Workshop CREATIVE STRATEGIES: Participatory Performance and the Aesthetics of Citizenship by Ren Mauney

Description

In this workshop we will experiment with different participatory performance methods, using the group as a laboratory for interactive and embodied art making. The short lecture will introduce artists who utilize public participation as a key component of their practice, as well as a brief summary of Claire Bishop’s Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship. 

Following the lecture, we will dive into a short physical warm up to begin addressing our body, each other, and the space. We will then divide into two groups and each group will be given a series of tasks to develop together, derived directly from the examples in the lecture, but amenable to each group’s interests and experiences. As the aim of participatory art is often to replicate or interrogate the aesthetics of democracy, citizenship, and public bodies, these themes will inform the nature of these tasks. Over the course of our two days together, the groups will develop a short participatory proposal which will be enacted with the other group at the end of our time together.