Cheeky little monkeys: Emancipation and art in regards to education versus participation

Anthony Schrag - ORCID: 0000-0001-8660-7572 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8660-7572The inception of the Social Exclusion Unit in 1997 by the recently elected New Labour government saw participatory art projects being applied to the issues of community cohesion and social inclusion with the explicit aim of the artistic works to seek consensus and eradicate social division. However, society is inherently dissensual, it is wrought with friction which can never be dissolved and as Rosalyn Deutsche clarifies: 'Conflict, division, and instability, then, do not ruin the democratic public sphere; they are conditions of its existence’. This dichotomy between intention and reality reveals the issues of power at play, and the complicated problems related to the instrumentalisation of artistic works within the social realm.http://engage.org/articles/42pubpu

Non-visual aesthetics: Seeing the world with our bodies

This text explores the role of 'physical ontologies' within Socially Engaged Art practices, and explores how the notion of visual art can be limiting to artworks developed with communities and 'non-artists'. It uses the field of Embodied Cognition and the concept of an Anthropology of the Body to frame how physical activities can be positioned not only as 'art' but as processes by which artists can ethically explore the world with communities. As such, it provides a counter-narrative to assumptions of how art should function within socially engaged contexts, and examines how physical ontologies become effective - and affective - tools when working in genre of art that is fundamentally based on humans exchanging with each other in a process meaning-making. While there are many discussions on-going about the role of art within the public realm, the formulation of a physical ontology within socially engaged practices has been less explored, and this text provides a reflective discussion point. It is written from the perspective of a practice-based researcher who has worked within the field of participatory/public art for over 14 years, and provides an example of a physical methodology to frame his argument. This information would be important and interesting for any fields or practitioners working in an engaged or participatory manner with an artist, such as social work, participatory democracy/activisms, or other socially engaged practices.div_MCaPA19pub5183pub

The Artist As Social Worker Vs. The Artist as Social Wanker Or Five Acts of How

Exploring the absurdity of practice-based research, this essay is framed using the lens of Samuel Beckett's notion of existentialism as a productive way of thinking through the problematic notions artists working and practising in the public realm. It incorporates Mouffe’s concept of agonism and traces some conceptual frameworks that have posited art as an ameliorative force within the public realm, discusses the complications of ‘intention’ embedded in language, as well as draws attention to the difference between these terms that are often interchangeably.div_MCaPApub5385pu

Trying Not to Break Things: Video Extension [Practice Research]

Anthony Schrag - ORCID: 0000-0001-8660-7572 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8660-7572This work builds on the Trying Not to Break Things workshop developed for NHS practitioners (https://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/handle/20.500.12289/10487) and the paper written by Smith et al (2019) (https://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/handle/20.500.12289/10357). The original partners for this project were the Centre for Applied Social Sciences (CASS) and Lydia Osteoporosis Project (LOP). In short, this work aimed to explore how creative/artistic approaches can uncover professionals’ tacit knowledge and raise consciousness around how osteoporosis can affect people’s daily lives, especially in regards to NHS staff involved in ‘moving and handling’ those who may have osteoporosis. The research was to develop a piece of knowledge exchange that explored how translate the workshop, paper and findings to a wider audience. The video then acts as an output of that research

The artist as social worker vs. the artist as social wanker

Anthony Schrag - orcid: 0000-0001-8660-7572 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8660-7572Anthony Schrag - ORCID: 0000-0001-8660-7572 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8660-7572This paper briefly explores the problematic notion of the ‘artist as a social worker’ and aims to develop an (ethical) counterpoint to this position via Mouffe’s concept of agonism. It begins by tracing some conceptual frameworks that have posited art as an ameliorative force within the public realm, discusses the complications of ‘intention’ embedded in language, as well as draws attention to the difference between these terms that are often interchangeably. It ends with an exploration of three agonistic artworks, the last being the author’s own. It hopes to present a productive counterpoint to the notion of the ‘artist as social worker, as well as provide insight to these discussions from a practitioner’s point of view.div_MCaPA13pub5373pub

Lure of the Lost: A contemporary pilgrimage

AberdeenA monograph documenting the artist-based research of a project by Anthony Schrag as he walked from Huntly, Aberdeenshire to Venice, Italy. It is the outcome of practice-based exploration of both 'walking art practices' and 'participatory methodologies' which aimed to question the place of these ephemeral, socially-based practices in comparison to the object-based sphere of the Venice Biennalediv_MCaPApub4663pu

Masculine Imminence: The Male Gaze Vs Gazing At Men.

A review of Photographer James Parker's Photographydiv_MCaPA3pub5196pub

We All Cast Shadows

AberdeenThis publication is the documentation of a practice-based research into the situating of a public art gallery into a community, and how the community felt about that imposition.div_MCaPApub4676pu

PANDEMIC: Art making in lockdown [Practice Research]

Anthony Schrag - ORCID: 0000-0001-8660-7572 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8660-7572During the Covid-19 lockdown, I was awarded the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s PANDEMIC award which aimed to support artistic practice in these unparalleled times. As my practice is concerned with physical, participatory methodologies, I aimed to explore how my practice was impacted by the Covid-19 restrictions, and took two parallel approaches.The first explored how collective and collaborative ways of creation could be supported when ‘being together’ was impossible. The second looked how ‘embodied cognition’ could be used express the complex psychological changes that were occurring to myself and others in the face of isolation and lockdown.Royal Society of Edinburg

The Imposition of Help

Exploring to what extent 'ameliorative' artworks are possible, from the perspective of a practitioner on a research-based residency in South Africa. It focuses specifically on one particular artwork - a performance in Johannesburg - and the affective responses from this performance.div_MCaPApub4678pu