Mary Anne Francis

Research Fellow, Chelsea College of Art & Design, London, UK

From problem to problematic or
Collaborative art practise as research: discussion of aesthetic quality in the working process

Research Question: How does discussion of ‘aesthetic quality’ feature in the process of collaborative art projects? And what follows for such art as practice-based research?

Briefly, the presentation explores the value of restoring attention to ‘aesthetic quality’ as a problematic, rather than a ‘problem’, in the working process of collaborative art practices (and by extension, other modes of social authorship in art).It will look to Walter Benjamin’s key formulation albeit of the literary work’s relation to political ‘correctness’ in ‘The Author as Producer’ as well as Roland Barthes’ / Paul de Man’s elaboration of the ‘Cratylian’ as a productive configuration of the relationship between form and context. Noting that the reasons proposed for the exclusion of ‘aesthetic quality’ simultaneously suggest the sites for future work e.g. the use of non-verbal media in the working process, I will outline some tactics for practitioners’ consideration.