Probationary: An Artwork for Civil Servants

Hwa Young Jung

This exposition describes a game-artwork called Probationary, which was commissioned to present the 'lived experience' of men on probation. The game has been played by the men on probation ("on licence"), by criminologists at Liverpool John Moores University, by civil servants involved in probation services, and by a wide range of players in art and design contexts. In the exposition we show how the question of who can and should play the game leads into fascinating critical trajectories unique to interactive arts of this nature: namely, if someone can interact with an artwork as an employee, how can the relation of art and work be recalibrated? What follows is a description of the theoretical basis for games as forms of critical media artwork, and a tentative framing of the concept of "Art for Civil Servants" as a method for social artivism. The exposition frames this example of "Art for Civil Servants" within a lineage of new media art, and socially engaged art, while seeking to distinguish an original methodology and emerging mandate for this form of artistic research. The distinctive proposition of this exposition for the field of artistic research, is that art's utility as a research practice can be purposefully deployed outside of cultural fields. "Art for Civil Servants" is therefore a name for a speculative field of artistic research, which will draw on social science methodologies, and seek agency in the world in this way.

Art in prisons and around penal reform is not new, and can range from installations presented in a gallery setting (FF Gaiden:Control) to more activist work such as ‘legislative art’ (art that engages government systems with the goal to accomplish concrete political change) such as Tamms Year Ten. Art in prisons often support the development of better relationships between prisoners, between prisoners and prison staff, and between prisoners and their families. It is suggested that arts interventions play an important role in improving self-esteem and self-confidence, in developing communication and social skills and in enabling people to work as part of a group. (McNeill et al 2011)

But the aim of this work is not only to effect change at an individual level, but to seek transformation at a systemic level too. Can art be a part of the systemic transformation process? How can the work be taken further to people who have the power to change the system? In attending to this question, it will be necessary to produce and execute a range of other happenings for Civil Servants - and ideally higher level members of this class of worker - and to trace the potential and actual impact of this work.

To this end, Hwa Young is developing a project with the Howard League to apply the same principles shaped during the production of Probationary to a different area of policy to target and test out.

Credits 🎲

Conclusion

Bibliography

Bishop, Claire (2006) The Social Turn: Collaboration and Its Discontents ARTFORUM 2006

Bishop, Claire (2012) Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship Verso Books

Huizinga, Johan (1955) Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture. Boston: The Beacon Press

Hayes, DJ (2015) The Impact of Supervision on the Pains of Community Punishment in England and Wales: An Exploratory Study. European Journal of Probation, 7 (2). pp. 85-102

Kaprow, Allan (1966) Assemblage, Environments & Happenings H.N. Abrams

McNeill, F., Anderson, K., Colvin, S., Overy, K., Sparks, R. and Tett, L. (2011) Inspiring Desistance? Arts projects and ‘what works? Justitiele Verkenningen, 37(5), pp. 80-101.

Tip

Tip

Bibliography