Dialogue as practice and understanding in contemporary art

<p> </p> <p>This study investigates how social constructionist dialogue as art demonstrates a</p> <p>layered mode of practical inquiry, which weaves together interactive and explorative,</p> <p>re-presentational and reflective modes of dialogue in the performance of knowledge.</p> <p>Recent art debates present dialogue as a relational, collaborative and situated mode</p> <p>of meaning-making, and an alternative to traditional constraining frameworks of art.</p> <p>However, artists have been criticised for idealised interpretations of dialogue, which</p> <p>present it as something essentially good and democratic, for insufficiently</p> <p>scrutinising dialogical relationships, and for not providing adequate process accounts</p> <p>for secondary audiences.</p> <p>This study's multi-layered performance of knowledge draws on thematic insights</p> <p>developed through fourteen interviews and five field conversation artworks from</p> <p>2008 onwards. Research material from conversational encounters was combined and</p> <p>presented as three constructed written dialogues, which reflect the tensions and</p> <p>questions that emerge out of enacting such a layered mode of dialogue as art. These</p> <p>tensions are re-presented, and discussed in three central thematic chapters, which</p> <p>frame these themes as issues of context, competing characteristics of meaningmaking</p> <p>and relating. The constructed written dialogues provide a platform for further</p> <p>discussion and reflective analysis, which in turn are proposed as an invitation to</p> <p>continued dialogue and socially grounded interaction.</p> <p>The central implication of this study's contribution to knowledge is that such an</p> <p>approach to practice-led inquiry articulates how dialogue may contribute to the</p> <p>increasing shift in critical art practices towards to more imbricated, uncertain, and</p> <p>performative approaches to knowledge, and provide an alternative to essentialised</p> <p>and foundationalist interpretations of dialogue.</p>