In my Critical research I have been analyzing theoretical

positions for socially engaged practices. I focused on

identifying models for analyzing socially engaged art
practices.

‘Why are we watching this?’ asked Susan, one of the more vocal members of the
reading and discussion group at an elderly community centre in South London.
The film I had chosen to show them as part of an outreach programme was
beginning to perplex the restful bunch and only two of them had the energy to
analyze the presentation. Once I put the abstract film on mute, I found the
enthusiastic response and discussion that followed typical of the weekly
meetings; engaging, historical accounts of experiences that were remembered in
complete detail, recalled at brief opportunities between unrelated stories. My
attempts to direct the discussion towards the programmes theme were futile
when meddling in the memories of so many, soon residing as a responsive
listener and translator for those hard of hearing. This event organized by myself,
as part of Film and Video Umbrella’s ‘Free to Air’ programme, a series of
community engaging activities, lead me to reflect upon the critical approaches
developed for socially engaged practices in contemporary arts.
I am interested in how this event, organized between myself and the members of
the reading and discussion group, required consensual co-operation and
participation, that form a criteria for analyses ‘socially engaged practices.’ I
would therefore like to present and apply specific critical models that question
our understanding and analysis of contemporary socially situated practices.
In this paper I would like to investigate conflicting evaluative frameworks that
are applied to participatory practices.

The subjective, experiential nature of participatory art has

forced critics to analyze the work using less formal aesthetic
judgments. What I found is that good participatory art works
are constantly changing though each interaction, that does
not suit well for traditional visual analysis.
Each critic I studied implemented different value systems for
analyzing relational art, each critical framework attempted
to measure quite ephemeral material. When looking at this
work from a secondary source, analyzing the artwork
becomes misjudged and presumptive.

USER GENERATED DOCUMENTATION

Society now uses social media to broadcast and document

our experiences in everyday life. Performance and
participatory art can use this to support their artworks and
provide accurate documentation.

Luke Jerram ‘Play me Im Yours’ is the installation of public

pianos all over the world. This public art work discussed in
Analysing the critical fields for participation displayed use of
social media and user generated documentation. The tales
and encounters that are curated by Jerram online and
uploaded by participants (members of the public) provide
accurate and appropriate evolving documentation.
Participatory art that is focused on personal and shared
experience must be anaylsed through audience responses.
Social media provides a platform for all participants to
express their experience of the project. Not only giving the
artwork valuable documentation, it also enhances the
participatory practice ethos.

My recent engagement with social media and real time user

information is due to two major aspects. After looking at
methods for analyzing participatory art in my work user
generated media feels like an appropriate avenue. In an
overview the dissertation made me question how
experimental and unquantifiable information is analyzed.