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Practising equality? Issues for co-creative and participatory practices addressing social justice and equality

This journal article aligns key issues in co-creative and participatory practices across art, design, architecture and media, in particular Web 2.0. The paper highlights strengths in each domain. This issue is critical in the development of the Creative Industries and addresses key aspects of the University's portfolio.

Harris’ extensive contribution to research and debate in media, gaming, Web 2.0 and Creative Industries is juxtaposed with key areas of work within Art and Design research at Gray's School of Art. His knowledge of the dynamic of the creative industries as an economic, social and cultural force, catalyses the paper’s core argument – that the evolution of the practices of art, design and architecture are closely threaded into the emergence of new technologies and in relation to each other. While institutional bureaucracy might seek a separation, new emergent practices necessitate a cross-domain reading potentially leading to pedagogical innovation.

The paper questions whether co-creative and participatory practices best utilise metaphors of democracy (everyone's contribution is equally valuable), or whether judgement (as in aesthetic judgement) is more evident in key case studies. New media/Web 2.0 have a demonstrably stronger understanding of the dynamics of co-creative practices and the ways in which they involve participants. The paper goes on to highlight the important emergence within art of a discourse on the aesthetics of participation and co-creation (Kester, Bourriaud, Bishop), not yet so evident in design, architecture and new media/Web 2.0.

The paper draws on earlier research in Artistic Leadership (Douglas & Fremantle 2006-9) and on case studies such as Suzanne Lacy’s Oakland Projects (1991-2001). It draws a relationship, perhaps uniquely, between participation in art (Kester) with areas of design and in particular Web 2.0 discourse (Leadbeater and Shirky).