Untangling participation in art and design: a dialogical exhibition by traders
Abstract
Design and to a lesser extent art suffer from a lack of conceptual and taxonomic clarity, whereby a myriad of different approaches and concepts are easily lumped together under a common rubric (Love, 2002)[1]. To begin untangling this, we propose a strategy that allows practitioners and theorists to engage with questions of representation and signification through the act of collective curation. We seek to use the process and practice of curating as a participatory tool for practitioners and theorists to collectively negotiate how the convergences and divergences of projects can/should be organised, structured and given meaning. It will do so by selecting a series of contributions from the web discussion platform TRADERS Talk and invite participating researchers to 'curate' the different projects within the frame of a single exhibition, aiming to explore the thematic contours (approaches, practices assumptions, etc.) of participatory art and design projects. The collective curatorial experience will remain a point of negotiation throughout the PDC Conference as the exhibition will evolve and remain malleable. The exhibition aims to integrate current participatory art and design practice with theoretical reflection and practical activity, creating a truly discursive exhibition---from the act of collective curating to its relational aesthetics.
