Description
Book SynopsisWhat We Made presents a series of fifteen conversations in which contemporary artists who create activist, participatory work discuss the cooperative process. Colleagues from fields including architecture, art history, urban planning, and new media join the conversations.
Trade Review“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 Castaño * 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 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 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 *
Table of ContentsPreface 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
