Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship - autonomous ...

notes to pages 179– 81
which saw creative action as “a temporary fi eld of activity favourable
to . . . desires”, and Paulo Freire’s notion of cultural action as political
action.’ (Sally J. Morgan, ‘Beautiful Impurity: British Contextualism as
Processual Postmodern Practice’, in Journal of Visual Art Practice, 2:3,
2003, p. 140.)
68 Community Arts: The Report of the Community Arts Working Party, June
1974, p. 8, emphases added.
69 Ibid., p. 24.
70 In the interests of transparency, I should note that I was referred to The
Blackie by Barbara Steveni, and arrived at Inter- Action through The
Blackie’s Bill Harpe introducing me to David Powell, an art consultant
and former Inter- Action team member. Other organisations could have
been my focus (such as The Welfare State community theatre group, also
founded in 1968), but The Blackie and Inter- Action provided the most
fruitful contrast. The Blackie has extensively archived all ephemera,
correspondence and printed matter since its inception, while Inter- Action
has just a handful of leafl ets detailing its activities. I have tried to provide
equal space to both, despite the proportionally disparate materials available.
71 Anon, ‘Moving in on the Fund- Raising Game’, 7- Up, 1976, p. 24. 7- Up is
The Blackie’s in- house newspaper celebrating seven years of their activities.
72 7- Up proudly lists its in- house sound equipment as: four tape- recorders,
two turntables, a twelve- channel mixer and a four- channel mixer, a
synthesiser, numerous amplifi ers and loudspeakers, twelve microphones
and three headphones; fi ve Sony video recorders, three monitors, a
vision- mixer and two tripods with dollies. (Ibid., p. 4, p. 20.)
73 ‘Participation in deciding how to spend money is undertaken by everyone
attending staff meetings. Participation in raising money is more
theory than reality. Only three members of staff have done any major
fund- raising. Participation in signing cheques (taking the fi nal responsibility)
is limited to Bill and Wendy Harpe with second signatures from
Mr Leslie Jones (solicitor)....’ (Anonymous, ‘Plastic Bags on the Move . . .
It’s how the accounts are kept in check’, ibid., p. 24.)
74 Anonymous, ‘Anyone Expecting to be 100% Creative in their Working
Life is also Expecting to be a Parasite’, ibid., p. 17.
75 This building was erected despite huge problems reconciling Price’s
idealism with practical requirements, resulting in several lawsuits. (Ed
Berman, interview with the author, London, 8 January 2010.) It is important
to mention the infl uence of Joan Littlewood in this regard, who had
conceived and developed the Fun Palace with Price, and who was an
infl uential point of contact between Inter- Action and the professional
theatre world.
76 Berman claims that McKinsey and KPMG helped Inter- Action to set up
1,200 new community groups in the 1970s. He states that he is interested
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