[iDC] Social Ethics, Social Aesthetics, Social Beauty

[Sal Randolph]

Hey Kanarinka,

Great questions.  I'm especially glad to see you bring up the subject  
of failure, which is often on my mind (we could really have a whole  
"failure" thread, and I wish we would).

 >>> "Is it just me or do social art projects seem to have lots more  
failure involved than other art projects?" >>>

I'm not sure social art fails more often than other art, but there  
are qualities of social artworks which make them fail more  
obviously.  One is that part of the purpose of traditional studio  
practice is to shield the audience (and the artist) from the artist's  
failures.  Lots of paintings never make it out of the studio.  A  
friend (who had seen inside) told me once that Julian Schnabel was so  
prolific that he had an entire (large) building full of work that had  
never been shown - when his gallerist wanted to put together a show,  
he just went through and picked out one or another group of pieces.   
So maybe it's not that social artworks fail more often than, say,  
paintings, but they fail more publicly.  You can't really do them at  
all without involving other people and implicating the public in the  
question of the relative failure and success of the work.

 >>>" I  am thinking of artist talks, grants, and so on, where the  
main goal is to impress the audience and promote the project so you  
can get a few bucks to make the next version. But it seems like these  
projects would be much more interesting and might accomplish more if  
we could begin to publicly talk about their failures." >>>

Here. here on this!  But I think the temptation to erase one's  
failures in social projects goes deeper than just the desire to  
present them in a positive light to colleagues and granting  
authorities.  There is also what I think of as the "host effect."   
The artist is not unlike the host of a party (not just in the context  
of convivial or playful works, but maybe even more so in  
uncomfortable and difficult ones) - you want your participants to  
have a good/interesting experience, so there's an impulse to handle/ 
ignore/smooth away glitches and problems from the very beginning.

 >>> "And one of the things that is endlessly surprising are the  
failures (sometimes small, sometimes large) which cause you to  
reevaluate your expectations, your publics and your approach and,  
ideally, to work in versions/iterations. I am thinking of failure in  
a positive, learning way." >>>

Yes, and I think we might need a list of criteria for failure as much  
as we do criteria for success.  To get interested in our failures we  
have to notice them and  own them.  Anyone have thoughts about what  
might go on such a list?

  -- Sal

PS:  As it happens, a book on failure arrived in the mail this  
morning: The (wonderful) Journal of Aesthetics & Protest's recently  
published, "Failure! Experiments in Aesthetics and Social  
Practices."  Though it's focus is quite on artistic failure per se,  
but more on "ernest actions undertaken in good faith, with a hope for  
success, which not only ended poorly but were subsequently disavowed  
either individually, culturally, or historically.  The used-up, the  
embarrassing, the misguided and foolhardy who wagered much and lost,  
the ventures which let nowhere, and which didn't serve as rallying  
cries or symbolic gestures, but are quickly buried away with no hope  
for a second act or a distant redemption."  So far it looks great.  
http://journalofaestheticsandprotest.org/press.htm#failure



On Jan 14, 2008, at 8:50 PM, kanarinka wrote:

> Hello Sal and everyone -
>
> Wow. Thanks so much for such a detailed and thoughtful synopsis of  
> this arena of practice. I am very curious to read responses.
>
> A few things that are questions for me:
>
> 1) Historical, Different histories & publics - I am interested to  
> know what people coming from a community art practice and/or media  
> activism practices think about the recent surge in public,  
> interventionist, social, participatory art projects. Not that these  
> positions are more ethical or better, only that I think it is  
> interesting that there is curatorial and academic interest in  
> social, participatory projects that seem to be connected more to an  
> avant-garde art tradition than these other histories. Or, I guess,  
> why is serving soup in a gallery suddenly interesting enough to  
> make a theory about when artists have probably served soup in many  
> other places over the years? Or, another way to put it, which  
> histories matter when we are talking about  the social- 
> participatory-ethics-aesthetics world?
>
> 2) Failure & reflection - Is it just me or do social art projects  
> seem to have lots more failure involved than other art projects? (I  
> am silently counting many of my own project's failures here). I  
> really appreciated and agreed with this:  >>>> "Personally, one of  
> the aesthetic qualities I most admire in social artworks is what I  
> think of as aliveness - when the interactions of the participants  
> develop beyond the situation envisioned by the artist, when the  
> participants take over and really make something new happen.  This  
> is the reason I keep doing this kind of work - if the piece is  
> successful, I never fail to be profoundly surprised by what  
> actually develops. ">>>>>
>
> And one of the things that is endlessly surprising are the failures  
> (sometimes small, sometimes large) which cause you to reevaluate  
> your expectations, your publics and your approach and, ideally, to  
> work in versions/iterations. I am thinking of failure in a  
> positive, learning way.
>
> If an experiment fails, this is useful public knowledge. But most  
> of the "art" structures aren't geared towards collectively  
> reflecting on failure. I am thinking of artist talks, grants, and  
> so on, where the main goal is to impress the audience and promote  
> the project so you can get a few bucks to make the next version.  
> But it seems like these projects would be much more interesting and  
> might accomplish more if we could begin to publicly talk about  
> their failures.
>
> I could go on, but I am looking forward to other thoughts & questions,
> Best,
> kanarinka
>
>
>
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