Reflections on Mapping Connectivity in Acts of Transfer

Our overarching aim in this exposition is to map the presentation of a socially engaged art project through an event that was part-presentation, part-workshop during the Connective symposium (2022). The project we were presenting was called Acts of Transfer (2021) which concerned itself with the documentation, representation, and legacy of socially engaged art projects. How – through forms of social, emotional, physical, psychological and conceptual transfer – could we investigate the impact of socially engaged artworks that have taken place in the past? How can we conceptualise the original context in which an artwork was made, and connect it to present contexts and audiences? How do we understand, engage with and assess durational projects that we have not experienced first-hand, through returns, re-enactments, repetitions, and retellings? Key to our work is the question of legacy in socially-engaged artistic research, and how the artist, artwork, participant, site and audience continue to remain connected (or not) after the duration of the project. How, through the lens of transfer, can we better understand the ongoing impact of a work of socially engaged art on its creators, participants and audiences?