Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship - autonomous ...
Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship - autonomous ...
Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship - autonomous ...
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artificial hells<br />
stages towards a goal: from <strong>the</strong> physical, through <strong>the</strong> aes<strong>the</strong>tic, to <strong>the</strong><br />
moral. 66 In Schiller’s Letters, Kant’s ‘free play <strong>of</strong> imagination <strong>and</strong> underst<strong>and</strong>ing’<br />
became <strong>the</strong> fusion <strong>of</strong> contradictory life impulses into a form <strong>of</strong><br />
play that has its own seriousness. For Schiller, <strong>the</strong> aes<strong>the</strong>tic is fundamentally<br />
tied to education, that is, to <strong>the</strong> moral improvement <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> unrefi ned<br />
individual.<br />
The extent to which Schiller’s Letters outline an ideal scenario, or are<br />
intended as a concrete pedagogic programme, remains unclear. Although<br />
<strong>the</strong> Letters were produced for a Danish prince, <strong>and</strong> acknowledge that<br />
social reform is <strong>the</strong> prerequisite <strong>of</strong> aes<strong>the</strong>tic education, Schiller’s ideas<br />
never<strong>the</strong>less found practical application in <strong>the</strong>ir infl uence upon his<br />
colleague, Wilhelm von Humboldt, who integrated his notion <strong>of</strong> Bildung<br />
into Prussian reforms <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> higher education system in 1809. The same<br />
problem <strong>of</strong> actual or ideal education, a universal audience or specifi c students,<br />
faces all pedagogically oriented art projects today. Very few <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se<br />
projects manage to overcome <strong>the</strong> gap between a ‘fi rst audience’ <strong>of</strong> student-<br />
participants <strong>and</strong> a ‘second audience’ <strong>of</strong> subsequent viewers. Perhaps this is<br />
because, ultimately, education has no spectators. 67 The most effective<br />
education is a closed social process: as Rol<strong>and</strong> Bar<strong>the</strong>s observes, ‘<strong>the</strong><br />
famous “teaching relation” is not <strong>the</strong> relation <strong>of</strong> teacher to taught, but <strong>the</strong><br />
relation <strong>of</strong> those taught to each o<strong>the</strong>r’. 68 Institutional pedagogy never<br />
needs to take on board <strong>the</strong> question <strong>of</strong> its communicability to those beyond<br />
<strong>the</strong> classroom (<strong>and</strong> if it does, it only takes <strong>the</strong> form <strong>of</strong> wholly inadequate<br />
evaluative questionnaires). Yet this task is essential to projects in <strong>the</strong> artistic<br />
realm if <strong>the</strong>y are to fulfi l <strong>the</strong> ambitions <strong>of</strong> an aes<strong>the</strong>tic education. For all<br />
that Bar<strong>the</strong>s emphasises <strong>the</strong> invisible libidinal dynamic <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> seminar, he<br />
also manages to convey this to us in his mastery <strong>of</strong> language. It seems telling<br />
that when <strong>the</strong> most artistically successful instances <strong>of</strong> pedagogy- as- art<br />
today manage to communicate an educational experience to a secondary<br />
audience, it is through modes that are time- based or performative: through<br />
video (Żmijewski), <strong>the</strong> exhibition (Bruguera), <strong>the</strong> lecture (Chan) or <strong>the</strong><br />
publication (Hirschhorn). The secondary audience is ineliminable, but<br />
also essential, since it keeps open <strong>the</strong> possibility that everyone can learn<br />
something from <strong>the</strong>se projects: it allows specifi c instances to become<br />
generalisable, establishing a relationship between particular <strong>and</strong> universal<br />
that is far more generative than <strong>the</strong> model <strong>of</strong> exemplary ethical gesture.<br />
To conclude, however, we ought to question how closely we want to<br />
remain within <strong>the</strong> terms <strong>of</strong> Schiller’s project. In rejecting Kant’s assertion<br />
<strong>of</strong> art’s autonomy, Schiller effectively instrumentalises <strong>the</strong> aes<strong>the</strong>tic: he<br />
fuses <strong>the</strong> two opposing poles <strong>of</strong> physical sensuousness <strong>and</strong> intellectual<br />
reason in order to achieve a morality that reaches beyond <strong>the</strong> individual. In<br />
so doing, <strong>the</strong> aes<strong>the</strong>tic state is merely a path to moral education, ra<strong>the</strong>r than<br />
an end in itself. 69 The quote that forms <strong>the</strong> title <strong>of</strong> this chapter cues us to<br />
ano<strong>the</strong>r framework, one that operates from a less authoritarian relationship<br />
272