ARTH 412
The Politics of Aesthetics: Collaboration and Participation in Contemporary Art Spring 2017
Division I
This is not the current course catalog

The social turn is a hallmark of contemporary art, as artists since the 1960s turned from the art object toward dynamic exchanges with the public, from sole author to collaborative engagement. This seminar provides a theoretical framework to historicize as well as to critically analyze the promise and pitfalls of this emphasis on collaborative works, on active participants rather than passive spectators, and on the meteoric rise of community-based artistic practices. A wide range of case studies will also allow us to delve into the intersections and productive tensions between aesthetics and politics, or between art and life.