Participatory Art

Participatory art differs most apparently from individual art in the method of its creation. Individual art is not made with the audience in mind. It is made to be representative of a concept or value that the artist is trying to portray through a certain medium. In individual art, the artist is not concerned with the audience and how they will receive the message and we're forced into taking it at face value. With participatory art, the creator has a goal of involving the audience and making the interaction (interfacing) between the art and the audience to be wholly "interactive." Basically, the audience is as important a part of the piece as the piece itself. This is vastly different than the historical concepts of art and what constitutes art.

Historically, most art has been individual. The artist would sit down and slave over a piece of work that would be admired upon completion. There was no focus on involving the audience in the art process or the piece itself. This wasn't the aim of art. It was extremely personal.

Nowadays, audience participation is extremely important. Especially with the advent of the internet and user-generated content on websites, participation has been a very important thing to consider. There are very few forms of art these days that are individually produced. Usually, it is a group effort. Music, books, installation art, and different forms of art can have many collaborators working in unison to produce a particular piece.

I believe that Bishop's most important concept is that of community. We're all experiencing this collective humanity and its more valuable to a piece if that is addressed and that everyone can feel a certain commanality among the art. For this reason, participation art has boatloads of intrinsic value especially when it comes to bringing people together.