NEW TIME: rethinking the 'social turn' in artist residencies

What is the effect on artists’ working methodologies when time is limited? How does a short-term residency affect artists’ relationships with people and place? Providing time and space away from everyday life, traditional residency models offer structure for individual creative production. Some traditional residencies have come under recent criticism for their lack of flexibility (Zeplin, 2009), the circulation of elitism (Bialski, 2010), and lack of engagement with local communities. This lack of engagement can be attributed to the limited time that an artist has in residency but also sheds light on a new category of the itinerant artist. Kenins argues that “sometimes, in far-flung areas, there is an awkwardly colonial relationship by which residencies court foreign artists under the guise of enlightening the locals” (2013), while Pryor compares the short term approach of resident artists to “fly-in-fly-out-workers” in the Australian mining industry who often reciprocate very little relevance or value (2012).

Taking time as its starting point of critique, NEW TIME examines artistic and institutional motivations for the ‘social turn’ in artist residencies.First exploring the historical roots of residencies through retreats and colonies, we consider aspirational economies of isolation or collaboration in creative practice. Next, a broad typology of institutional programmes examines policy aims located as artist in community projects and cultural diplomacy programmes focused on intercultural exchange or market development. These motivations also interface with cultural heritage and educational programmes. This critique makes way for the consideration for alternative artist-run initiatives. The temporal concerns of series of socially-engaged residency-as-artist-projects are examined including thematic and travelling residencies. The paper concludes by offering a new time-space relationship – a new category of ‘life as practice,’ which demands lifestyle transformation towards the transnational itinerant artist or a practice with local focus on work-life balance.