Creative Authority
One day participatory performance / 2019
In collaboration with Fred Schmidt-Arenales
Creative Authority invited a group of artists and organizers in Chicago for a one day intensive exploring their own group dynamics in the here-and-now. Through the lens of our unfolding group process, we explored the politics of artistic representation. The project asks, who do we trust to represent us? And on what terms?
Throughout the day, the group observed its emotional and intellectual responses to recording and being recorded. The day consisted of conversations about group dynamics as they unfolded in real time, and culminated in a collaborative video-recorded discussion, with each participant participating in the documentation process. We hypothesized that qualities of the documentation would showcase the group's relationship to the recording, to the project, and to the authority of the artists in charge.
Inspired by Group Relations in the Tavistock method, this event investigates power and authority in groups, and the delicate and sometimes controversial dynamics that come up when artists represent other people.
Presented for the Togetherism Festival at Coprosperity Sphere