| Nimeke: | Situations wanted : julkinen mediataideprojekti yhteiskunnallisten valtarakenteiden paljastajana |
| Tekijä: | Anttila, Pii |
| Muu tekijä: | Lapin yliopisto |
| Päiväys: | 2011 |
| Taso: | Pro gradu |
| Tiivistelmä: | The study analyzes the impact of a public media art project through revealing society’s power structures. The basis of the study was “Situations Wanted – Applying for a Job in the Underground Economy” -solo exhibition shown at PS²-project space in Belfast, Northern-Ireland, from 5th to 25th July 2010. The public media art project materialized my personal experiences by using media. The exhibition was the artistic part of the study. Situations Wanted touched foreign jobseeker’s identity, viewed critically black market employment and encouraged citizens towards a change. The study promotes awareness of the phenomenon and its conventions.
The purpose was to examine how society’s hidden power structures can be revealed by public media art project. The data consisted of Situations Wanted -media art project’s jobseeker’s ad, 23 job vacancy adverts, 90 received text messages and my responses to them, a jobseeker’s office with a jobseeker’s guide book for the black market and visitors of the PS²-project space and the Situations Wanted -blog. The methodological approach was Michel Foucault’s power theory, especially his eventualization concept within the framework of critical action research and media art. The analysis of the data shows that being able to reveal hidden power structures in the society with a public media art project, the artist has to put the phenomenon on a pedestal, eventualizating it. Combining media, public, conversation and community art, the artist is able to create a new way of seeing. Performative means are ways to gather information for the purpose of revealing cultural codes. By amassing the information, experience can be represented visually. The façade of the project place was interacting with a by-passer. With the jobseeker’s guide book, a difficult subject was presented by using détournement as a tool to criticize the black market employment. Distributing the print art around the city enabled to bewilder passive citizens. The jobseeker’s office enabled conversation with the random visitors about the phenomenon, since the project space was not looking any more like a gallery and thus making it more accessible for common citizens. The blog revealed the complete experience and made a constant presence possible in the public media space. As a result of the Situations Wanted media art project, emancipated counterforce was aroused, since power relations shifted amongst the participants creating new information for the complex power net. The study shows that a public art project is a significant emancipatory method. The study proves the significance to present public media art projects in the public and media space, in order to reveal and look into a deeper level of the society’s structures. The Situations Wanted media art project continues studying black market employment. In the future, the study will be expanded to look into ethnical, national and gender issues. |
| Avainsanat: | mediataide; valtarakenteet; projektit; työnhakijat; taiteellinen tutkimus |