The Art of Listening: Relational Aesthetics and Participant-Centered Art Practice

If we are to take seriously the critical call to re-conceptualize culture from the lone author to collective cultural production, then should not writing on Participatory Culture also change to reflect a participatory sensibility? The problem my thesis addresses is one of oversight that writings on Participatory Art have yet to include: the role of participant voice. By introducing a participant feedback cycle to the source materials as research on par with cultural theory text and critical analysis, I hope to illustrate the need for inclusion of feedback when evaluating works centered on creating experiences for people.

While taking Douglas Rushkoff's Theoretical Perspectives on Interactivity, I was struck by a seeming disconnect between content and form in writings addressing Interaction and Participatory Culture. I found it curious that many of the writers who were signaling a major paradigm shift in culture, were nonetheless relying on old models of writing to explore these shifts. I was frustrated with academic writing on topics such as Everyday Living and Participatory Culture that seemed conceptually distant from the very language and people it made claims to understand. It seemed logical to me that if you are speaking about participation, then somewhere the participants should have a voice about the issues at hand.

Since the 1990's art critics have been looking at the growing influx of artists working from a participatory perspective. The writing has addressed the importance of establishing criteria to judge these works as art. Mainly the criteria have focused on theoretical frameworks, artistic intensions, and formal considerations. Little attention has been given to the observational study of participant behavior and direct participant feedback. In the areas of user-centered design and game writing there are models that include user/play testing and observation as well as first-person experiential narratives. Models from interaction and game design as applied to the user feedback cycle may serve as useful models for evaluating the success of contemporary artistic works seeking to create participatory experiences.

Artists practicing in a participatory framework, critics writing about such works, and participants of these works. Thinkers and writers looking to address topics related to Participatory Culture, anyone interested in commenting on a culture of experience.

An online collection/repository for research materials and a documented case study centered around a series of participant driven experiences. Documentation and analysis of participant behavior as well as direct participant feedback will be displayed. A downloadable pdf and digital file of the final paper will be included along with the research materials so that the reader/researcher may cross-compare for themselves the research materials with the conclusions reached by the author.

A series of participatory events designed to mimic works similar to those executed by artists making 'Relational' works. In addition to the work itself, a participant feedback cycle will be included to illicit qualitative information regarding the participant experience. The body of research collected from participant feedback in addition to an analysis of documented participant behavior will serve in equal weight to academic text in a paper addressing key issues currently being debated by critics of contemporary art practice related to Participatory Culture.

The experience of those who participate in a project is often quite different from the theoretical ideas that describe a project's intensions. The artist that works with Participatory Culture is necessarily in continuous dialogue with his/her participants; the meaning of the work is situated within this dialogue. The critic or scholar of such artworks must also address the particpant experience in their evaluation of participatory works, else their conclusions are only one-sided.