Interaction, Communication, Society

Grant Kester’s development of dialogical art, also know as socially-engaged art or community art, is normally used to promote awareness in a public space. It focuses on a certain message that should be exchanged through the artwork and spark a conversation between individuals. This can be a conversation of debate, collaboration, or activism. One of Grant Kester’s famous books called “Conversation Pieces: The Role of Dialogue in Socially-Engaged Art,” discusses the goal of dialogical art while also tracing its origins and giving examples of the art throughout history.

One example of dialogical art is done by Ai Weiwei, an important figure in the socially-engaged arts. He was a Chinese artist that based his artwork on speaking out against democracy . His most famous piece of art work was titled Sunflower Seeds which displayed a huge pile of seeds to represent the loss of individual importance because of mass production . This piece of work was interactive at the Tate Museum in London and visitors were able to walk over and pick up all of the sunflower seeds.