art practice dialogue facebook group
Friday we had the Artquest Art Practice Dialogue Seminar at the Swedenborg Society in Bloomsbury, London and one of my contributions was the creation of a facebook group to help us take our dialogue one step further, and crucially, explore social media tools like facebook and its multiple “conversational applications” for online dialogue; the reaction was split but one day after when I logged in to post my list of emerging issues and invite people to join in, surprise, there were already 5 members, 2 from the facebook network and 3 from the seminar, and surprise, surprise, one discussion topic running!
It is my first time facilitating a facebook group, there are very few guidelines, and - for the first time- I reached out for the help section- but I’m really curious and have the encouraging presence of other friends who have also started running groups recently in facebook, like the area 10 project space peckham run by dimitri.
It is an open group, so if you want to join the art practice dialogue facebook group. the first step is to simply stop by and say hello. if you dont have an account you need to get one, but that’s free. and dont worry if you find it weird, you have time to become familiar with facebook group tools 
however if you are in the mood to start posting, there are already two discussion topics: one on emerging dialogical themes; the other on people in a group who don’t contribute to the group discussion. To respond to a discussion topic you need to click the topic, and then in its window, click the button ‘reply to this topic’.
My list of emerging dialogical themes
Instead of writing a review of the the presentations and dialogues that took place during the swedenborg socity seminar, i decided to generate this list of emerging issues:
1-the instrumentalisation of dialogic practice that seems to result in measurable positive outputs for communities. but profitable to who?
2-the aestheticisation of discursive process that transforms what seem indeterminate encounters into formal art works. but why not?
3-the shifting role of artist and audience that become collaborators of conversational pieces. but on what grounds?
4-the openess of the work and working with/out a script in a performative situation. but who’s controlling who?
5-the uneasy relationship to mainstream art criticism that still can’t come to terms with the vagueness of dialogical art works. and what’s the alternative?
6-the need of rules for optimal group functioning when using dialogue within support groups. but what about the dark side?
7- the use of psychology and psychoanalysis to become familiar w/ the uncertainty and doubt underlying discursive aesthetics
8-the dialogical role of the commissioner: in order to commission dialogical pratices, and work in reaction to a challenge imposed by that dialogue
9- the performativity of the online selves and issues of socialisation in extending the dialogue via social network sites
10- self-publishing and peer to peer networks as ways to overpass curatorial gate-keeping.
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