Crafting relations: Aspects of materiality and interactivity in exhibition environments

Abstract

The past decades have seen the early avant-garde's laboratory paradigm and associated exhibition practices re-appropriated by relational art. Both art movements re-evaluate our relationship to the world and to one another and exhibition environments play an important role in the crafting of these relations. Against this background, the paper investigates two aspects of avantgarde practice that touch upon relational aspects in exhibitions: first, the Constructivists' radical re-evaluation of materiality as relations of energies between the physical world and human beings that has been summarised under the heading of faktura; and, secondly, the practical and directed application of faktura in the design of exhibition environments with the objective of producing new relations between audience, art institution and the world. Using Lissitzky's Hannover and Dresden demonstration rooms as case studies, the paper identifies an inventory of techniques and materials deployed for the construction of what has been considered the first relational environment. It intends to establish a platform for the discussion of trans-historical correspondences that can be detected in contemporary approaches to interactivity and materiality -- particularly in art practices associated with relational aesthetics and postproduction art. Does Lissitzky's precedent anticipate, challenge, or offer expansions on current thinking? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Craft Plus Design Enquiry is the property of Australian National University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)