Chalmers Conferences, Transvaluation: Making the world matter

Work Experience: Taking Part in All Sided Games
Julie Scott Crawshaw

Last modified: 2015-08-20

Abstract


Collective is a visual arts organisation based in Edinburgh. In 2012-2014 Collective produced ‘All Sided Games’ (ASG), a commissions programme placing artists in and around venues built or used for the Commonwealth Games in Scotland. As an anthropologist-planner I was invited to undertake an experimental evaluation of ASG. The role of the study was in support of Collective’s future programming by better describing what happens in practice to funders and stakeholders. My approach was to evoke the experience of taking part through amassing descriptions of being a participant myself alongside the experience of others. Exploring the evocative evaluation design, in this paper I weave descriptions of the experience of taking part within a broader narrative of the research process. I trace how the works stretch me towards understanding our collective nature; and how reading the texts also stretch readers towards a more intimate understanding of the way art works.


Keywords


Art; applied anthropology; description; ethnography; evaluationi

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