Disruptive aesthetic spaces
29 November 2013
Two articles by Cath Lambert that have interesting connections with the aesthetic dimensions of heterotopia:
Lambert, C. (2012) ‘Redistributing the sensory: the critical pedagogy of Jacques Rancière’ Critical Studies in Education 53 (2)
Abstract
Jacques Rancière remains neglected within educational debates. In this paper I examine the potential of his philosophies for enacting critical interventions in relation to contemporary (higher) educational concerns. Rancière argues against the progressive temporality of pedagogic relations and provides an alternative thesis that equality is a point of departure for social and pedagogic encounters. He also emphasises the importance of aesthetics and the ‘distribution of the sensible’ as a mechanism for understanding who is un/able to be seen, speak and produce knowledge. These arguments are examined through an analysis of two research-based art installations: Sociologists Talking (2008, 2009) and The Idea of a University (2010). I consider the potential for ‘alternative’ forms of knowledge production and communication to enact different pedagogic methods and re/distribute the sensory spaces in which research and teaching take place.
Lambert, C. (2013) ‘Live Art as Urban Praxis: The Political Aesthetics of the City’ Sociological Research Online, 18 (3) 12
Abstract
This article examines the political possibilities for an aesthetic disruption of urban space and time. Locating the discussion within debates about the neoliberal city, selected art-works from Fierce live art festival in Birmingham, England are used in order to examine how, in a specific and localised context, normative spatial patterns and temporal rhythms can be challenged and subverted. The analysis draws on, and contributes to, a sociological account of the centrality of aesthetics to political and social organisation.
Peter