Review of 'Creative Engagements with Ecologies of Place' on 'Import'
3 stars
This book left me with mixed feelings.
On the one hand, Creative Engagements... is a great anthology of different artists and artworks that engage place with contemporary themes about symbiosis or thinking beyond human. As an anthology, it documents the artworks well and presents the viewpoints in clearly framed chapters, so is a good reference book.
On the other hand, it presents an overarching ideology that encourages a multifaceted look at practice. Then there are glaring contradictions to this: In the first chapter, the book criticises "all encompassing" ideas and universalising beliefs. Then in the next chapter it presents "walking" as a universally obtainable and practiced method of sensing the world, without any acknowledgement of the perspective of those with disabilities (both human and nonhuman, for example wheelchair users or those that are blind).
Although written with the authors' hearts in the right place, I would recommend this more as …
This book left me with mixed feelings.
On the one hand, Creative Engagements... is a great anthology of different artists and artworks that engage place with contemporary themes about symbiosis or thinking beyond human. As an anthology, it documents the artworks well and presents the viewpoints in clearly framed chapters, so is a good reference book.
On the other hand, it presents an overarching ideology that encourages a multifaceted look at practice. Then there are glaring contradictions to this: In the first chapter, the book criticises "all encompassing" ideas and universalising beliefs. Then in the next chapter it presents "walking" as a universally obtainable and practiced method of sensing the world, without any acknowledgement of the perspective of those with disabilities (both human and nonhuman, for example wheelchair users or those that are blind).
Although written with the authors' hearts in the right place, I would recommend this more as a documentation and anthology of artworks than as an overriding philosophical or conceptual framework. While the final chapter does round this up well, there are other authors that present the latter much better (suggestions: Maria Puig de la Bellacasa, Annemarie Mol or Vinciane Despret).