Value

I’ve been thinking about documentation, in particularly my problem with it. I think this anxiety about it has been heightened by the up and coming portfolio hand in that includes documentation of work. Here in lies the conundrum. If my critical question is about the need or the problems of documentation how can I justify documenting my own work even if it is for educational purposes? This leads me to think about the value of documentation, surely all documentation is there to give validation to the work. Whether it be in the educational context of marking or in a gallery context of gaining an audience or promoting of the piece, it all leads back to worth. Whatever happened to art for arts sake? I was thinking about this on the way in today. Is art that is seen by no one still art? Again this leads back to the importance of a witness. Is the intention of this witness important? Can the witness be a passing member of the public that may or may not acknowledge that the piece or indeed anything is actually happening? This would surely lead to the neglecting of the ‘feedback loop’ but is this important? Who am I making art for? This is the question I need to answer first. The relevance of documentation is subsequent to this question. Or is it? Even if this is so, in terms of performance, the relevance of documentation is overshadowed by the importance of liveness and aura which, despite the necessity of it, documentation kills. Is necessity the be all and end all in the documentation debate? I think not.