PhD defence: Ditte Vilstrup Holm

‘Participatory art’, ‘relational aesthetics’ and ‘social practice’. These are some of the art theoretical terms proposed to capture what appears to be a growing trend within the visual arts: to involve the audience or a community in developing, producing or realizing art projects. This thesis seeks to contribute to and further this ’organizational turn’ in art theory by way of an organizational analysis of the organizing of participation in contemporary art. As such, the thesis also seeks to contribute to organization studies’ interest in the relationship between art, aesthetics and processes of organizing and to bridge the field of art theory and organization studies. In particular, the thesis constitutes an in-depth case study of the organizing of participation for a public work of art, and, by way of the case study, it argues that the organizing of participation might be interpreted as an effect of four specific, but interacting modes of ordering termed, respectively, artistic autonomy, administration, the site and public interest.
 
Primary Supervisor:
Professor Timon Beyes
Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy
Copenhagen Business School
 
Secondary Supervisor:
Søren Friis Møller
Head of Studies, The National Film School of Denmark
External Lecturer, Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy
Copenhagen Business School
 
Assessment Committee:
Professor Christian De Cock  (Chair)
Department of Organization
Copenhagen Business School
 
Doctor Bernadette Loacker
Department of Work, Organisation and Technology
Lancaster University
 
Professor Pascal Gielen
Antwerp Research Institute for the Arts
University of Antwerp
 
Thesis:
The thesis will be available here.
 
Reception:
The Doctoral School of Organisation and Management Studies will host a reception, which will take place immediately after the defence in the Gallery at Porcelænshaven 26.