Social Practice Art in Turbulent Times

This volume is an anthology of current groundbreaking research on social practice art. Contributing scholars provide a variety of assessments of recent projects as well as earlier precedents, define approaches to art production, and provide crucial political context. The topics and art projects covered, many of which the authors have experienced firsthand, represent the work of innovative artists whose creative practice is utilized to engage audience members as active participants in effecting social and political change. Chapters are divided into four parts that cover history, specific examples, global perspectives, and critical analysis.

Eric J. Schruers is Assistant Professor of Art History at Fairmont State University, United States. Kristina Olson is Associate Director and Associate Professor of Art History at West Virginia University, United States.

List of Illustrations; Notes on Contributors; Acknowledgments; Introduction; Part I: Free Radicals: Origins and Proliferation; 1. Thin Generosity: Contemporary Social Practice Art and the Rhetoric of Invitation (Kerr Houston); 2. Fluxus and the Joys of the Small and Slow (Roger Rothman); 3. Taking It to the Streets: John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 1969 War Is Over! Campaign (Martha Bari); Part II: Agents of Social Change: Radical Inclusion/Radical Self-Expression; 4. Reframing Resistance And Surveillance: Lorraine O'Grady's Art Is . . . (Kim Bobier); 5. Tagging 2.0: Graffi ti Research Lab's Opposition Through Open-Source Technology (Jessica Keough); 6. Subversion of Surveillance: Anonymous Street Art, Artivism, and the Use of Social Media (Heather E. Dunn); 7. What Happens at Burning Man Doesn't Stay at Burning Man: The Social Conscience of the Artist (Eric J. Schruers); Part III: Global Perspectives: Reports from the Field; 8. Art of the Street: Revolutionary Symbols in Egypt (Liz Trapp); 9. Looking to the Past: Street Art, Public Spaces, and Contemporary French Identity (Heidi E. Kraus); 10. See What a Difference a Stay Makes: Hotel Transvaal and Kus & Sloop, Arts Hotels, and Social Entrepreneurship (Margo Handwerker); 11. Institutionalizing Protest Art: Agitprop and OFF-Biennale Budapest (Izabel Galliera); Part IV: Future Forward: The Revolution Will Be Live!; 12. Eat Me: Social Practice Art and the Politics of Food (Kristina Olson); 13. The DJ as Disruptor: Politics, Participation, and Postproduction in Contemporary DJ Culture (Michael D. Slaven); 14. Watching the Watchers: Ai Weiwei and the Art of Surveillance (Eric J. Schruers); 15. Loving Getting (Used to?) Into the Good, Bad, and Ugly (Duncan Mackenzie); Index