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Dear List, I've just managed to get hold of a new book edited by Claire Bishop (author of several articles disagreeing with Bourriaud's 'relational aesthetics' on broadly political grounds, that they do not allow space for conflict). The book is a good resource - ranging from The Death of the Author via performance to the ubiquitous Hans Ulrich Obrist, and including an interesting “Report on a day’s proceedings at the Bureau for Direct Democracy // 1972.” from Joseph Beuys. However, new media participatory systems are referred to very briefly only twice: Once in the introduction to dismiss "... so-called ‘interactive’ art"; Once in the last chapter by Hal Foster, to comment that "... many artists and curators fall for the Internet rhetoric of ‘interactivity’, though the means applied to this end are usually far more funky and face-to-face than any chat room on the Web.” p. 193 The pattern emerging from several books from a background in visual arts is that definitions of the differences between interaction, participation and collaboration are largely missing, that histories of open systems and open source are not referred to, and that above all, examples of new media art are simply not present: when authors compare non-media art participation to new media, they don't compare it to any participatory new media art, they compare it to unspecified non-art forms, such as 'chat-rooms' or Bourriaud's dismissal of "Nokia-art". Some other books have been slightly better at including a full range of contemporary art, for example the inclusion of Cuauhtemoc Medina's short chapter on “Mejor Vida Corp." in Doherty's 2004 book, or Grant Kester's 2004 Conversation pieces. So, my question to the List is that surely, somewhere, there must be an example where the brouhaha about 'relational art' addresses useful critical art overviews to the full range of contemporary art? Yours Beryl REFs: Bishop, Claire (ed.) (2006) Participation (Documents of Contemporary Art). Cambridge/London: MIT Press/Whitechapel. Doherty, Claire (ed.) (2004) From Studio to Situation. London: Black Dog. Kester, Grant (2004) Conversation Pieces. Berkeley: University of California Press. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Beryl Graham, Professor of New Media Art School of Arts, Design, Media and Culture, University of Sunderland Ashburne House, Ryhope Road Sunderland SR2 7EE Tel: +44 191 515 2896 [log in to unmask] CRUMB web resource for new media art curators http://www.crumbweb.org ------------------------------------------------------------------- Beryl Graham, Professor of New Media Art School of Arts, Design, Media and Culture, University of Sunderland Ashburne House, Ryhope Road Sunderland SR2 7EE Tel: +44 191 515 2896 [log in to unmask] CRUMB web resource for new media art curators http://www.crumbweb.org