This article examines the modes of emergence of “the local” in particular collaborative art projects in suburban Sydney (Australia) as outflows of singular interfaces between artists, institutions, audiences, and administrators. We begin analytically with the circulations that variously draw on and craft notions of locality and community in two projects staged in western Sydney, both involving nonlocal artists collaborating with business entities and arts institutions. In each case, specific circulations worked to produce a differently spatialized interplay of artists’ processes, aesthetic objects, events, performances and dialogues. The article develops a working conception of “interspatiality” that draws on actor network and assemblage concepts to elicit how creative labor entangles people, places, communities, and ways of working and thinking.
Australia Council for the Arts. (2009). KP11: Producing communities. Surry Hills, New South Wales, Australia: Author.
2.
BennettT. (2007). Anthropological assemblages: Producing culture as a surface of government (Centre for Research on Socio-cultural Change Working Paper No. 52). Milton Keynes, England: Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change.
3.
BlocherS. & Campemaint Urbain. (2008). The Panthers of the Future/The Future of Panthers [Video performance]. Commissioned by C3West and Panthers Entertainment Group.
4.
BourriaudN. (2002). Relational aesthetics. Dijon, France: Les Presses du Reel.
5.
CallonM.LawJ. (2004). Guest editorial: Introduction: Absence-presence, circulation, and encountering in complex space. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 22, 3-11.
6.
CarterP. (2004). Material thinking: The theory and practice of creative research. Carlton, Victoria, Australia: Melbourne University Press.
7.
DriverF.NashC.PrendergastK.SwensonI. (Eds.). (2002). Landing: Eight collaborative projects between artists & geographers. Engham, England: Royal Holloway, University of London.
8.
FariasI.BenderT. (Eds.). (2010). Urban assemblages: How actor-network theory changes urban studies. London, England: Routledge.
9.
FosterK.LorimerH. (2007). Some reflections on art-geography as collaboration. Cultural Geographies, 14, 425-432.
10.
GardnerA. (2007). Ash Keating: Taking care of business. Artlink, 27(4), 44-45.
11.
GrabherG. (2004). Learning in projects, remembering in networks. European Urban and Regional Studies, 11, 103-123.
KeatingA. (2009a). Activate 2750 [Installation]. Business partner: SITA Environmental Solutions. Project Partner: Penrith City Council.
14.
KeatingA. (2009b). Activate 2750: A C3West project by Ash Keating. Sydney, New South Wales, Australia: Museum of Contemporary Art.
15.
KeatingA. (Producer), & KershawA, (Photographer). (2009). Activate 2750 [High Definition video]. Business partner: SITA Environmental Solutions. Project Partner: Penrith City Council.
16.
KesterG. (2004). Conversation pieces: Community and communication in modern art. Berkeley: University of California Press.
17.
KwonM. (2002). One place after another: Site-specific art and locational identity. Cambridge: MIT Press.
18.
LacyS. (Ed.). (1995). Mapping the terrain: New genre public art. Seattle, WA: Bay Press.
19.
LallyE.AngI.AndersonK. (Eds.). 2011. The art of engagement: Culture, collaboration, innovation. Crawley: University of Western Australia Press.
20.
LatourB. (2005). Reassembling the social. An introduction to actor-network-theory. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
21.
LawJ. (2004). After method: Mess in social science research. London, England: Routledge.
22.
LindM. (2007). The collaborative turn. In BillingJ.LindM.NilssonL. (Eds.), Taking the matter into common hands (pp. 15-31). London, England: Black Dog.
23.
MarP.AndersonK. (2010). The creative assemblage: Theorising contemporary forms of arts-based collaboration. Journal of Cultural Economy, 3(1), 35-51.
24.
MasseyD. (1991). A global sense of place. Marxism Today, 35(6), 24-29.
McFarlaneC. (2011). Assemblage and critical urbanism. City, 15, 204-224.
27.
MilesM. (2006). Geographies of art and environment. Social & Cultural Geography, 7, 987-993.
28.
MilesM. (2010). Representing nature: Art and climate change. Cultural Geographies, 17, 19-35.
29.
MorrisN. J.CantS. G. (2006). Engaging with place: Artists, site-specificity and the Hebden Bridge Sculpture Trail. Social & Cultural Geography, 7, 863-888.
30.
NancyJ.-L. (1993). The experience of freedom (B. McDonald, Trans.). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
