JAWS: Journal of Arts Writing by Students - Volume 6, Issue 1, 2020

Social practices, whether described as socially-engaged, participatory or community-based, share the potential to transform audience members into active participants in an artwork or project. However, the purpose of this public engagement is sometimes in conflict with the private experience of the viewer, constructing a complex relationship between audience, artist and gallery. Beginning by contextualizing the historic position of the audience in relation to the arts, the present article uses this as grounding to unpick elements of the dynamic which exist today. ‘The audience’ investigates the reported social benefits of engaging in the arts, questioning how evidence of these positive effects is reported and judged. This article exemplifies Marcelo Sánchez-Camus’ work with patients in palliative care and Spacemakers’ community-based projects as artworks intended to instigate positive social change. Further, ‘The artist’ explores the relationship between those facilitating these projects and their audience. By breaking down the term ‘audience’ into viewers, participants, collaborators and co-authors, one can use levels of agency to segment those involved and the differing experiences of their involvement. Petra Bauer’s long-term collaborative work with SCOT PEP is used to demonstrate how a group’s agency and stakes within an artwork can be enhanced by building relationships on equal terms. Finally, ‘The gallery’, uses the high-profile examples of Tate Group and Venice Biennale to demonstrate how the more powerful entities in the art world can misrepresent engagement and participation as quantitative markers of success or accessibility. This article ultimately aims to question what motivates the production of social practice and how these entities are important in constituting a successful process and outcome, for audience, artist and institute.

This article focuses on Agnes Varda’s film, The Beaches of Agnes using the writings of Tim Ingold and Jean-Luc Nancy, alongside my own artistic practice, to reflect on our relationships with different places, the memories attached to them and how these change over time. This leads to a consideration of the surfaces and boundaries associated with time and place, and how these might be breached in our encounters with the world around us. Referring to Ingold and Nancy, the article reflects on some possible similarities between encounters with places and with works of art.

This article is about a sonic piece suggesting a way of compassion towards the female, the Other, learnt through listening to noisy sonic structures. With honest, active listening, we find ourselves in a compassionate state of mind towards our environment. We ourselves define these relationships with our surroundings and, as such, define the ways in which we perform or act in such a relation. If we acknowledge and support each other, we can go forward with personal and artistic integrity and attain even more agency through the method of honest listening. I suggest first listening to the sound piece.

Artists working in the field of animation, games and films are expected to have in-depth knowledge of three-dimensional (3D) software as well as traditional art principles. However, when it comes to creating conventional paintings, many artists have yet to use 3D computer imaging. 3D software expands beyond what is possible in other computer programmes such as Photoshop, InDesign or Illustrator by giving the creator access to unlimited potential in three dimensions. My work embraces these modern technologies, crossing the boundaries between new and old media, to inform the paintings I create with oil on canvas. I utilize 3D software to push the surreal yet realistic quality of a setting. In this article, I explore my work in the context of historical precedents and contemporary examples that combine conventional media and 3D computer imaging. Keeping up and creatively employing these technologies within conventional modes of painting presents an opportunity to push the boundaries of my art.

This article explores gaps in communication and mistranslations between languages and cultural identities. My article centres on my artistic research practice, alongside Chinese contemporary artists, Xu Bing and Ai Weiwei, who brought their own culture to bear on the experience of living and making work in the West. When facing the clash of cultural and linguistic environments, the work featured seeks to find a balance between inclusive and exclusive language systems. What seems to be ‘lost’ in translation can be used creatively in art practice, through hybridized forms and often through humour, to ‘find’ new meanings for myself, and hopefully for the audiences of my work.