Process Based Participatory and Interdisciplinary Artistic Practice

This book is the result of a project that examined practices derived from socio-anthropological methodology and performative strategies within Live Art, practices that rely on ethnographic fieldwork methods and participant observation positioning. Through the examination of practices in which both practitioners and participants commit to open-ended and unpredictable processes, the book explores forms of artistic practice that are ethical and democratic in terms of authority, participation and authorship. Key projects are: Jeremy Deller’s Social Parade (2004), Gillian Wearing’s Drunk (1997-99) and Sophie Calle’s Gotham Handbook (1998). This examination forms part of a wider discussion of the discursive proposition, made notably in Hal Foster’s ‘The Artist as Ethnographer’ (1996), as to whether a paradigmatic shift has occurred within artistic practice and with what consequences. This book advances a theoretically informed, process-based participatory and interdisciplinary artistic practice. It presents an analysis of such practices, including my own, seeking to demonstrate that this exploration could be relevant to artists, anthropologists and ethnographers alike