Towards 'Economies of Generosity' in Contemporary Live Art Practice
Thesis Outline
Taking as a starting point the philosophical analysis that explores the dual potentialities of gift to be expressed as transgressive excess and of social control, in what ways can live art practice be used to identify differing modalities of gifting?
By utilising Mauss's ideas around the institution of total services, Bourdieuvian notions of cultural and social capital, and Sara Ahmed’s theories of the ‘stickiness’ of emotions, what do the economies of generosity that operate amongst artists and those they work with reveal about the capitalist systems in which they are embedded?
Acknowledging the interdependence of academic and artistic careers on their socio-political surroundings, particularly the demands these careers encourage towards the accumulation of cultural and financial capital, what practical strategies can be devised that use gift, and in particular the challenges that generosity is assumed to present to capital, as a method to transgress such framing? Can a critical understanding of the role gift plays in contemporary Live Art support a movement away from neoliberal production models towards the formulation of a critical methodology of producing new work?
