What is it socially engaged artists do? My reply to @caracourage

Cara Courage has asked socially engaged/ social practice artists a question: What do you do? This is my reply I shared with Cara on her Facebook post... SOCIAL PRACTICELittle creative acts of not knowing.Political, sometimes radically activist, acts.Potential spaces. Safe places where dangerous new realities might grow. Grassroots. Social justice. Collective. Autonomous. Communal.Deeply suspicious of…Read more What is it socially engaged artists do? My reply to @caracourage

Participation on Trial. Not the end. A new spirit of openness?

A week after Participation on Trial at Union Chapel, I think it is worth reflecting a little upon the event as a format that could offer interesting potentialities in opening up arts and cultural debate. Participation in the arts faced a Dadaesque mock-trial in a Nonconformist chapel in London last Friday, 1st May, on International…Read more Participation on Trial. Not the end. A new spirit of openness?

An Act of Treachery

An Act of Treachery – reblog of David Slater’s excellent #ParticipationOnTrial prosecution witness statement

Creativity, Arts and Older People

Caught in the act of betrayal by Court Artist Deborah Mason

It’s been three days since I had ‘forsworn’ myself and the guilt still hasn’t worn off; three days since I committed an act of perjury, perhaps even treachery at an extraordinarily illuminating and eccentric event curated by Chrissie Tiller and the Participatory Arts Lab to both celebrate and mark the sad demise of  the MA in Participatory and Community Arts, at Goldsmiths.  Participation on Trial
was, to quote the blurb, a Dada-esque, playful (but serious) critique of participation in the arts. The crime was one of misrepresentation and deception.  Of flagrant flimflammery, chicanery and con-artistry, of committing daylight robbery,  pilfering the public purse and causing grievous artistic harm. I was a witness for the prosecution. Here’s what I said:- 

If participatory arts had had any meaning as a movement we would have been able to find ways in…

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My prosecution witness statement from today’s @artsontrial #ParticipationOnTrial

This is my prosecution witness statement from today’s Participation on Trial event…  The (eventual) verdict was “GUILTY – BUT WHO CARES?”  Comments always welcome… Everyone’s a ‘participant’ nowadays. Aren’t ‘they’? Or, following the Warwick Commission’s report on The Future of Cultural Value and its magic number – 8% - should I say ‘we’ – members…Read more My prosecution witness statement from today’s @artsontrial #ParticipationOnTrial

My prosecution witness statement from today’s @artsontrial #ParticipationOnTrial

This is my prosecution witness statement from today’s Participation on Trial event…  The (eventual) verdict was “GUILTY – BUT WHO CARES?”  Comments always welcome… Everyone’s a ‘participant’ nowadays. Aren’t ‘they’? Or, following the Warwick Commission’s report on The Future of Cultural Value and its magic number – 8% - should I say ‘we’ – members…Read more My prosecution witness statement from today’s @artsontrial #ParticipationOnTrial