Reception: two subjects looking at one another

Rather than seeing collaboration as a 'goal' or something to measure as 'collaborative enough', the text explores how some artists use collaboration differently. Instead of seeking common ground, shared discourse or community, collaborative processes may, instead be a means to investigate or re-establish contemporary subjectivity. The discussion is prefaced by a brief historical reading of the rise of collaborative practices. Early discourse on artistic collaboration places it within the critique of the separation between art and daily life, that grew out of modernist practices and criticism. However here collaboration is placed within the 1960s deconstruction of the Subject from within European critical theory, as outlined in James Heartfield's 2006 book 'The Death of the Subject' From this point the text explores the work, 'Reception' as a site for a struggle for subjectivity, rather than as generator of shared values. The text draws on research by Emma Hedditch and Kelly Large, exploring the relationship between subjectivity and visibility, and how identity is formed in particular contexts.