Overcoming Utility: The Experience of Environmental Art

• In Event: The Arts and Environmental Advocacy: Imagination, Responsibility and Utility

Abstract

This project combines photo-voice, a form of participant observation, and visual ethnography, with a focus on process and reflexivity, to examine the visual experience of environmental art. Twenty-four participants generated 139 photographs and 70 single-spaced pages of filed notes relating their experiences of the nature-based sculpture program located at the South Carolina Botanical Gardens. The internationally recognized environmental art program includes 15 extended-ephemeral artworks placed without demarcation throughout the garden grounds. A critical analysis of the data reveals that the process of participants experiencing the artwork created a fundamental tension between utility and sense-making. Where participants could easily discern utility, they reported it as the basis of their experience. When usefulness was not readily available, however, most observations quickly reproach the artwork. Nevertheless, participants generally provide descriptive and photographic attempts at sense-making. Analysis of these attempts show that the most dynamic and gratifying experiences came from the process of negotiating meaning in the absence of clear utility. Ultimately, the authors argue that it is the tension between utility and sense making itself, which creates the possibility for meaningful engagement with these sculptures.

Authors

• Dylan Wolfe, Clemson University

• David Novak, Clemson University