Art as a technology of connection: Nomadic sculpture

This case study chapter offers an example as to how geographers can think about art as a technology of connection. Rather than championing this artwork as such, it instead offers ways ‘into’ the sort of encounters contemporary participatory art creates, and for what cause. With a defined ‘social turn’ emerging in contemporary art practice from the 1990s where the creation of social relations is placed as a central element in the cultural-aesthetic form of artworks (see Bourriaud 2002), how might this be of interest to us as geographers? By thinking of this sort of artwork as a ‘technology’ of connection interesting links to contemporary geographical debates are made possible.

This piece features in the book 'Creativity' by Professor of GeoHumanities Harriet Hawkins, and is part of Routledge's 'Key Issues in Geography' series.