Public art as research in the open

In 1979, the Chilean artist Alfredo Jaar staged his first public intervention in the context of military dictatorship. His inquiry on states of happiness anticipated a working method that Jaar has been following since. In taking Studies on Happiness as an early example of social aesthetics, this article will show that the work itself is not only seen as the product of making (poïesis), but that the process itself is seen as the embodiment of knowledge, the dwelling and outcome of an intended action. However, this action is not simply an act in the everyday (praxis), but as an intended action it is intelligent in itself and calls for the practical wisdom of acting (phronesis). As soon as the project includes a relational process and forms of participation, both in nature of unforeseeable outcome, the aim is no longer the production of a (common) object; rather, it is the social relation itself, established through the aesthetic or “boundary” object that puts into action the relation as well as the reflection on the conditions of its becoming. We will assess how play and phronesis can mediate between research and art by creating a situational knowledge, that is both critique and contributory: a research in the open.

Unplanned Coordination: Ensemble Improvisation as Collective Action

The characteristic features of ensemble dance improvisation (EDI) make it an interesting case for theories of intentional collective action. These features include the high degree of freedom enjoyed by each individual, and the lack of fixed hierarchical roles, rigid decision procedures, or detailed plans. We present a “reductive” approach to collective action, apply it to EDI, and show how the theory enriches our perspective on this practice. We show, with the help of our theory of collective action, that EDI (as typically practiced) constitutes a significant collective achievement, one that manifests an impressive, spontaneous, jointly cooperative and individually highly autonomous activity that meets demanding aesthetic standards. Its being good in this way is not a mere extrinsic feature of the artwork, but part of its aesthetic value. We end by discussing how this value is easily missed by classic aesthetics, but is revealed by more contemporary frameworks like social aesthetics.

Beyond Bourdieu

Both tomatoes and recipes are relatively recent British imports to the Indian subcontinent. Neither was commonly used by locals in the region until the late 1940s. Yet in less than a hundred years, the tomato has become an everyday ingredient in the Indian pantry, and Indian cookbook writing and food blogging has become a multimillion dollar industry. This essay explores the rapid incorporation of the tomato as a staple crop in the Indian culinary lexicon and the ready acceptance of the recipe as a modern technology of food preparation in the twentieth century. The two historical examples allow us to examine how taste is produced, and how it endures and shifts in new cultural contexts and geographies. In doing so, the essay expands extant theories of taste beyond the common frameworks of social aesthetics and cultural capital to consider additionally taste’s imbrication with mediation and affect.