Inadvertent and Unexpected Learning: Play in Socially-Engaged Art Practices

Abstract

Socially-engaged Art (SEA) has been defined as a practice geared towards social action in which the experience of its own creation becomes a central element of the artwork; as an art practice invested in experience, or what I would call a shared experience, since it solicits the audience’s participation. This dependence on social dialogue situates the negotiation between the conditions and expectations set by the artist, and the actual development of the artworks among the participants in a realm of uncertainty. It is this uncertainty that blends in aesthetic experience, social function, and education. SEA artists have used a variety of strategies while working with participants at intervening or transforming their social environments, among which is play. Artists have used a variety of strategies while working with participants at intervening or transforming everyday life, among which is play. This paper investigates how play manifests in SEA, and what roles it assumes in making possible the ideas and practices that shape a SEA in the context of a phenomenological study.