In response to various discussions, 1.) Yes, beets are very nutritious even though you can make candy out of them, and 2.)
beet cupcake with candied beet from The Lone Baker's blog. Click for recipe
there is such a thing as “darning” for holes in socks, and…
3.) In continuing discussions of participatory performance art, modes of public collaboration, and “interactive” or “participatory” theater, this discussion between David Goldenberg of UK company Post Autonomy and Canadian multi-praxical artist and theorist Patricia Reed is very interesting, as is this piece on Participatory Art by Macadonian curator and theorist Suzana Milevska.
In the “visual arts world” (where the little streams of alcohol come runnin’ down the rocks) we find so much discussion of “relational art”…
Everyone may have already read Claire Bishop‘s anthology Participation, which contains excerpts and essays by many relevant figures but perhaps not the most relevant texts by such figures? What do we prefer, essays in this book, or demonstratively “relational” writings, such as Roland Barthes’ interrogatory pseudo-autobiography Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes (1977)? I would really love to read a book about participation which involves participation by the reader, or at least contains varying relational forms…nonfiction though, maybe it would have to be a graphic non-fiction book? I would love to be directed towards any works of this kind if you know of any…
In any case, if you haven’t already read Participation, it’s a very good collection that also contains essays by Peter Bürger (who wrote Theory of the Avant Garde, possibly the most frustrating book in the world although the Introduction is pretty great), as well as essays by (links lead ‘relationally’ to my favorite other texts by these folk which are pertinent to discussions of participation) Jen-Luc Nancy, Umberto Eco, Bertolt Brecht, and Félix Guattari, as well as writings by artists Lygia Clark and Hélio Oiticica, Joseph Beuys, Augusto Boal, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Thomas Hirschhorn (CRYSTAL OF RESISTANCE!), Adrian Piper, and Rirkrit Tiravanija.
Rirkrit Tiravanija wearing the T-shirt he designed for GAP...wait what? Is this a genius participatory "meta-art project" like Brittany Spears' entire existence, or has he and all of these other artists really been captured and domesticated for this sweatshop purpose? Whether one blames The Whitney, the Art Production Fund, or the artists themselves, I have to admit I would buy this t-shirt if I could afford it/overcome my intense aversion to the GAP...
Oh this book ALSO contains the first English translation of Jacques Rancière’s “Problems and Transformations in Critical Art” and discussions by Lars Bang Larsen (his zombies piece online thanks to e-flux), Hal Foster, Hans-Ulrich Obrist (link to YouTube lecture, the comments on it are pretty great), and Nicolas Bourriaud.
In other relational terms, an excerpt of Nicolas Bourriaud’s book Relational Aesthetics can be read via online pdf HERE and in case you keep climbing the big rock candy mountains, you may enjoy watching Bourriaud-rival (sometimes) Jacques Ranciere lecturing on and as The Emancipated Spectator:
and if you don’t have good headphones, download Jacques HERE.
also, due to the potential opacity of this post’s “theme,” Harry McClintock:
-Esther
Nociception Theatrician 