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Get Close: Interpersonal Art in the 1970s

This thesis centers on an analysis of Allan Kaprow's Activities (1970-1979)-works that gauged how people interact when following a script that often involved ostensibly banal, everyday routines; for example, brushing one's teeth, or walking through a doorway. These pieces, as suggested in the artist's writings, were influenced by a range of philosophical and sociological theories. While Kaprow associated his Activities with the sociological and philosophical inquiries of John Dewey, Erving Goffman, and Ray Birdwhistell, I will also suggest that concepts related to interpersonal psychology and social transaction theory were just as significant. In particular I will discuss the parallel development of Transactional Analysis, a concept defined by the psychologist Eric Berne. Kaprow's works aligned interpersonal events and an early form of "relational aesthetics," a term coined later by contemporary art critic Nicolas Bourriaud. The resulting works were art that bordered on sociological and psychological experimentation.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/621835
Date January 2016
CreatorsDerro, Brad, Derro, Brad
ContributorsBusbea, Larry, Ivey, Paul, Albers, Kate
PublisherThe University of Arizona.
Source SetsUniversity of Arizona
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext, Electronic Thesis
RightsCopyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.

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