The affective work of art

An ethnographic study of Brian Lobel's Fun with Cancer Patients

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3479769
AutoresCath Lambert (0000-0001-9917-1712, University of Warwick, autor de correspondencia)
Año2016
Fecha de publicación2016-07-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Sociological Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0038-0261 • E-ISSN: 1467-954X
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/1467-954x.12394
OpenAlexW2505832037
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas33

This article demonstrates the sociological possibilities of using affect. In particular the discussion rises to the methodological challenges posed by affect theories when attempting to undertake empirical research. Drawing on ethnographic data from a study of Brian Lobel's Fun with Cancer Patients art exhibition, it is argued that the development of critically entangled methods, attentive to fleeting, partial, complex and often ‘inaccessible’ knowledge and experiences, is necessary. In Fun with Cancer Patients the aesthetic event offered opportunities for art participants and visitors to engage with different discourses and subjectivities around cancer. An affective lens makes this engagement intelligible. The analysis contributes to ‘live sociology’, demonstrating that developing live methods attentive to affect can provide insight into the political potential of aesthetic encounters

Aesthetics · Affect (linguistics) · Art · Epistemology · Ethnography · Event (particle physics) · Exhibition · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Visual arts · Anthropology · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Law · Participatory Visual Research Methods · Philosophy · Posthumanist Ethics and Activism · Psychology · Social Psychology