Can Art Matter?

[Caffyn Kelley]

Can Art Matter? 9:am to 10:15 am Vancouver time

What militates against an art that matters? What makes art a vital part of cultural and social movement towards sustainability? Our real-time dialogue was a rapid-fire and fascinating exploration of ideas, practices, resources and possibilities for engaged art practices with Mercedes Baines and Sacha Kagan. The conversation continues below.

[Ann Rosenthal]

I would like to rephrase this to: How CAN art matter? I think it certainly does matter, especially on smaller scales between people, groups, and communities. However, as the question above poses, there are many factors that get in the way of art being as effective as it could be--being transformative with and in communities. I've been pondering: What would it look like for art to be embedded in the fabric of our communities and culture, as it is in other places around the world? Is this desirable or not? Historically, Western art has sought to distance itself from everyday culture. It seems that many of us eco/community artists are trying to achieve the opposite--trying to bridge that divide. How is it going?!

[Amy Lenzo]

I think one of the things that mitigates against an 'art that matters' is, as Ann mentions in her response, the idea that art is somehow different from the rest of life. Holding art at arms length, as something to observe or even revere, divorces us from our own heritage as creative beings and from the wellspring of inspiration and insight art offers us in addressing the challenges of our day. Whether as individuals, or as collective collaborators, a sense of our own relationship to our inner creativity is at the very core of our ability to imagine and manifest change in our world.

I've been really excited about the creative ways people are showing political opposition these days - the circles of naked bodies, and wonderful array of street theatre that accompanies the 'protest marches' I've been part of in SF in the last few years.

One of the most powerful pieces of street theatre I've ever seen was a small group of people - including one man with a young child riding on his shoulders - dressed all in white and walking together, silently, slowly, down a busy street in the middle of the day. They were walking down Market Street in San Francisco and it was simultaneously so simple, yet absolutely gob-smackingly full of power and wonder.

[Sacha Kagan]

Dear all,

My next message will be about the contents.
In this message I'd like to provide you with the full text of the article I proposed as background for the opening discussion. See the pdf file below (the file already uploaded by Caffyn only contains the beginning of the text). That text was written in August 2007 and published in the Webmagazin of Cultura21 in Germany.
In addition, I also include an "appendix" text which I wrote as a sort-of illustration for the former text (but which was not published in the webmagazin).

Besides the theoretical text, I also invite you to have a look at some concrete projects I'm currently involved in, with the Cultura21 network:
- In Lueneburg : see http://www.leuphana.de.vu (Be warned: this is a Yes-Men type, "identity correction" tactical media project, to subvert the University reform occurring down here)
- internationally: see for example our event at the Venezia Biennale : http://www.cultura21.net/dokuwiki/doku.php/orange:venezia

[Sacha Kagan]

Dear all,

Thanks to Ann Rosenthal and Amy Lenzo for starting the “asynchronous discussion” by pointing their fingers at the right issues!

Indeed, the major question is “How can art matter”, as we are all very much aware of the imperative for the arts and their practitioners to contribute to a wider social movement for social, ecological and economic justice across the world. Now more than ever.

But the question “Can art matter” raised by Caffyn, also points at a preliminary thinking that I believe is of utmost importance, for practitioners to engage into: Indeed, not only is art often less effective than it could, but it also can contribute to “making things worse”. Understanding how art can contribute to 'Unsustainability' may help prevent us from falling into some traps and meeting some dead-ends.

A major issue here, as already pointed out by Amy, is the tradition of 'autonomy' in the art worlds. One big question here is: Why, how and how far is 'autonomous art' a contribution to a culture of unsustainability, perpetuating a civilizational model that is currently meeting its limits? But also, what are the potential benefits of 'autonomous art' for a social change process towards sustainability?

In the opening discussion for the online conference on Friday morning in Vancouver (Friday evening in Europe), I propose to tell you a few words about my ongoing reflection about “how art can matter”, i.e. how it can effectively bring about real changes in the real world, but without losing the specific 'powers' and qualities that make 'art' a specifically interesting domain of activities n the context of contemporary societies. As you can read in the provided background text, I call this “double entrepreneurship in conventions” (subverting the word 'entrepreneur' from its original purveyors)...

I will be very eager to hear also your thoughts and especially your self-reflexive inquiries about such a major issue that has been haunting artists across the 20th century.

I will also be very curious to learn from your experiences and practices. I am indeed in the process of attempting to elaborate the language for a discourse on “Sustainability Art” and looking into the many streams of inspirations coming from the art worlds: Indeed, the 20th century has not only provided grounds for criticism but has also offered a great diversity of examples from which to learn (and sometimes unlearn): from the Russian Constructivists to the Social Sculpture of Joseph Beuys, from Forum Theatre in Brazil to Postmodern Dance in New-York, from Ecological Art to Intervention Art, from Community Art to Institutional Critique, from Dada to Tactical Media, etc.

May this online conference inspire us all !
Looking forward to hearing/reading you,


ps: I'll also be glad to tell you a bit more about the international network Cultura21 during the 'synchronous discussion' on Friday morning...

[Linda Frye Burnham]

I don't have to speculate about how art can matter. It does. I have been watching it save lives for 30 years. I will give you just 3 examples that jump to mind:

The Los Angeles Poverty Department is a performance art troupe of homeless and formerly homeless people that has literally saved the lives of a number of its members who, through LAPD activities, have found their pride again, got jobs, partners and homes and shaken off addictions. Now they are trying to extricate the history of their neighborhood from the trash heap of history.

Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, Calif., which I started in 1989 with Tim Miller, became the most vibrant, essential artspace I have ever seen when it responded to the AIDS crisis in those early years. We opened our doors and hearts to LGBTQ artists and their audiences and the work provided visibility and a true spiritual home to that communtiy in the days when we had to march in the streets to get an AIDS ward at County Hospital. People with AIDS were taking the bus across L.A. just to work the door for free. They would even donate the little money they had to the space.

Also, I've seen a theate project called "Swamp Gravy" completely regenerate the economics of Miller County, Georgia.

You can find details about these and a wealth other art that matters on our Web site, the Community Arts Network, http://www.communityarts.net.

[Sacha Kagan]

Hi Linda, Thanks a lot for the cases you highlighted and for the weblink.

The projects you mentioned have most probably been very effective and changed lives. However, I think one should be careful not to satisfy oneself with uncritical self-praise. The a priori belief that "It does", i.e. that art does matter, 'of course', is a rampant disease of self-satisfaction in most of the art worlds, that can ultimately prevent them from conducting a sane self-reflective process, in which they could discover the limits and the possible perverse effects of their actions.

Indeed, your post is an opportunity for me to bring this issue to the front: Many art projects and artistic actions, whether in the 'high' autonomous arts or in 'community arts', actually tend to be quite superficial (of course I am not talking specifically about any art projects on the American continent, which I did not experience, but about the arts in Europe, where I am living and working). Making art that "matters" and that really contributes to beneficial social changes in society, is far from being self-evident...

[basma kavanagh]

I think, Sacha, that 'making art that matters' and making art that 'contributes to beneficial social changes' are two very different things. The former arguably (but not necessarily) contains the latter. I think art that allows people to feel that they contribute to their communities, that they change lives (those of others or their own) or that allows people to feel (perhaps briefly) satisfied (or self-satisfied, if you must), etc., in cultures that relentlessly nourish doubt, criticism, insecurity, negativity and dissatisfaction... well, this is also art that matters. Assuming that one person, group or culture's notion that " It does (matter)" is somehow illegitimate, that there has not been reflection or self-criticism, also seems dangerous.... how exactly could one determine which action caused which perverse effect? And one person or culture's perversion might be the next's normal and healthy. Affirming/proclaiming that "It does (matter)" could as easily exert positive influence as negative.

[Linda Frye Burnham]

"We ... need to articulate a differentiation between art that is about politics, and art that is political. It is not enough for art to represent a political event for others to observe. It must also provide a context within which others can take action."

--Mat Schwarzman, "It's About Transformation: Thoughts on Arts as Social Action"
http://www.communityarts.net/readingroom/archivefiles/1999/12/its_a...

[Ann Rosenthal]

Ooogh! What a juicy start to this discussion and the conference! What determines or how does one determine if one's or another's work matters, effects social change--whether physical change in the environment or a paradigm shift in thinking on an individual or social level?

I am constantly wondering how effective my work is, if it's changing people's understanding and relationship to one another and non-human nature, if it is evoking critical thinking in the viewer--a crack in their assumptions about the world and their relationship to it.

I went to graduate school 15 years after obtaining my BFA degree because I wanted a deep understanding of why we have arrived at this point in human history where we are destroying ourselves and the planet--what thinking, assumptions, values, histories, economies have sanctioned death and destruction as a normal part of life, the cost of 'doing business.' I recognized that many, perhaps most, disciplines where asking similar questions from their own disciplinary perspectives. I read a lot and I learned a lot. I started to understand that seemingly disparate issues of classism, racism, sexism, and 'naturism' were connected by common assumptions in western culture. It started to click. I can't say I have figured it all out, but I figured out enough to see some possible strategies I could try out through my art. I am still experimenting with forms and processes that might gently shift how people see and respond to 'nature' so that actual change in the physical environment might be sustainable.

I have concluded that sustainable change is not possible unless we first transform/reclaim how we see the planet, life, ourselves, and non-human nature. So my work has first been about changing perception, asking questions, trying to nudge people to be awake and see their backyard, neighborhood, city... anew. I'm not sure how I can gauge the success of these efforts, other than individual responses to the work.

I greatly admire restoration projects initiated by artists with various professionals and community partners. I imagine for the people directly involved, these projects do change perceptions. As Robert Morris once said, however, artists need to be careful that we aren't just cleaning up industry's messes and doing it cheaper at that. Perhaps cleaning up after society isn't all bad, but I fear if communities aren't directly involved in the process, if it's done FOR them-- like collecting the trash and making it disappear--then the result is just sticking our fingers in the dyke, it's crisis management, and it's not going to ultimately change the way we live and stop damage we do. It's not going to transform our priorities and values so that we will want to live sustainably, it won't ignite the will to change.

[Sacha Kagan]

Wow, Ann, I think you do bring really important things in your reply! Indeed, if the matter is not to impose a dumb quantitative assessment framework on art projects (the UK cultural policy in recent years has illustrated the limits of 'social impact' indicators), a major question is how far the art projects really initiates empowerment and involvement of communities.

In addition to that question is the major challenge of 'systems thinking': Does the art project help participants to think in terms of inter-relations, feedback loops, short-term and long-term effects, obvious direct vs perverse indirect effects, structures of imbalanced dynamics or balancing mechanisms, etc. ... or does the art experience perpetuate the typical Modern linear thinking that establishes simple cause-effect mechanisms in our reality? In the later case, the art project might seem wonderful in the short term, but end up as the many other 'fixes that fail'.

Another major issue is whether the involvement of participants builds 'awareness' or transforms 'identities'. Because if the former is very valuable, it has by now proven to be insufficient in bringing about real changes in behavior.

[Amy Lenzo]

I agree that this is a most fascinating topic...

While metrics are important, particularly to funders :-), I think it's a mistake to use them as the only criteria to determine whether or not art 'matters', or is effective in initiating and contributing to social and/or personal change.

There is an element in this sphere of 'influence' and 'social transformation' that is very mysterious, and with all we are learning about it, there is still more that we cannot possibly know. From this perspective it feels almost presumptuous to say art "doesn't matter" or doesn't have an impact. Sometimes impact is hard to measure...

I'm thinking of a book I read when I was quite young, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I didn't consciously remember anything about it, just that it had been one of my favorite books, and it was only when reading it again as an adult that I recognized how many of my values (and the resulting choices I'd made in my life) had been influenced by this simple story. It was a bit of a shock to realize just how powerful the book had been in my own personal development, and this in spite of the fact that no metrics could possibly have captured that data.

For all its flaws, look at the impact that An Inconvenient Truth has had on the general cultural acceptance in America of global warming as an object of consideration. Perhaps it was situated at the right place in a "tipping point" with many other influences, but the effect was palpable. Why? There is a lot of supposition, and it's worth talking about, but my point is we can't always know what will work, or when.

[Sacha Kagan]

Dear Basma,
I am sorry but I do not see at all that contemporary western societies nourish doubt and criticism. If they would, how wonderful this would be! If only our political leaders, our industrial and economic elites, our economists and technologists would doubt and be self-critical about our current development model, a great step would have been taken!

Doubt and criticism are essential qualities for any form of learning process. And these qualities are not being cherished sufficiently in 'northern/western' societies. On the contrary, we are continuously incited to act as happy consumers in a permanent spectacle built around market exchanges and simulacra of needs. In our society, critical thought is being defeated by pragmatic thought! That is the culture that is allowing globalized capitalism to ignore the current ecological, social and economic crises.

So, we do need much more criticism and doubt in order to foster sustainability. We especially need to become "reflexive practitioners" (as Hans Dieleman explains in his article to be published in 2008 in a book I am co-editing: "Sustainability: A new frontier for the arts and cultures").

Besides, I do not agree with a version of radical constructivism that would claim that 'everything is equal' and 'anything ones says is right'... For one example, the global ecological crisis is not just a matter of subjectivity! Nor is the global unequal exchange between North and South... Nor are the different forms of power structures ruling our societies...