Comments on: Interactive art in blackface http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2009/09/05/interactive-art-in-blackface/ EthanZ's musings on Africa, media and international development Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:45:31 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Nicholas Laughlin http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2009/09/05/interactive-art-in-blackface/comment-page-1/#comment-1731034 Nicholas Laughlin Sun, 06 Sep 2009 17:26:13 +0000 http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2009/09/05/interactive-art-in-blackface/#comment-1731034 Ethan, thanks for writing about this interesting but troubling project. If it raises funds for and awareness of the need for well-drilling, then it does have some social value, as you say. But it clearly also benefits the German artist--who gets a nice entry in his CV and the chance to compare himself to Duchamp--and the Ars Electronica organisers--who get the appearance of a more "diverse" festival. It raises complicated questions about creative and political intent, about "authenticity", about cultural power relations, about the infuriating history of the Western art establishment's interactions with creative practitioners from the rest of the world, and about who gets to represent who and where and why and (crucially) who gets funded along the way. Given that African artists--and, I gather, artists from the developing world generally--are under-represented at events like Ars Electronica; given that the project itself is based on the notion of a kind of reciprocity--an actual toilet flush in Linz enabling a hypothetical one somewhere in a generalised Africa; I wonder if the festival curators could not have included WIAWIA under certain conditions. Specifically, they could have specified that Roy undertake a parallel project with an actual Malian artist involving actual reciprocity, including support for that artist to show his or her work in Ars Electronica and participate in the conversations there. I know that's not the way international art curators usually think, but maybe they should? Ethan, thanks for writing about this interesting but troubling project. If it raises funds for and awareness of the need for well-drilling, then it does have some social value, as you say. But it clearly also benefits the German artist–who gets a nice entry in his CV and the chance to compare himself to Duchamp–and the Ars Electronica organisers–who get the appearance of a more “diverse” festival. It raises complicated questions about creative and political intent, about “authenticity”, about cultural power relations, about the infuriating history of the Western art establishment’s interactions with creative practitioners from the rest of the world, and about who gets to represent who and where and why and (crucially) who gets funded along the way.

Given that African artists–and, I gather, artists from the developing world generally–are under-represented at events like Ars Electronica; given that the project itself is based on the notion of a kind of reciprocity–an actual toilet flush in Linz enabling a hypothetical one somewhere in a generalised Africa; I wonder if the festival curators could not have included WIAWIA under certain conditions. Specifically, they could have specified that Roy undertake a parallel project with an actual Malian artist involving actual reciprocity, including support for that artist to show his or her work in Ars Electronica and participate in the conversations there.

I know that’s not the way international art curators usually think, but maybe they should?

]]> By: Cyrus Farivar http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2009/09/05/interactive-art-in-blackface/comment-page-1/#comment-1728681 Cyrus Farivar Sat, 05 Sep 2009 13:40:49 +0000 http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2009/09/05/interactive-art-in-blackface/#comment-1728681 It's interesting how going blackface in 2009 would never EVER fly in the US. It’s interesting how going blackface in 2009 would never EVER fly in the US.

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