Overview

In What We Made, Tom Finkelpearl examines the activist, participatory, coauthored aesthetic experiences being created in contemporary art. He suggests social cooperation as a meaningful way to think about this work and provides a framework for understanding its emergence and acceptance. In a series of fifteen conversations, artists comment on their experiences working cooperatively, joined at times by colleagues from related fields, including social policy, architecture, art history, urban planning, and new media. Issues discussed include the experiences of working in public and of working with museums and libraries, opportunities for social change, the lines between education and art, spirituality, collaborative opportunities made available by new media, and the elusive criteria for evaluating cooperative art. Finkelpearl engages the art historians Grant Kester and Claire Bishop in conversation on the challenges of writing critically about this work and the aesthetic status of the dialogical encounter. He also interviews the often overlooked co-creators of cooperative art, ""expert participants"" who have worked with artists. In his conclusion, Finkelpearl argues that pragmatism offers a useful critical platform for understanding the experiential nature of social cooperation, and he brings pragmatism to bear in a discussion of Houston's Project Row Houses. Interviewees. Naomi Beckwith, Claire Bishop, Tania Bruguera, Brett Cook, Teddy Cruz, Jay Dykeman, Wendy Ewald, Sondra Farganis, Harrell Fletcher, David Henry, Gregg Horowitz, Grant Kester, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Pedro Lasch, Rick Lowe, Daniel Martinez, Lee Mingwei, Jonah Peretti, Ernesto Pujol, Evan Roth, Ethan Seltzer, and Mark Stern

Full Product Details

Author:   Tom Finkelpearl
Publisher:   Duke University Press
Imprint:   Duke University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 23.40cm
Weight:   0.567kg
ISBN:  

9780822352891

ISBN 10:   0822352893
Pages:   277
Publication Date:   15 January 2013
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Preface ix 1. Introduction The Art of Social Cooperation: An American Framework 1 2. Cooperation Goes Public Consequences of a Gesture and 100 Victoria/10,000 Tears 51 Interview: Daniel Joseph Martinez, artist, and Gregg M. Horowitz, philosophy professor Chicago Urban Ecology Action Group 76 Follow-Up Interview: Naomi Beckwith, participant 3. Museum, Education, Cooperation Memory of Surfaces 90 Interview: Ernesto Pujol, artist, and David Henry, museum educator 4. Overview Temporary Coaltions, Mobilized Communities, and Dialogue as Art 114 Interview: Grant Kester, art historian 5. Social Vision and a Cooperative Community Project Row Houses 132 Interview: Rick Lowe, artist, and Mark Stern, professor of social history and urban studies 6. Participation, Planning, and a Cooperative Film Blot Out the Sun 152 Interview: Harrell Fletcher, artist, and Ethan Seltzer, professor of urban studies and planning Ride Out the Sun 174 Follow-up Interview: Jay Dykeman, collaborator 7. Education Art Catedra Arte del Conducta 179 Interview: Tania Bruguera, artist Catedra de Conducta Follow-up Interview: Claire Bishop, art historian 8. A Political Alphabet 219 Interview: Wendy Ewald, artist, and Sondra Farganis, political scientist 9. Crossing Borders Transnational Community-Based Production, Cooperative Art, and Informal Trade Networks 240 Interview: Pedro Lasch, artist, and Teddy Cruz, architect 10. Spirituality and Cooperation Unburning Freedom Hall and The Packer School Project 269 Interview: Brett Cook, artist, and Mierle Laderman Ukeles, artist The Seer Project 301 Interview: Lee Mingwei, artist 11. Interactive Internet Communication White Glove Tracking 313 Interview: Evan Roth, artist White Glove Tracking 335 Follow-up Interview: Jonah Peretti, contagious media pioneer Conclusion: Pragmatism and Social Cooperation 343 Notes 363 Bibliography 373 Index 381

Reviews

What We Made is a dialogic thick description of cooperative art practices from the point of view of practitioners and many insightful interlocutors. It will be an extremely valuable resource for artists, art historians, and museum professionals. - Rebecca Zorach, author of The Passionate Triangle In between histories, current art practices, and theories lies the conundrum: how to describe relational and public art and the many intentions of those involved. Tom Finkelpearl gives us perspectives from artists' on-the-ground experiences and a welcome revisiting of Dewey, contextualized by a sweeping introduction that alone is worth the price of the book. - Suzanne Lacy, author of Leaving Art: Writings on Performance, Politics, and Publics, 1974-2007 In between histories, current art practices, and theories lies the conundrum: how to describe relational and public art and the many intentions of those involved? Tom Finkelpearl gives us perspectives from artists' on-the-ground experiences and a welcome revisiting of Dewey, contextualized by a sweeping introduction that alone is worth the price of the book. - Suzanne Lacy, author of Leaving Art: Writings on Performance, Politics, and Publics, 1974-2007 This work attempts to unpack contemporary artistic practices along new aesthetic criteria: sociopolitical, transnational, spiritual, and, in particular with regard to the Internet, given its notions of networked collaboration and new definitions of authorship. These conversations by key practitioners and thinkers are a snapshot of thinking around the emergence of social and collaborative art, which seeks to improve society and address social issues... Finkelpearl ably situates collaborative and participatory art within the chronology of American art history. This book will be at home in university libraries and can function well as a course text in the field of public-art studies. .--Toro Castano, Library Journal, February 25th 2013

In between histories, current art practices, and theories lies the conundrum: how to describe relational and public art and the many intentions of those involved. Tom Finkelpearl gives us perspectives from artists' on-the-ground experiences and a welcome revisiting of Dewey, contextualized by a sweeping introduction that alone is worth the price of the book. -- Suzanne Lacy, author of Leaving Art: Writings on Performance, Politics, and Publics, 1974-2007 What We Made is a good sourcebook of art that tackles politics through participation and collaboration. The author's introduction provides a useful overview of the situation in contemporary America... -- Sally O'Reilly Art Monthly What We Made is a dialogical thick description of cooperative art practices from the point of view of practitioners and many insightful interlocutors. It will be an extremely valuable resource for artists, art historians, and museum professionals. -- Rebecca Zorach, author of The Passionate Triangle These conversations by key practitioners and thinkers are a snapshot of thinking around the emergence of social and collaborative art, which seeks to improve society and address social issues. Finkelpearl ably situates collaborative and participatory art within the chronology of American art history. -- Toro Castano Library Journal What What We Made does, perhaps better than anything I've read so far about this particular kind of art, is utterly refrain from arriving at singular summaries or judgments. Instead, the conversations foreground the nuanced and complex social relations tied up in any artwork, but particularly collaborative artwork that draws on communities operating largely outside of the arts marketplace. And the projects Finkelpearl has chosen to discuss and feature by and large demonstrate real possibilities for genuine exchange across networks and communities. -- Alexis Clements Hyperallergic What We Made brings together the stars of the social practice world Rick Lowe, Tania Bruguera, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Harrell Fletcher, and more in conversations with urban planners, educators, and each other, to create a fluid and interdisciplinary dialogue about social practice and its complicated, beautiful and necessary implications in the world. -- Katie Bachler The Art Book Review Finkelpearl has provided his readers with a rich description of a particular, influential movement in the art museum world. This book illustrates his own commitment to social collaboration. By presenting the conversations that make up the core of this volume, he brings this aspect of the art museum world to a larger public. -- George E. Hein Curator

What We Made is a dialogic thick description of cooperative art practices from the point of view of practitioners and many insightful interlocutors. It will be an extremely valuable resource for artists, art historians, and museum professionals. - Rebecca Zorach, author of The Passionate Triangle In between histories, current art practices, and theories lies the conundrum: how to describe relational and public art and the many intentions of those involved. Tom Finkelpearl gives us perspectives from artists' on-the-ground experiences and a welcome revisiting of Dewey, contextualized by a sweeping introduction that alone is worth the price of the book. - Suzanne Lacy, author of Leaving Art: Writings on Performance, Politics, and Publics, 1974-2007 In between histories, current art practices, and theories lies the conundrum: how to describe relational and public art and the many intentions of those involved? Tom Finkelpearl gives us perspectives from artists' on-the-ground experiences and a welcome revisiting of Dewey, contextualized by a sweeping introduction that alone is worth the price of the book. - Suzanne Lacy, author of Leaving Art: Writings on Performance, Politics, and Publics, 1974-2007 This work attempts to unpack contemporary artistic practices along new aesthetic criteria: sociopolitical, transnational, spiritual, and, in particular with regard to the Internet, given its notions of networked collaboration and new definitions of authorship. These conversations by key practitioners and thinkers are a snapshot of thinking around the emergence of social and collaborative art, which seeks to improve society and address social issues... Finkelpearl ably situates collaborative and participatory art within the chronology of American art history. This book will be at home in university libraries and can function well as a course text in the field of public-art studies. .--Toro Castano, Library Journal, February 25th 2013 The book is a really rich and nuanced entry into the conversation about artwork that brings artists and communities together, specifically within a visual arts framework. Aligning well with the political commitments of the projects [Finkelpearl]'s shepherded in Queens, the book does not have a single authorial voice. Instead, it's comprised of edited transcripts of interviews and conversations with over 20 artists, curators, academics, and otherwise [...] What What We Made does, perhaps better than anything I've read so far about this particular kind of art, is utterly refrain from arriving at singular summaries or judgments. Instead, the conversations foreground the nuanced and complex social relations tied up in any artwork, but particularly collaborative artwork that draws on communities operating largely outside of the arts marketplace. And the projects Finkelpearl has chosen to discuss and feature by and large demonstrate real possibilities for genuine exchange across networks and communities. - Hyperallergic

In between histories, current art practices, and theories lies the conundrum: how to describe relational and public art and the many intentions of those involved? Tom Finkelpearl gives us perspectives from artists' on-the-ground experiences and a welcome revisiting of Dewey, contextualized by a sweeping introduction that alone is worth the price of the book. --Suzanne Lacy, author of Leaving Art: Writings on Performance, Politics, and Publics, 1974-2007

What We Made is a dialogic thick description of cooperative art practices from the point of view of practitioners and many insightful interlocutors. It will be an extremely valuable resource for artists, art historians, and museum professionals. - Rebecca Zorach, author of The Passionate Triangle In between histories, current art practices, and theories lies the conundrum: how to describe relational and public art and the many intentions of those involved. Tom Finkelpearl gives us perspectives from artists' on-the-ground experiences and a welcome revisiting of Dewey, contextualized by a sweeping introduction that alone is worth the price of the book. - Suzanne Lacy, author of Leaving Art: Writings on Performance, Politics, and Publics, 1974-2007 In between histories, current art practices, and theories lies the conundrum: how to describe relational and public art and the many intentions of those involved? Tom Finkelpearl gives us perspectives from artists' on-the-ground experiences and a welcome revisiting of Dewey, contextualized by a sweeping introduction that alone is worth the price of the book. - Suzanne Lacy, author of Leaving Art: Writings on Performance, Politics, and Publics, 1974-2007

Author Information

Tom Finkelpearl is Executive Director of the Queens Museum of Art. He is the author of Dialogues in Public Art.

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