Cultural measurement on whose terms? Critical friends as an experiment in participant-led evaluation

Critical Friends is an enquiry into the commissioning, planning and delivery of participatory art carried out by the people that such projects claim to empower. Participants become interviewers, researchers and evaluators, acting as ‘productive parasites’ to a process of socially-engaged art. Aims of social cohesion and active citizenship underpinned a series of publicly-funded art commissions in North Greenwich, London (2008-2011). The group of Critical Friends were residents of North Greenwich who came together to investigate what, why and how these socially engaged art projects were happening in their area. Did the projects reflect the ambitious aims to ‘stimulate debate to generate action and change’ and ‘develop connections and relations between people’? Facilitated by myself and Rebecca Maguire over three years, Critical Friends developed their own questions and methods for finding out. While participation and engagement is usually measured for such projects in terms of numbers of people who attend workshops, Critical Friends was a space for enacting a different kind of cultural measurement. The group focused on trying to find out the qualitative experiences of other participants and interrogated the underlying motives, targets and politics behind the commissions. They did this by acting as participant observers in the projects themselves and by interviewing artists, commissioners, board members, their neighbours and friends (http://criticalfriends.sophiehope.org.uk/)

21 years of The Town is The Venue, Devon Arts, Huntly: The Real Life Gordons of Huntly

I had been artist in residency for 3 months with Deveron Arts in Huntly in 2011 where I made a project 'The Real Life Gordons of Huntly' and book, 'We Love Real Life Scotland' To help mark their 21st Birthday they had a weekend of events, symposia and performances to discuss and reflect on socially engaged practice, the complex ideas surrounding 'publics' and how artists have developed their relationships with DA. I was invited to make a contribution to this celebration. I made a performance where I re-interpreted my project 5 years after its original and complex iterations reflecting how things had changed and how the audience might now respond to the developing ideas of context and engagement