'The only way to do it is to do it' (Merce Cunningham): On Art, Politics and Intentionality

Abstract

Does political art require political intentions? What is the relationship between the political commitments artists have in their civic engagement towards their artistic work? This panel explores the relationship between art, political intention and interpretation of politics more broadly. By focusing on effects rather than intentions we may expand the scope of what we understand as political action, and explore the boundaries between intentionality and un-intentionality as pre-requisite for what we understand as political action. By exploring this question we can criticize the focus on intentionality more generally and think beyond categories of agency based politics. This panel invites examples of scholarship from any discipline and dealing with any art form aiming to challenge the idea that politics requires rationally articulated intent in order for it to occur.