The Social Art

This is the improved and expanded second edition of The Social Art, an engagingly written, highly accessible tour through the world of language. Macaulay uses jokes, anecdotes, quotations, and examples to introduce readers to the full range of current linguistic knowledge, covering in 35 brief chapters (2 new to the second edition) topics like language acquisition, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, dialects, conversation, narrative, swearing, and more.

The Present Prospects of Social Art History represents a major reconsideration of how art historians analyze works of art and the role that historical factors, both those at the moment when the work was created and when the historian addresses the objects at hand, play in informing their interpretations. Featuring the work of some of the discipline's leading scholars, the volume contains a collection of essays that consider the advantages, limitations, and specific challenges of seeing works of art primarily through a historical perspective. The assembled texts, along with an introduction by the co-editors, demonstrate an array of possible methodological approaches that acknowledge the crucial role of history in the creation, reception, and exhibition of works of art.

"Most philosophers of art of the modern period have concentrated their attention on engaging works of the arts as objects of disinterested aesthetic attention, and on the works that reward that modern of engagement, virtually ignoring the many other ways in which we engage works of the arts. The argument of this book is that it is important for philosophers to expand their attention and discuss as well the more important of those other ways in which we engage works of the arts. After discussing in some detail the main reason why philosophers have not done this, and explaining why this reason should be rejected, the book presents a conceptual framework for discussing the many ways in which we engage works of the arts. The book then employs this framework to discuss, in detail, memorial art, art for veneration, social protest art, work songs, and a recent development in high art, art-reflexive art. The book closes with some reflections on the role of beauty and justice in art in general."--Publisher's description.

This study examines not only the objects and processes that make up the artworlds of human history, but also the social and cultural circumstances, the historicised contexts that bring about their making, frame their functioning, inform their properties and influence their effects, both at the time of their creation and throughout their subsequent biographies. In the short span that “art” has played a part in human life, one may conceive of time as a social river, with a strong current towards the capricious mainstream, and eddies and quiet pools near the banks. The current will flow faster in spate and slower in drought. But it will be forever in motion. It will be unpredictable. Nothing will stop its inexorable force. Art runs in that social river, subject to the flow and chance of time.

With a focus on socially engaged art practices in the twenty-first century, this book explores how artists use their creative practices to raise consciousness, form communities, create change, and bring forth social impact through new technologies and digital practices. Suzanne Lacy’s Foreword and section introduction authors Anne Balsamo, Harrell Fletcher, Natalie Loveless, Karen Moss, and Stephanie Rothenberg present twenty-five in-depth case studies by established and emerging contemporary artists including Kim Abeles, Christopher Blay, Joseph DeLappe, Mary Beth Heffernan, Chris Johnson, Rebekah Modrak, Praba Pilar, Tabita Rezaire, Sylvain Souklaye, and collaborators Victoria Vesna and Siddharth Ramakrishnan. Artists offer firsthand insight into how they activate methods used in socially engaged art projects from the twentieth century and incorporated new technologies to create twenty-first century, socially engaged, digital art practices. Works highlighted in this book span collaborative image-making, immersive experiences, telematic art, time machines, artificial intelligence, and physical computing. These reflective case studies reveal how the artists collaborate with participants and communities, and have found ways to expand, transform, reimagine, and create new platforms for meaningful exchange in both physical and virtual spaces. An invaluable resource for students and scholars of art, technology, and new media, as well as artists interested in exploring these intersections.

This is the definitive analysis of art as a social and perceptual system by Germany's leading social theorist of the late 20th century. It combines three decades of research in the social sciences, phenomenology, evolutionary biology, cybernetics, and information theory with an intimate knowledge of art history, literature, aesthetics, and contemporary literary theory.

‘a game-changer, a must-read for scholars, students and artists alike’ – Tom Finkelpearl At a time when art world critics and curators heavily debate the social, and when community organizers and civic activists are reconsidering the role of aesthetics in social reform, this book makes explicit some of the contradictions and competing stakes of contemporary experimental art-making. Social Works is an interdisciplinary approach to the forms, goals and histories of innovative social practice in both contemporary performance and visual art. Shannon Jackson uses a range of case studies and contemporary methodologies to mediate between the fields of visual and performance studies. The result is a brilliant analysis that not only incorporates current political and aesthetic discourses but also provides a practical understanding of social practice.