Summary
THINGSTIGATE aims to theorize how aesthetic objects mediate sociopolitical transformation. In a world where affective imagination increasingly sways society and politics, it is urgent to grasp the link between imagination, emotions, and sociopolitical institutions. Art for social change, ‘socially engaged art’, is pertinent, but its theories now dwell on usefulness. Imbued in a post-object relational art tradition despite the material turn in humanities and social sciences, these theories overlook aesthetic objects’ role in social processes. Tackling this, THINGSTIGATE draws on empirical hypotheses to assess aesthetic objects as a pivot of imagination, emotions, institutions. It extends aesthetic cosmopolitanism in confronting the imagined community of the nation-state as an institution. How do aesthetic objects behave in social relations, instigate change through imagination, intervene in the nation-states’ institutionalizing paths? How can they transform the imaginaries of a specific nation-state, and of a world beyond the nation-states? The study’s novel interdisciplinary methodology dissects the making of sociopolitical cultures by empirically tracing socially engaged objects – physical and digital – while they are in action, via artistic practice-based research. A posited framework will link imagination, institutions, and a relational objects typology distilled from major archives worldwide. It is then tested in two quantitative and qualitative fieldwork streams: iterative – via Make Your Own Passport workshop series in highly diverse public spaces in Sweden, Italy, and USA– and longitudinal –via 1965 Setiap Hari, a transnational social media initiative for Indonesia. The study’s impacts are manifold: in opening up a new, theoretically grounded methodological field of artistic practice-based research, it will advance the discourse on humans' relations with others in sociopolitical imagination and institution, a long debate since antiquity, in art and beyond.
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More information & hyperlinks
| Web resources: | https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101041284 |
| Start date: | 01-03-2023 |
| End date: | 29-02-2028 |
| Total budget - Public funding: | 1 499 586,00 Euro - 1 499 586,00 Euro |
Cordis data
Original description
THINGSTIGATE aims to theorize how aesthetic objects mediate sociopolitical transformation. In a world where affective imagination increasingly sways society and politics, it is urgent to grasp the link between imagination, emotions, and sociopolitical institutions. Art for social change, ‘socially engaged art’, is pertinent, but its theories now dwell on usefulness. Imbued in a post-object relational art tradition despite the material turn in humanities and social sciences, these theories overlook aesthetic objects’ role in social processes. Tackling this, THINGSTIGATE draws on empirical hypotheses to assess aesthetic objects as a pivot of imagination, emotions, institutions. It extends aesthetic cosmopolitanism in confronting the imagined community of the nation-state as an institution. How do aesthetic objects behave in social relations, instigate change through imagination, intervene in the nation-states’ institutionalizing paths? How can they transform the imaginaries of a specific nation-state, and of a world beyond the nation-states? The study’s novel interdisciplinary methodology dissects the making of sociopolitical cultures by empirically tracing socially engaged objects – physical and digital – while they are in action, via artistic practice-based research. A posited framework will link imagination, institutions, and a relational objects typology distilled from major archives worldwide. It is then tested in two quantitative and qualitative fieldwork streams: iterative – via Make Your Own Passport workshop series in highly diverse public spaces in Sweden, Italy, and USA– and longitudinal –via 1965 Setiap Hari, a transnational social media initiative for Indonesia. The study’s impacts are manifold: in opening up a new, theoretically grounded methodological field of artistic practice-based research, it will advance the discourse on humans' relations with others in sociopolitical imagination and institution, a long debate since antiquity, in art and beyond.Status
SIGNEDCall topic
ERC-2021-STGUpdate Date
09-02-2023
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