In a spirited interview with the man himself, we talk art and music with the bad granddad of American art criticism Dave Hickey (author of Air Guitar, which we read last week). After his appearance at the Shenkman lecture earlier this week, Hickey elaborates on his perspective of the arts as a discourse of objects, a social buffer where one can talk about whatever they want to talk about through objects without screaming at each other. Hickey investigates communities of desire and the world of art that rises from an underground place, a space outside of the academy, government-funded art, and market-funded art. Hickey himself believes there should be a massive shakedown of the art world, and he himself is willing to be the executioner. Where do we begin?

Hickey, Dave. Air Guitar: Essays on Art & Democracy. Los Angeles: Art Issues Press, 1997.

This episode we discuss a selection of texts from Dave Hickey’s book Air Guitar as the University of Guelph’s School of Fine Art and Music prepares for his upcoming Shenkman lecture. We address the difference between spectatorship and participation; the ways in which people connect with the work that are not dictated by an institution or popular culture. Hickey proposes an alternative economy, one where people who are really into things should buy into them. The power in art comes from a supportive audience, not from its financial value. How does our engagement give art value?

Hickey, Dave. "Romancing the Looky Loos." In Air Guitar: Essays on Art & Democracy. Los Angeles: Art Issues Press, 1997.

Hickey, Dave. “American Beauty.” The Invisible Dragon: Essays on Beauty. Rev. and Expanded ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009.

Hickey, Dave. Air Guitar: Essays on Art & Democracy. Los Angeles: Art Issues Press, 1997.

The co-founder of FAG (Feminist Art Gallery) Allyson Mitchell joins us on the phone this week. Mitchell, along with her partner and collaborator Deirdre Logue, has started a number of initiatives promoting queer and feminist art practices, including an art shows, a letter-writing campaign, and queer life drawing class for non-drawers. Mitchell’s own immersive sculptural practice plays with ideas of sexuality, autobiography, and her own body as her work encourages viewers to physically interact with it instead of passively responding to it. Mitchell and Logue’s work with FAG aims to create ambiguity between the studio and the gallery, as well as complicate the relationship between private and public space.

"The secret ingredient in art for me is not something I can name. It’s not the intensity of an image, the size of something, or the content. It’s more of a gut response which makes me feel something that’s exciting, or tingling, or upsetting, that I may not have the language for, which is when I know something great is happening for me." - Allyson Mitchell

“Participatory art values what is invisible,” Claire Bishop writes in her recent investigation of participatory art and its ability to engage in politics, public space, and community building. Using Bishop’s book as a tool for discourse, we work with the idea that participatory artists are the producers of situations. We talk about artist Pablo Helguera and his creation of a traveling school, The School of Panamerican Unrest, and how it promotes community building, cooperation, and negotiation. We reflect on artists who practice in the white cube, and others who bring their practice to public space, co-creating with people and ideas in a meaningful way.

"The secret ingredient art for me is hope. I think that the element of hope is something that art has a lot to offer, both politically and otherwise. Hope, when found in art, allows people to think beyond how they are currently living their lives." - Danica Evering

Bishop, Claire. Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship. London: Verso Books, 2012.

Using all manner of social engagement to inform her life and work, Diane Borsato investigates her everyday pursuits and curiosity artistically. This week she talks to us about joining clubs and societies based on her interests in the senses, and how those interests dictate her life and performances alike. The subject of her work is about learning and having embodied experiences, social engagement, and her practice from those discursive experiences.

"The secret ingredient in art is the investment of the artist - care, risk, - pushing something in the world or in themselves to make a piece appear. How much does an artist care about an audience in a hospitable or antagonizing way? There is a level of personal risk or researching something intensely or going to a difficult place. Putting in investment, care, and consideration is really important when creating and apprehending artwork." - Diane Borsato

This week, SOFAM professor Christian Giroux speaks with us about his practice with collaborator Dan Young in public art and film installations. The two recently won the 2011 Sobey Art Award for their work, which includes a film trilogy addressing how spaces in Canada have changed on a domestic, municipal, and national level. Their practice explores how space affects our bodies and how our bodies affect space.

"Ultimately art is all this stuff. Why would you go on just making more and more stuff? But in the moment, it is a proposition. There is this idea that this proposal has a kind of transcendent value, that it is of importance in the moment. I have to believe in the value of these propositions." - Christian Giroux

Free Home University Curator Alissa Firth-Eagland and Musagetes' Project Assistant Danica Evering spoke with Free Home University Mentor Emilio Fantin last December 2013 about his thoughts on the sacred, education, and how we want to live together. The episode was aired as a segment on The Secret Ingredient, an ongoing discussion of the invisible elements of art that make it powerful and relevant: how artwork connects many publics, inspires cooperation and collaboration, and is created through conversation. We talk about new views on local, national, and international art where it intersects with the social. How can we add new voices to the conversation about art? What makes art useful today and how do we, as individuals, find meaning in it? Broadcasting every Wednesday at 9 AM on CFRU 93.3 FM on traditional Attawandaron Territory in Guelph, ON and streamable at cfru.ca.