Connections: Participatory art as a factor for social cohesion

Abstract

The potential for participatory arts to contribute to mental health and wellbeing has been subject of parliamentary debates, all-party interparliamentary reports, research by the Arts Council of England, as well as academic research. Often, these questions stand in the light of accountability of Art, of measurable societal benefit, not at least to justify funding decisions and institutional support. Criticism of this quantitative reading of participatory arts centres around limitations in measuring social connectedness and its benefits, as well as other side-effects of reductionism (Bishop 2012). This paper presents four recent media arts projects aiming to contribute to social cohesion through a multitude of strategies. This paper discusses the potential of media arts to contribute to social connectedness as well as challenges in measuring their success.

Contributors

Oliver Mag Gingrich

Paola D’Albore

Evgenia Emets

Alain Renaud

David Negrao

Conference

Publication date: July 2020

Publication date (Print): July 2020

Pages: 189-197

Affiliations

National Centre for Computer

Animation, London, UK

Independent Author

London, UK

Artist

Ericeira, Portugal

Bournemouth University

Geneva, Switzerland

Artist

Lisbon, Portugal

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVA2020.35

Copyright statement: © Gingrich et al. Published by BCS Learning and Development Ltd. Proceedings of EVA London 2020

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of EVA London 2020

Conference acronym: EVA 2020

Conference number: 30

Conference location: London

Conference date: 6th July – 9th July 2020

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: AI and the Arts: Artificial Imagination

Product

Product Information: 1477-9358 BCS Learning and Development Ltd

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/EVA2020.35

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

Categories

Series title: Electronic Workshops in Computing