Butt is interested in the relations between experimental arts practices located within cultural institutions and those DIY, queer, popular and/or punk arts which have either historically challenged them from without or continue to mine the possibilities of alternative world-making within arts communities today.
From books on queer gossip in the New York art world and curatorial projects on trash performance, to studies of post-punk music in the art school and a feature film exploring artists' DIY use of moving-image technology, Butt has variously explored the political and cultural promise of working at the margins of institutional recognition and critical seriousness.
