In What We Made, Tom Finkelpearl examines the activist, participatory, coauthored aesthetic experiences being created in contemporary art. He suggests social cooperation as a meaningful way to think about this work and provides a framework for understanding its emergence and acceptance. In a series of fifteen conversations, artists comment on their experiences working cooperatively, joined at times by colleagues from related fields, including social policy, architecture, art history, urban planning, and new media. Issues discussed include the experiences of working in public and of working with museums and libraries, opportunities for social change, the lines between education and art, spirituality, collaborative opportunities made available by new media, and the elusive criteria for evaluating cooperative art. Finkelpearl engages the art historians Grant Kester and Claire Bishop in conversation on the challenges of writing critically about this work and the aesthetic status of the dialogical encounter. He also interviews the often overlooked co-creators of cooperative art, "expert participants" who have worked with artists. In his conclusion, Finkelpearl argues that pragmatism offers a useful critical platform for understanding the experiential nature of social cooperation, and he brings pragmatism to bear in a discussion of Houston's Project Row Houses.Interviewees. Naomi Beckwith, Claire Bishop, Tania Bruguera, Brett Cook, Teddy Cruz, Jay Dykeman, Wendy Ewald, Sondra Farganis, Harrell Fletcher, David Henry, Gregg Horowitz, Grant Kester, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Pedro Lasch, Rick Lowe, Daniel Martinez, Lee Mingwei, Jonah Peretti, Ernesto Pujol, Evan Roth, Ethan Seltzer, and Mark Stern
Preface ix
1. Introduction
The Art of Social Cooperation: An American Framework 1
2. Cooperation Goes Public
Consequences of a Gesture and 100 Victoria/10,000 Tears 51
Interview: Daniel Joseph Martinez, artist, and Gregg M. Horowitz, philosophy professor
Chicago Urban Ecology Action Group 76
Follow-Up Interview: Naomi Beckwith, participant
3. Museum, Education, Cooperation
Memory of Surfaces 90
Interview: Ernesto Pujol, artist, and David Henry, museum educator
4. Overview
Temporary Coaltions, Mobilized Communities, and Dialogue as Art 114
Interview: Grant Kester, art historian
5. Social Vision and a Cooperative Community
Project Row Houses 132
Interview: Rick Lowe, artist, and Mark Stern, professor of social history and urban studies
6. Participation, Planning, and a Cooperative Film
Blot Out the Sun 152
Interview: Harrell Fletcher, artist, and Ethan Seltzer, professor of urban studies and planning
Ride Out the Sun 174
Follow-up Interview: Jay Dykeman, collaborator
7. Education Art
Catedra Arte del Conducta 179
Interview: Tania Bruguera, artist
Catedra de Conducta
Follow-up Interview: Claire Bishop, art historian
8. A Political Alphabet 219
Interview: Wendy Ewald, artist, and Sondra Farganis, political scientist
9. Crossing Borders
Transnational Community-Based Production, Cooperative Art, and Informal Trade Networks 240
Interview: Pedro Lasch, artist, and Teddy Cruz, architect
10. Spirituality and Cooperation
Unburning Freedom Hall and The Packer School Project 269
Interview: Brett Cook, artist, and Mierle Laderman Ukeles, artist
The Seer Project 301
Interview: Lee Mingwei, artist
11. Interactive Internet Communication
White Glove Tracking 313
Interview: Evan Roth, artist
White Glove Tracking 335
Follow-up Interview: Jonah Peretti, contagious media pioneer
Conclusion: Pragmatism and Social Cooperation 343
Notes 363
Bibliography 373
Index 381
