Make Friends Not Art: Mapping Law, Power and Participation in Designing an Online Platform during documenta fifteen

This paper follows the development of a participatory platform as part of an arts exhibition involving 53 arts collectives, predominantly from the Global South. While the platform was global in scope and designed with worldwide participation from intended users, this participation was impacted in significant ways by the local European laws that the exhibition makers had to abide by. We describe how the socio-legal elements constrained participation and the development of the platform’s features. We reflect on the impact of different actors, the power imbalances involved in the design project and the disappointing outcome - a platform with no obvious users. In doing so, we visit key moments in its production and explore the context for what it can teach us about managing the broader impacts of globalised legal norms on cultural producers and radical arts practice. We use actor-networks to show the play of colonialism and capitalism.