Bruce Barber
1) Littoral describes the intermediate and
shifting zone between the sea and the land
and refers metaphorically to cultural projects
that are undertaken predominantly outside
of the conventional contexts of the institutionalized
artworld.
2) Littoral projects are lifeworld affirming
as opposed to system reproducing. Littoral
Artists work between the private realm and
the public sphere.
3) Littoral Artists recognise their position
as political subjects and act accordingly.
4) Social actions may (re)produce cultural
judgments.
5) Cultural interventions may lead toward
social change.
6) Public, community based art is essentially
political.
7) The political positions that artists adopt
should be followed ethically.
8) Littoral artists acknowledge Marx's injunction
in his 11th Thesis on Feuerbach that it is
not up to "philosophers (artists) to
simply interpret (represent) the world; the
point is to change it."
9) In Littoral art projects social interactions
should be co-ordinated with less emphasis
on egocentric calculations of success for
each individual and more through co-operative
achievements of understanding among participants.
10) Social and cultural actions can be strategic,
exemplary, instrumental or communicative.
Communicative actions attempt to lessen provocation
and encourage dialogue. They are the result
of the conjoining of theory and practice into
a political praxis.
11) In Littoral Art projects no one individual
should assumed absolute control of the communicative
process; rather it should be, in the best
sense possible, participatory and democratic.
12) Public art projects are aimed at stimulating
dialogue and participation within a specific
community to engender (or engineer) conscientization,
and possibly, social change.
13) The interaction between marginal groups,
and their integration in such projects can
lead to extraordinary results in which artistic,
social and environmental objectives overlap.
14) Littoral art helps to stimulate dialogue
and elevate the standards of conversation
between different communities and disciplines
whose paths would normally not cross.
15) The littoral artist may use any form and
employ any materials, techniques or procedures
to reach his/her objectives.
16) Littoralist art is more about giving than
taking.
17) Within littoralist art practice, donative
art strategies extend the language of the
altruistic gift into a more politically efficacious
education about the nature of gift giving
and reciprocity.
18) Littoral artists acknowledge their debt
to history and respond positively to successful
models presented by the historical avant-gardes
and neo-avant-gardes of the more recent past.
19) Littoral art projects can provide a powerful
incentive for social integration as opposed
to individual competition.
20) Littoral art can provide an alternative
to capital accumulation and power as an indicator
of success.
21) Political correctness cannot rescue a
bad idea. It is difficult to subvert a politically
correct position.
22) Littoral projects may become art if they
are concerned with art and enter the fields
of discourse associated with art theory and
criticism.
23) Some successful littoral projects may
begin from a position of naivete.
24) Surveillance is a form of control. Observational
techniques represent methods of social control.
25) Littoral artists should attempt to understand
the affects of their actions and interventions
in the public sphere and learn from their
mistakes.
26) Artists may perceive the littoralist projects
of others to be better than their own, but
they should strive to approximate success
at every level of their social engagement.
27) Littoral projects may engage directly
with an institution.
28) Once the immediate objectives of the project
are established, the course of events should
be allowed to unfold organically. There may
be many side effects that the artist cannot
imagine or control. These may be used to stimulate
and/or assist the development of new work.
29) The process is social and should not be
tampered with. It should run its course.
30) There are many elements involved in a
littoralist project. The most important may
not be the most obvious.
31) It the artist uses the same methodology
in a group of projects but changes the techniques
and materials, one would assume that the artist's
work privileged the method.
32) Banal ideas cannot be rescued by privileging
the aesthetic values that may reside in the
work.
33) It is difficult to bungle a good littoral
project.
34) When an artist displays his/her craft
too well, it may result in the loss of the
social importance of the work.
35) These sentences comment on littoral art
but are not art.
