[-empyre-] Returning to Relational Aesthetics, Queerly

[Johannes Birringer]

Hi all:

very good point, Simon, and you just stopped short of saying that "relational aesthetics"  is parasitic. 
i was quite surprised that "relational aesthetics" gained any currency at all, actually, coming so late
and having little to say about performance and performance art and installations that took place
outside of documenta and some galleries, and now it appears Bourriaud is also curating.. i remember
a few months back that students had been to the Tate and then returned to the studio with puzzled
expressions,.,...

i tried to find out more about the curating, and discovered the following "product description":

Altermodern: Tate Triennial 2009
>>
Few books introduce a word into the language; this is an example of one that does. The term 'Altermodern' is an entirely new one, coined by leading critical theorist and curator Nicolas Bourriaud as the title for Tate's fourth Triennial exhibition opening at Tate Britain in February 2009. It describes art made in today's global context which is a reaction against cultural standardisation and commercialisation. This art is characterised by artists' cross-border, cross-cultural negotiations; a new real and virtual mobility; the surfing of different disciplines; the use of fiction as an expression of autonomy; concern with sustainable development and the celebration of difference and singularity...... the book will focus on each of the four main facets of the Altermodern. It defines these as the end of postmodernism; cultural hybridisation; travelling as a new way to produce forms; and the expanding formats of art. 
>>


I like the bit about surfing.


I'm still reading Marc's long texts, so am behind.

regards
Johannes Birringer

http://interaktionslabor.de



-----Original Message-----
From: empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au on behalf of Simon Biggs
Sent: Sun 7/5/2009 10:30 AM
To: soft_skinned_space
Subject: Re: [-empyre-] Returning to Relational Aesthetics, Queerly
 
That was a refreshing post.

Relational Aesthetics took off in quite a big way in the visual arts over
the last decade. Strangely, it has had little impact outside this domain.
Discussing elements of Bourriaud1s work, whether with anthropologists or
literary scholars, I am struck by how little travelled his ideas are.
However, what also becomes apparent is how the ideas he proposes are clearly
evident within other prior theoretical frameworks.

A key concept that could be mentioned here is Ointertextuality1, drawing on
Derrida1s deconstructive methodologies, Kristeva1s work on interculturality
and, before both of them, Bakhtin1s work on pre-texts and etymological
context. All of these approaches situate how meaning is constructed as a
social process, where the relations between things establish their value.
Initial critical practices that engaged this theory in more than a cosmetic
manner included reader-reception theory, which has been a well established
framework in literary theory since the 19701s. Latour has also drawn
explicitly on this line of thought when he developed, with John Law,
actor-network-theory, seeking to articulate expanded forms of agency that
reflect how things happen in a highly mediated world.

Bourriaud1s book seems, in this context, a rather late comer to the
demolition of modern tropes and narrowly constrained to a very specific
readership.

Regards

Simon


Simon Biggs
Research Professor
edinburgh college of art
s.biggs at eca.ac.uk
www.eca.ac.uk
www.eca.ac.uk/circle/

simon at littlepig.org.uk
www.littlepig.org.uk
AIM/Skype: simonbiggsuk




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