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 />
productions, <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> debates <strong>the</strong>y occasioned, that provide <strong>the</strong> most<br />
informative parallel with today’s participatory art. 29<br />
This discussion, however, needs to be prefaced by <strong>the</strong> acknowledgement<br />
that one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> main problems in summarising Russian artistic<br />
developments <strong>of</strong> this period is <strong>the</strong> diffi culty <strong>of</strong> isolating <strong>the</strong>m from <strong>the</strong><br />
complexities <strong>of</strong> a political context in which internecine disagreements led<br />
to appointments, confl icts <strong>and</strong> resignations almost on a monthly basis.<br />
Even within avant- garde groups <strong>the</strong>re were internal disagreements that<br />
make it hard to generalise, <strong>and</strong> even harder to produce an intelligible chronology<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> period. The situation is exacerbated by <strong>the</strong> paucity <strong>of</strong> images<br />
in relation to this material, <strong>and</strong> a lack <strong>of</strong> fi rst- h<strong>and</strong> accounts to illuminate<br />
what images we have. In what follows I shall focus on <strong>the</strong> <strong>the</strong>mes <strong>of</strong> new<br />
versus old culture, collective versus individual authorship, <strong>and</strong> equality<br />
versus quality. These will be used as <strong>the</strong> steering ideas through a discussion<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> main <strong>the</strong>oretical positions immediately following <strong>the</strong> Revolution,<br />
<strong>and</strong> contrasting accounts <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> invention <strong>and</strong> spread <strong>of</strong> mass spectacle. I<br />
will conclude with some refl ections on <strong>the</strong> Soviet attempt to recalibrate<br />
music along participatory lines.<br />
The question <strong>of</strong> whe<strong>the</strong>r or not <strong>the</strong> Revolution should occasion an<br />
entirely new form <strong>of</strong> culture produced by <strong>and</strong> for <strong>the</strong> proletariat, or should<br />
retain its ties to cultural heritage despite its ideological fl aws was a key<br />
point <strong>of</strong> confl ict between <strong>the</strong>orists immediately following 1917. The<br />
Proletkult (an acronym for ‘proletarian cultural- educational organisations’)<br />
was formed as a coalition <strong>of</strong> working- class interest groups shortly<br />
before <strong>the</strong> Revolution, but by 1918 had become a national organisation<br />
dedicated to defi ning new forms <strong>of</strong> proletarian culture in keeping with<br />
collectivist doctrine. Its founding <strong>the</strong>orist, Aleks<strong>and</strong>r Bogdanov (1873–<br />
1928), was an economist, philosopher, physician, sci- fi writer <strong>and</strong> activist,<br />
who identifi ed an important gap in Marxist thinking between <strong>the</strong> proletariat<br />
as revolutionary force <strong>and</strong> as builder <strong>of</strong> a new society. For Bogdanov, this<br />
hiatus had to be fi lled through education <strong>and</strong> training in a new political<br />
culture, producing a workers’ intelligentsia in place <strong>of</strong> a party intelligentsia.<br />
As such, he was <strong>the</strong> most outspoken advocate <strong>of</strong> suppressing bourgeois<br />
culture <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> past in favour <strong>of</strong> a new proletarian culture that made no<br />
reference to cultural heritage. As Zenovia Sochor has argued, <strong>the</strong> Proletkult<br />
sought to revolutionise culture on three fronts: in labour (by merging <strong>the</strong><br />
artist <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> worker), in lifestyle (at home <strong>and</strong> at work), <strong>and</strong> in feeling <strong>and</strong><br />
sentiment (creating a revolutionary consciousness). 30 All <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se had radical<br />
consequences for culture, which Bogdanov viewed as ‘<strong>the</strong> most<br />
powerful weapon for organising collective forces in a class society – class<br />
forces’. 31 <strong>Art</strong>, literature, <strong>the</strong>atre <strong>and</strong> music were all subject to a reorganisation<br />
that aimed to bring cultural production in line with collectivist ideals.<br />
Bogdanov’s emphasis on <strong>the</strong> independence <strong>of</strong> working- class culture at<br />
arm’s length from <strong>the</strong> Communist Party <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> Soviet state meant that he<br />
50