Art as Social Practice

            This week we heard from Xtine Burrrough about her new book Art as Social Practice. Xtine is a professor at the University of Texas, Dallas where she teaches digital design and the cultural practice of art (“Xtine Burrough”). Her own work focuses on “participatory projects for networked publics and using digital tools to translate common experiences into personal arenas for discovery,” (“Xtine Burrough”). She uses social media platforms, databases, and search engines to create web communities that promote interpretation and autonomy (“Xtine Burrough”). An example of her work is shown below.

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http://www.missconceptions.net/

 

            Her new book Art as Social Practice looks at “how artists use their creative practices to raise consciousness, form communities, create change, and bring forth social impact through new technologies and digital practices,” (“Art as Social Practice”). The book looks at works that span “collaborative image-making, immersive experiences, telematic art, time machines, artificial intelligence, and physical computing” (“Art as Social Practice”). The book seems to describe many of the works we have looked at this quarter at the Broad Art Center. I cannot remember the artist’s name but the immersive video game experience that was coded based on the artist’s family history seems to perfectly fit the topic of this book. Additionally, the first chapter is about seeds, which directly relates to our experience at the botanical garden.

            Xtine’s presentation and her comments on art for social change inspired me to do more research on artists who sued their work to challenge social norms. One iconic piece of feminist art is The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago, which is shown below.

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https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/dinner_party/

 

            Each place setting shown at the large triangular table represents different important historical women (“The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago”). The table consists of thirty-nine different place settings each with “embroidered runners, gold chalices and utensils, and China-painted porcelain plates with raised central motifs that are based on vulvar and butterfly forms and rendered in styles appropriate to the individual women being honored,” (“The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago”). Some of the women included are Anna Van Schurman, Anne Hutchinson, Sojourner Truth, and Georgia O’Keefe (“Place Settings”). The work is meant to highlight women’s contributions that are often left out of history curriculum. This message is just as salient today, as it was when the piece was originally created in 1974.

            This week we also heard from Margaretha Haughwout. Margaretha spoke about her involvement in the Coven Intelligence Program. The Coven Intelligence Program is “a revolutionary, anti-capitalist alliance among witches, plants, and machines,” (“Coven Intelligence Program”). The group creates immersive installations in which “spells are woven into visual patterns encoded in textiles, as well as into networks of connection between plants, rhizomes, and mycelia,” and “the audience is presented with hints to the system of signs to be deciphered, and diagrams and notes about their larger conspiracy,” (“Coven Intelligence Program”). This group combines social practice with new technologies to create these audience experiences. Additionally, the group seeks to challenge the audience to investigate the clues without financial motivation, therefore, undermining capitalistic understandings of motivation. An example of their work is shown below.

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https://ybca.org/after-life-coven-intelligence-program/

            This week illustrated all the ways art and new technologies can be used for social change. The presentation this week was really inspiring, and I loved looking at all the creative ways artists incorporate social practice into their works.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

 “Art as Social Practice: Technologies for Change.” Routledge & CRC Press, 8 Mar. 2022, https://www.routledge.com/Art-as-Social-Practice-Technologies-for-Change/burrough-Walgren/p/book/9780367758462.

“Coven Intelligence Program.” YBCA, 22 Dec. 2020, https://ybca.org/after-life-coven-intelligence-program/.

“The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago.” Brooklyn Museum: The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago, https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/dinner_party/.

“Place Settings.” Brooklyn Museum: Place Settings, https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/place_settings.

“Xtine Burrough: Professor: Faculty.” ATEC at UT Dallas, 25 Oct. 2021, https://atec.utdallas.edu/content/burrough-xtine/.