Technology-mediated participatory and performative artistic expressions as social educational tools

Abstract

This paper examines the role of participatory, performative forms of art that incorporate new media technologies as educational tools, in a wider social context. In particular, using paradigms from technology-based artistic performative and participatory expressions, the research underlines the importance of technology in diminishing the passive role of the viewers and focuses in alternative forms of educational experiences and social memory transmission. Herein the historical continuity of participatory notions is depicted from primitive cultures to the contemporary paradigm of the work of Rafael Lozano Hemmer, and from the Brechtian Epic theatre to the ritual performances of Joseph Beuys. In this context educational theories are presented focusing on the acquisition of knowledge through the notions of interactivity, participation and the experience of social space itself. Furthermore, through Connertons’ idea of performance as an act of ritual remembering, these kinds of events that represent artistic expressions are being regarded as ritual acts that interpret and transmit the knowledge of the past and the present. The paper concludes that participation and performativity, which have emerged through the use of technology, transform these kind of contemporary art forms to educational rituals. Copyright © 2018 for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) DCAC 2018.