjya argues that modelling is work, and should be recognized as such. At the heart of the book lies a difficult question: should the industry be seen as objectifying women or as acknowledging their agency? Mannequin is also an individual's personal exploration of the changing relationship between fashion and feminism.
This collection explores the growing global recognition of creativity and the arts as vital to social movements and change. Bringing together diverse perspectives from leading academics and practitioners who investigate how creative activism is deployed, taught, and critically analysed, it delineates the key parameters of this emerging field.
This book presents over 20 authors’ reflections on ‘curating care’ – and presents a call to give curatorial attention to the primacy of care for all life and for more ‘caring curating’ that responds to the social, ecological and political analysis of curatorial caregiving. Social and ecological struggles for a different planetary culture based on care and respect for the dignity of life are reflected in contemporary curatorial practices that explore human and non-human interdependence. The prevalence of themes of care in curating is a response to a dual crisis: the crisis of social and ecological care that characterizes global politics and the professional crisis of curating unde...
This volume seeks to instigate a discussion about dementia in theatre. The discussions in this book borrow from the literature on dementia’s representation in other artforms, while reflecting on theatre’s unique capacity to incorporate multiple artforms in a live context (hypermediacy). The author examines constructions of diegesis and the use of various performance tools, including physical theatre, puppetry, and postdramatic performance. She discusses stage representations of interior experiences of dementia; selfhood in dementia; the demarcation of those with dementia from those without; endings, erasure, and the pursuit of catharsis; placelessness and disruptions of traditional dramatic constructions of time; and ultimately, performances creatively led by people with dementia. The book traces patterns of narrativisation on the stage—including common dramaturgical forms, settings, and character relationships—as well as examples that transcend mainstream representation. This book is important reading for theatre and performance students, scholars, and practitioners, as well as cultural studies writers engaged in research about narratives of dementia.