Grizedale Arts: myvillages.org blog
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The disfunctional functional
Lawrence assiting Wapke with her super functional soil drilling tool, doing something rather less functional
I think “functional” isn’t a term that opens up options but that defines and limits them.
Things become too much either – or, functional or non-functional.
To me functional is a dysfunctional term because it’s either highly subjective and relies on individual reading and interpretation, or it’s easily ideological and becomes exclusive. To introduce “functional” as a criteria doesn’t make things clearer, but shifts the attention towards a polarising goal that’s seemingly clear, but actually isn’t.
The recent Grizedale programme suggests artists to be functional, which I understand as an intents to start fresh and reflective debate about the role and responsibility of art within the very particular context of Grizedale. But might cause an urge to define things rather than opening them up. To be “ functional”, relates to practical, is almost a cliché in a rural setting, and opposes the time-wasting and decadent culture of the city. And especially within a tourism orientated context like the Lake District, the definition and appreciation of the “functional” becomes predictable, as in profitable.
In many of our (that’s myvillages and public works) projects we try to establish an open process, in terms of logistics and outcome, and putting a polarising term at the start doesn’t help. The work and process shouldn’t be about definitions, but about experiences that allow the personal reading of those terms to be changed and altered (or limited). It’s the process of being involved, and the option to find and redefine things/experiences/objects that make art worthwhile for me. It’s the transformation of meanings in everyday live, on whichever personal and collective scale, rather than the risking the danger to get stuck in rhetoric estranged from experience. I personally try to avoid it as a criteria, because it’s as unfruitful as terms like beautiful, useful or tasteful. They have no meaning, and I’d rather not confirm existing meanings and assumptions, but put my energy into allowing things to be read and experiences outside of those categories.
An example:
When we started to develop new product ideas in my village, everyone was adamant that they had to be useful and practical. As if everything meaningful in their lives carried this adjective, and even if it did, everyone had their very own interpretation of the term. Wanting something to be “functional” wouldn’t be questioned in the village, even though it urquently requires some fundamental doubt. Often the bigger pleasure seems to come from the surprising encounter with the non-functional anyway.
At no point would I want to stop a debate about art’s role and possible role within society, for the sake of blindly defending its so called autonomy. I just don’t think that the introduction of the word “functional” helps the discussion on an everyday and practicing level.
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