A diagram for co-participation

This article explores the roles of ‘collaborator’ and ‘participant’ in what might loosely be described as collective art practice. I propose that social roles, including those of artist, participant and collaborator, are altogether more flexible and permeable than conventionally thought. The article begins with Manuel DeLanda’s development of his ‘assemblage theory’ of society and the possibility of considering collaborations as assemblages. I then discuss Erving Goffman’s concept of ‘role adjustments’ in order to discuss the way participants change positions within a project as it is enacted; Pierre Bourdieu’s ‘Habitus’ highlights how participants and collaborators orientate themselves within the social; and finally, Gilles Deleuze’s ‘diagram’ outlines how a theory of collectivity can be multiple. The article argues for a synthesis of participation and collaboration, which allows for a reflexive and performative process of collective practice that produces a collective social space.