Existence Stories is an interactive activist art project that gathers personal narratives from people about the ways in which their lives have been impacted by the current political climate in the United States, particularly surrounding the 2016 Presidential election and its aftermath. The project harnesses first-person narrative and audience participation as tools for humanizing the “Other” and building connections between people through the act of sharing stories. As the project has progressed over time, it has evolved in multiple directions and come to incorporate a variety of media, primarily comics, animation, printmaking, and zines. The roles that reproduction, distribution, and communication play in all of these media are also explored within this body of work.

This research studies how participatory theatre (PT) as a communication tool can promote development and social change in the city. Using a project developed in Johannesburg (SA) that engages the city’s socio-spatial concerns through performance, the paper analyses the participatory creative process utilised and in which ways it opened a space for debate and critical thinking. The objects of the study are the medium (the theatre), the context (the urban) and the creative stakeholders (the participants) and how they influence each other when creating the fictional space of the performance.  The findings suggest that, after participating in the performance’s making process, stakeholders have enhanced their ability to connect their lived experiences with the social-spatial issues of the city and have a better knowledge of the topics covered in the play. One significant aspect of this project is that the participatory approach has given participants a unique opportunity to exchange personal views of the city and find commonalities, and theatre has provided the medium to represent, negotiate and transform their relationship with the city.

Ensnared in but fed up with the inanity of late capitalism and environmental ruin, this thesis examines the ways in which contemporary artists are working against the grain of the dominant anthropocentric Western culture to seek new pathways out of the so-called Anthropocene. The artists under discussion, Carolina Caycedo, Krista Caballero and Frank Ekeberg, and Natalie Jeremijenko, create participatory projects that simultaneously critique the entanglement of human practices and loss of species and encourage their audiences (and the larger global public) to formulate new relationships with our fellow Earthly critters and our damaged ecosystems. This research takes a leaf from new materialist methodologies and the work of scholars such as Donna Haraway and T. J. Demos to consider how artists have deviated from the accustomed Western humanist notion of the individual as separate from nature to instead become recognizant of our critical role as one animal among many imbricated in a remarkably complex but endangered system of exchange. With its implications of collectivity and becoming-with each other, audience participatory art lends itself well to this thinking. The three case studies therefore work through the advantages and potential limitations of art serving as a medium for small-scale social change at a moment when larger global movements toward ecological sustainability are absent. The discussed participatory projects make apparent that there does exist an elasticity to human thought that can open potential futures in which the human species is less toxic and more responsive to the multifarious animacies that mill about this imperiled planet. / Art History

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Esta dissertação levantou um conjunto de questões relacionadas à reflexão do meu processo artístico, tendo como ponto de partida as imagens poéticas da casa, do dormir, do desabrigo, da invisibilidade e da visibilidade que culminaram em trabalhos acerca dos moradores de rua, da acessibilidade e do uso da cidade. Para analisar as experiências artísticas participativas realizadas em âmbito urbano, foi apresentado um estudo da produção de artistas como Flávio de Carvalho, Lygia Clark e Hélio Oiticica, assim como os conceitos de site specific e site oriented (KWON 1998). Acerca dos trabalhos que envolvem relações e propostas de convivência, foi acessado o livro Estética Relacional (BOURRIAUD 2009) e o texto Antagonismos e Estética Relacional (BISHOP 2004). O ato de ouvir e as histórias narradas durante as propostas participativas aproximaram o estudo da ideia de autoficção (DOUBROVSKY 1977) e da escrita de si (FOULCAULT 2002). A relação com o desenho foi observada como produção de sentido, assim como foi problematizado o papel do artista a partir da observação do papel do mediador, revelando possibilidades outras de definição com base nos conceitos de participação total (OITICICA 1967), e artista-etc. (BASBAUM 2013). / This dissertation raised a number of issues related to the reflection of my artistic process, taking as its starting point the poetic pictures of the house, sleeping, homelessness, invisibility and visibility that culminated in works about the homeless, accessibility and the use of the city. To analyze the participatory artistic experiences in urban context, a study of the production of artists like Flávio de Carvalho, Lygia Clark and Hélio Oiticica was presented, as well as the concepts of site specific and site oriented (KWON 1998). About the work involving relations and coexistence proposals, the book Estética Relacional (BOURRIAUD 2009) and the text Antagonismo e Estética Relacional was accessed (BISHOP 2004). The act of listening and the stories told during the participatory proposals approached the study of the idea of self-fiction (DOUBROVSKY 1977) and self-writing (FOULCAULT 2002). The relationship with the drawing was observed as production of meaning, as well was questioned the role of the artist from the observation of the mediators role, revealing other setting possibilities on the basis of participação total concept (OITICICA 1967), and artista-etc. (BASBAUM 2013).

La position de l’artiste dans l’écosystème du marché de l’art contemporain n’est pas satisfaisante à l’heure actuelle en raison de la mutation du milieu socio-économique de l’art. Son statut reste flou, il se voit infantilisé et instrumentalisé par son environnement proche. Aussi, l’interrogation cruciale tourne autour de savoir si l’artiste réussira à trouver d’autres voies pour se positionner différemment et y gagner en autonomie. Mes propres expériences m’ont conduit à penser que l’entreprise-artiste, concept porté par l’équipe de recherches Art&Flux depuis 2006, peut apporter une solution intéressante à cette question. Il s’agit alors d’un positionnement ancré dans la réalité qui permet une posture critique. Ma réflexion s’articule autour des concepts développés par Edouard Glissant sur la créolisation, de Gilles Deleuze et Felix Guattari sur le rhizome, de Michel Bauwens sur le peer-to-peer (pair-à-pair) et de Jeremy Rifkin sur l’économie du partage. En m’appuyant sur mon étude du terrain auprès des acteurs de l’art, j’analyse l’évolution des comportements des collectionneurs, plus enclins à devenir des amateurs ou des usagers. Cela me permet d’en arriver à la création d’une entreprise-artiste qui prend l’aspect d’une plateforme d’oeuvres participatives régie par la rencontre entre des artistes et leurs publics. Le but est de rendre visible et de développer toutes les richesses humaines au-delà de la seule richesse économique ou financière, pour développer le lien dans la relation aux autres, la créativité et le partage. / The art market has completely shifted, and as such, the artist’s role within its ecosystem appears impaired. Artists’ status has become blurred; they are infantilized and used by the art world and market. Crucial questioning thus emerges: Will artists reposition themselves in such a way as to gain autonomy? My own experience has led me to think that creating artist enterprises, with the project of artist-run businesses, could provide an interesting response to the current situation. This approach is anchored in reality and also leaves room for critical thinking in link with research team Art & Flux (a CNRS research team who is working on art, economy & society). My research furthermore combines thoughts and is structured by the ideas developed by Édouard Glissant concerning «Creolization», Gilles Deleuze and FelixGuattari’s «Rhizome», Michel Bauwens thinking about peer-to-peer methods, and Jeremy Rifkin’s research regarding the economics of sharing. My surveys and in-depth conversations with a selection of art world stakeholders have allowed me to carry out a worthwhile analysis of collectors’ changing habits. They appear ever more likely to gradually become connoisseurs, active contributors and users. Thanks to these consistent efforts, the stage of developing a platform of participatory artworks has been reached. This platform is a gateway for artists to gain direct access to their audience. This project’s overarching objective is to render all human riches accessible - beyond purely economic or financial preoccupations - to reinforce connections between people, through sharing and creativity.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Esta dissertação levantou um conjunto de questões relacionadas à reflexão do meu processo artístico, tendo como ponto de partida as imagens poéticas da casa, do dormir, do desabrigo, da invisibilidade e da visibilidade que culminaram em trabalhos acerca dos moradores de rua, da acessibilidade e do uso da cidade. Para analisar as experiências artísticas participativas realizadas em âmbito urbano, foi apresentado um estudo da produção de artistas como Flávio de Carvalho, Lygia Clark e Hélio Oiticica, assim como os conceitos de site specific e site oriented (KWON 1998). Acerca dos trabalhos que envolvem relações e propostas de convivência, foi acessado o livro Estética Relacional (BOURRIAUD 2009) e o texto Antagonismos e Estética Relacional (BISHOP 2004). O ato de ouvir e as histórias narradas durante as propostas participativas aproximaram o estudo da ideia de autoficção (DOUBROVSKY 1977) e da escrita de si (FOULCAULT 2002). A relação com o desenho foi observada como produção de sentido, assim como foi problematizado o papel do artista a partir da observação do papel do mediador, revelando possibilidades outras de definição com base nos conceitos de participação total (OITICICA 1967), e artista-etc. (BASBAUM 2013). / This dissertation raised a number of issues related to the reflection of my artistic process, taking as its starting point the poetic pictures of the house, sleeping, homelessness, invisibility and visibility that culminated in works about the homeless, accessibility and the use of the city. To analyze the participatory artistic experiences in urban context, a study of the production of artists like Flávio de Carvalho, Lygia Clark and Hélio Oiticica was presented, as well as the concepts of site specific and site oriented (KWON 1998). About the work involving relations and coexistence proposals, the book Estética Relacional (BOURRIAUD 2009) and the text Antagonismo e Estética Relacional was accessed (BISHOP 2004). The act of listening and the stories told during the participatory proposals approached the study of the idea of self-fiction (DOUBROVSKY 1977) and self-writing (FOULCAULT 2002). The relationship with the drawing was observed as production of meaning, as well was questioned the role of the artist from the observation of the mediators role, revealing other setting possibilities on the basis of participação total concept (OITICICA 1967), and artista-etc. (BASBAUM 2013).

Ouverture et optimisme marquent les années cinquante au Brésil, culminant par l’édification de Brasilia. Les arts se renouvellent sur l’axe de Rio de Janeiro et Sao Paolo, avec l’avènement de deux mouvances artistiques, le Concretismo et le Neoconcretismo. L’art concret s’édifie comme un système autoréférentiel, considéré par cet artifice comme universel, et devient le plus important mouvement artistique de l’époque. Lygia Pape prend part à la création de ces deux mouvements et à leur développement grâce à une riche production artistique. Elle est en contact direct avec Mário Pedrosa, théoricien qui oriente le groupe concret de Rio de Janeiro autour de l’empathie de la forme, sous l’influence des sciences cognitives, de la Gestalt et de la phénoménologie. Lygia Pape s’implique dans diverses manifestations artistiques, comme la peinture, la gravure, la poésie concrète, la danse, le cinéma et le happening. Elle s’abstrait progressivement d’un art universel et rationnel vers un art qui baigne dans l’individualité et la subjectivité. Sa production contrarie la rigueur concrète pour évoluer vers un art participatif engageant d’abord l’esprit, puis tout le corps. Ainsi, la figure, auparavant écartée, est réintroduite par l’inclusion de l’homme dans l’œuvre, passant de l’abstraction géométrique et des rigides règles du Concrétisme, vers la liberté de création introduite par le Néoconcrétisme. Traditionnellement envisagé comme une suite logique du Concrétisme, le Néoconcrétisme semble avoir toujours été présent dans l’œuvre de Pape. / Open-mindedness and optimism mark the fifties in Brazil, culminating with the construction of Brasilia. The arts undergo a renewal on an axis going from Rio de Janeiro to Sao Paulo, with the rise of two artistic avant-garde movements, Concretismo and Neoconcretismo. Concrete art is built as a self-referential system, considered by this artifice as universal, and becomes the most important artistic movement at that time. Lygia Pape participates actively in the creation and the development of both, thanks to a rich artistic production. She is in close contact with Mário Pedrosa, a theoretician steering the artists of the Rio de Janeiro concrete group towards the form empathy, under the influence of cognitive sciences, Gestalt, and phenomenology. Lygia Pape gets involved in various fields, such as painting, engraving, concrete poetry, dance, cinema, and happening. She progressively abstracts from a universal and rational art to an art diving into individuality and subjectivity. Her production contradicts the concrete rigor to move towards a participatory art engaging at first the mind, and then the whole body. Thus, the figure, previously discarded, is reintroduced by the inclusion of the man inside the work, moving from Concretism with its geometric abstraction and rigid rules towards Neoconcretismo and its creative freedom. Traditionally considered as a logical continuation of the Concretism, it seems that the Neoconcretism has been always present in Lygia’s work.

Cultural diversity in a global community demands our tolerant understanding of one another. Participatory art projects can be instrumental in facilitating equal-footing en­counters and creative communication between people from different cultures that transcend language barriers. Used as a methodology for synergistic exchange and exploration, they represent a useful tool for the study and advancement of alternative solutions to development-related themes, particularly where non-verbal communication is either essential or advantageous.This report considers an independent arts-based project, “How to Talk to Dragons”, which was carried out in Phnom Penh, Cambodia by cultural workers from Berlin. The inter-cultural project chose the art form of shadow puppetry to explore the country’s culture and the experiences of its people, and to exchange ideas and perspectives in an engaging and socially just forum. The question guiding this cultural voyage of discovery was how the symbolic dragon, a mythical creature with a global resonance but subject to different perceptions in Europe and Asia, might be used as an agent for opening the way to revealing insights into human nature.The report also explores the links between How to Talk to Dragons and ComDev practices and, by incorporating an auto-ethnographic approach, considers how this method can serve to provide a better understanding of practice and add value to project analysis from a practitioner's perspective.It finds that open concept projects offer an exceptional flexibility to adapt to local and cultural conditions and makes the case for the Cambodian shadow theatre known as Sbek Touch (literal meaning: small leather) as a valuable emancipatory tool for promoting communication across social, economic and cultural borders. It recommends further studies into its potential for raising and identifying sometimes controversial issues in a humorous manner and for uncovering collective solutions, particularly among marginalized communities and classes. Ultimately, the report points to Hooks’ “Practice of Love” as an overarching concept that can inform and transform activities designed to engage with and embrace diversity.

A number of theories suggest that participatory arts based approaches have the potential to contribute to development and social change. However, the nature of participation and participative approaches is multi-layered and complex, and critics have voiced concern for depicting participatory art initiatives in an oversimplified, uncriticised positivistic manner. The danger of such assumptions lay in the risk of manipulation, where non-genuine participation could contribute to the reinforcement of oppressive power structures and the dominating hegemony. This study explores the intersection of art, participation and development, and further aims to discuss the process of identifying the emancipatory possibilities and limitations of participatory art for development and social change. Using a combination of a constructivist case study approach and critical discourse analysis, two participatory art organisations are analysed with the intention to define each organisations’ understanding of the nature of participatory art, and further how this is reflected in the implementation of their work. The findings suggest that both organisations, to a certain degree, communicate an understanding of participation that reflect previous theories on genuine participation. Additionally, the findings suggest that this understanding is reflected in the practical work of the organisations.

In times of crisis, what tools do planners and designers have to inspire a sense of well-being? How can we heal community through dialogue, recognizing the ongoing need for connection with or without a crisis? Are there ways to uncover unknown concerns and values in a community? The engagement approaches many planners and designers rely on do not typically aim to access these deeper questions in society. Surveys, public meetings and focus groups seek tangible results that target specific issues. They are often conducted out of context, taking the public out of the environment at issue to answer questions on a defined topic. What tools do professionals designing our urban environments have for discovering unknown issues in a more spontaneous and practice-based way in places where community exists? Through the Eudaimonic Tree Pilot I explored these questions, using the framework of eudaimonia to guide my process. The objective of my study began with my desire to inspire a sense of well-being, eudaimonia, in my community during a time of great loneliness and mental health decline due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This historic moment left many people feeling disconnected and hopeless, exacerbating a national trend that started well before COVID (Ammar et al., 2021). In response, I produced three installations using trees in the landscape to offer the public a means of expression. Each tree housed a different prompt rooted in eudaimonic sentiments and blank note cards for public response. Their messages hung from tree limbs and became an embodiment of the collective consciousness. This study of public engagement through participatory art unearthed profound implications for the planning and design fields. Some of the primary takeaways suggest that participatory art can catalyze community dialogue; spontaneity heightens co-creation; and highly co-created initiatives are likely to generate a eudaimonic effect. This process was led by results as they emerged, highlighting previously unknown resolutions and considerations. This heuristic, emergent methodology could be used more often by planning and design professionals as a means to perform design research that embraces the ephemeral and eudaimonic aspects of communities.