THINKING IN PLACE
Cultural Politics & the Promise of Democracy
A Series from Paradigm Publishers
Edited by Henry A. Giroux
Empire and Inequality: America and the World Since 9/11 (2004), Paul Street
Caught in the Crossfire: Kids, Politics, and Americas Future (2005), Lawrence Grossberg
Reading and Writing for Civic Literacy: The Critical Citizens Guide to Argumentative Rhetoric (2005), Donald Lazere
Why Are We Reading Ovids Handbook on Rape? Teaching and Learning at a Womens College (2005), Madeleine Kahn
Schooling and the Struggle for Public Life, Updated Edition (2005), Henry A. Giroux
Listening Beyond the Echoes: Media, Ethics, and Agency in an Uncertain World (2006), Nick Couldry
Michel Foucault: Materialism and Education, Updated Edition (2006), Mark Olssen
Pedagogies of the Global: Knowledge in the Human Interest (2006), Arif Dirlik
Not Only the Masters Tools: African American Studies in Theory and Practice (2006), edited by Lewis R. Gordon and Jane Anna Gordon
The Giroux Reader (2006),
Henry A. Giroux, edited and introduced by Christopher G. Robbins
Patriotic Correctness: Academic Freedom and Its Enemies (2008), John K. Wilson
Against the Terror of Neoliberalism (2008), Henry A. Giroux
Thinking Queerly: Posthumanist Essays on Ethics and Identity (2008), David Ross Fryer
Thinking in Place: Art, Action, and Cultural Production (2008), Carol Becker
THINKING IN PLACE
ART, ACTION, AND CULTURAL PRODUCTION
CAROL BECKER
First published 2009 by Paradigm Publishers
Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright 2009, Taylor & Francis.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Becker, Carol.
Thinking in place : art, action, and cultural production / Carol Becker.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 978-1-59451-596-5 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Place (Philosophy) in art. 2. Place (Philosophy). 3. Arts. 4. Becker, Carol.
I. Title.
NX650.P52B43 2008
700.1dc22
2008015131
Designed and typeset by Straight Creek Bookmakers.
ISBN 13: 978-1-59451-597-2 (pbk)
ISBN 13: 978-1-59451-596-5 (hbk)
For my mother, Helen Becker, 19082005,
in love and gratitude
I have chosen my friends and colleagues with great care. Their goodwill, enthusiasm, brilliance, creativity, and commitment to social change have helped me to think through complex issues and to have faith in my own version of how to approach them. Their passions and accomplishments inspire me daily. I am grateful to Lin Hixson, Matthew Goulish, Adrian Heathfield, Roberta Lynch, Judith Raphael, Alda Blanco, Susanna Coffey, Carole Wanghaw, Kathryn Sapoznick, Lisa Wainwright, Ernesto Pujol, Henry Giroux, Susan Searls, Jacobo Konigsberg, Andries Botha, Janine Antoni, Paul Ramirez Jonas, France Morin, Peter Murchie, Stephanie Farquhar, and, the newest addition to my family of friends, Sampson Farquhar Murchie.
All writers should have a wonderful architect partner willing to build them a perfect studio in the country so they can dream in solitude. Jack Murchie has been my own architect and life partner. I am grateful daily for his love and devotion.
My debt to the School of the Art Institute is apparent throughout these chapters. My many years as a faculty member and as dean of faculty taught me so much about how to look at and think about the process of art and design. Those understandings are manifested in many ideas presented in this collection. I am forever grateful to the faculty, staff, and students for all I learned from them individually and collectively and for the wild spirit of extraordinary creativity that enlivens that community.
My debt to my new home, Columbia University, is less obvious but is nonetheless essential. Columbia University and the School of the Arts have been very generous and trusting in affording me the time and resources to complete this book before moving to New York. It is a tribute to their own passion for ideas that they were willing to extend the time to me to complete this project. Thank you to the entire faculty and staff of the School of the Arts, and especially to Lee Bollinger, Nick Dirks, and Alan Brinkley.
Of course none of this would have worked if Jana Wright had not been willing to make the move with me to Columbia and had she not been more than capable of flying solo and launching our presence at the university in the fall of 2007. Her brilliance and stamina amaze me every day. I wish us many more great years of collaboration, innovation, and friendship together.
Andrea Uptmor, my brilliant, talented assistant for the last years at the School of the Art Institute, has helped me structure all the images for my speaking presentations as well as for this book. Joey Orr, my research assistant, found fabulous information. He jumped into each project with an open heart and mind. It has been my pleasure to work with these profoundly intelligent and creative young people who have treated my project as their own. It is a joy to have known them at this time of their lives and to be assured that they will go on to be stars in the worlds of their choice.
Janet Kaplan and Patricia Phillips, in their role as Art Journal editors, encouraged innovation in form and published early versions of some of these chapters.
My editor Jean Fulton returned to assist me with the completion of this book. She has sharpened the thinking and writing of each chapter with her intelligent queries and concerns. She has been a wonderful, compassionate editor, and foremost a loyal friend.
Henry Giroux once again believed in me enough to encourage this book and to make a place for it in his own series. He continues to inspire me with his passion for ideas and for social justice. Thank you also to Dean Birkenkamp and to Paradigm Publishers for all their assistance in seeing the book through to completion.
I lost my mother, Helen Becker, three years ago. She was almost ninety-eight years old, yet clear of mind and spirit. Her tenacity, wisdom, beauty, and savvy brought me a great deal of joy, especially in our last years together. It is to her and to the force that she continues to represent in my life that I dedicate this book.
