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The genesis of BLURRED BOUNDARIES was motivated by my personal interests in a variety of creative disciplines and the desire to explore practices that concern inter-disciplinarity. Studying Product Design as my undergraduate degree I was disappointed with the lack collaboration between the design and art (fine and applied) departments; since I have pondered how my practice would have differed if an approach similar to that of the Bauhaus movement would be more prevalent within the art school syllabus.
“The Bauhaus strives to bring together all creative effort into one whole, to reunify all the disciplines of practical art-sculpture, painting, handicrafts, and the crafts-as inseparable components of new architecture. The ultimate, if distant, aim of the Bauhaus is the uni-field work of art in which there is no distinction between monumental and decorative art.”
Walter Gropius, http://www.mariabuszek.com/kcai/ConstrBau/Readings/GropBau19.pdf
Question:
1. From your experience do you think there should be more collaborative interaction between creative disciplines within the Art School structure? If so what do you think the main benefits would be?
2. Can you identify current of previous exhibitions, publications, projects, communities etc that tackled the issue of cross disciplinarity? How would you rate their success?
Examples:
What If? Art on the Verge of Architecture and Design - Exhibition
If You Could Collaborate - Exhibition
Jotta - Digital community exploring collaboration in contemporary art and design
2. Can you identify current of previous exhibitions, publications, projects, communities etc that tackled the issue of cross disciplinarity? How would you rate their success?
Examples:
What If? Art on the Verge of Architecture and Design - Exhibition
If You Could Collaborate - Exhibition
Jotta - Digital community exploring collaboration in contemporary art and design
Posts
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ReplyDelete1. I think there should be more collaborative interaction between creative disciplines, personally I have always been interested in photography so working with that department would open up possibilities within in my work at eca or it would be useful to me after eca. So i see that as beneficial. However I have worked with architecture on a group project and with the brief we couldnt collaborate to benefit each other, as we ended up working on individual pieces. It was good to get another perspective of opinion from a different department. So i think it can only work effectively if the disciplines have similar interests or the brief given forces collaboration on both disciplines.I think its all trial and error. If successful the main benefits would be learning new techniques and gaining new perspectives.
ReplyDelete2.Well the project with architecture was a failure for my group as we didn't work together and never gained any of the benefits i mentioned before. Though it could have worked for other groups, it depends on people too.
1.Undoubtedly there should be more collaborative interaction between creative disciplines within the Art School structure. Throughout our professional practice talks it is very apparent that artists do not work solely on their own but rely on the skills of others in specialist areas to help execute and complete projects. At present, as a Drawing and Painting student, it is possible to do work in the sculpture metal workshop with the help of the technician yet we are unable to gain access to the photography darkrooms. If you walk around the D+P studios you will see a mass of photography work, so surely it would make sense to collaborate? The main benefits of collaborative interaction would be the rise in ambitious projects, better technical awareness and students feeling less pigeon- holed in a specific medium.
ReplyDelete2.Sitting and Looking was a successful exhibition held at the Dovecot (10 July – 4 September) that tackled the issue of cross disciplinarity. Curated by furniture designers (Jim Partridge and Liz Walmsley) the exhibition brought together furniture design, photography, ceramics, textiles and painting to, in the words of the Edinburgh Art Festival catalogue, “create a unique juxtaposition of 21st century objects.” Although the works had not been made/created collaboratively it was interesting to see how each medium interacted with the other. You could for example sit on a Magistretti sofa whilst looking at Gary Fabian Miller’s photographs. As the curators themselves noted, “There is often a tendency to categorise work into one world of creativity or another, to call it fine art or design or craft. We believe that the common threads twining these creative worlds together are stronger and more interesting that/than the geography that separates them/” The exhibition was part of the a programme developed by the Dovecot in association with IC:Innovative Craft to link different forms of contemporary art, craft and design.
ReplyDeleteHOLLY PRENTICE
1. From my experience I feel that there should definately be more collaborative interaction between creative disciplines. However, I don't think that this should be limited within the art disciplines and should also include design subjects. Personally I feel that I would benefit from collaborating with maybe textiles, fashion or performance costume as my work has links to these subjects. I can appreciate, however, that perhaps not everyone would have an interest in collaborating with another discipline. Yet, I feel that working with other people with different interests can only be a good thing. This can bring around other ideas or different ways of working which you might not have thought of previously. After leaving college we will work with all different sorts of people and so having these cross discipline projects prepares us for that.
ReplyDelete2.A previous cross disciplinary project which we took part in was 'bridges and barriers'. This was between the second year painting students and second year architecture students. From what I have heard from a lot of the other painting students this was not a successful collaboration in their minds. Some of the groups ended up with just painting students as the architecture students felt they had too much work. However, I felt that the group I was in worked well together and it was a very positive experience. We had four boxes and would each took away a box and started a drawing on one of the sides. We would then meet up have a chat about what we had done and swap and do the same. This meant that we were still managing to engage with each other through the project instead of all working separately and not meeting up again til the end. I feel that if this project was to happen again it would have to be stressed that it was compulsory or perhaps even a graded project. Then it wouldn't seem like it could be an optional thing.
1. From personal experience, I feel I didn't gain anything from the collaborative briefs we were set, or at least as much as I would have liked! To be honest though I think that it was more to do with the briefs and the people I was working with. I felt that I wasn't really doing much different to what I usually do! Having said that, I do think its a good idea to encourage collaborations between disciplines, however let them happen more organically rather than push people together? For instance, I agree with Anonymous in that now that photography has been moved in beside painting,sculpture and intermedia, it would allow people to get more creative with their projects and to see what other people are working on. But, I think photography could also benefit with working with the likes of fashion/performance costume to gain some more commercial experience.
ReplyDelete2. I agree that with collaborations it depends on the people who you work with it is for it to be successful. Cross disciplinarity or not! I'm not sure of any recent exhibitions I've seen but I suppose an example of successful collaboration can be seen within the publication industry..especially magazines that focus on design and art like Wonderland and i-D.
1. The art school structure overall is very disjointed. In my opinion each individual department is entirely separate and only come together on forced projects set up by tutors and other staff members. These projects forced upon the students have very polarised results due to the fact that each individual student thinks and works differently. A collaborative project with illustration and the drawing and painting department as an example would work wonders on those who work in a similar way to illustration students but would just be a bother on those in D+P who are taking a more sculptural route. In my opinion if collaboration projects are to work then have each individual student have some say on which department they are to work with and the boundary's between departments have to be blurred a bit. Each student has different approaches to there work and therefore has different requirements when it comes to collaborations.
ReplyDelete2. Secret confessions in the sculpture court was an exhibition which contained photography, painting, sculpture and printmaking and so was attempting to approach the issue of cross disciplinary exhibitions. Overall as an exhibition I thought it was professionally put together very clean and precise. I also believe the individual works held there space well and did kind of work with the other pieces around them. However each work was differing not only in method but also in subject matter so much that the exhibition as a whole was quite fragmented. With a different unifying subject matter ( possibly a more specific or narrow one) I believe the exhibition could have been more cohesive.
Bob
1. I think that encouraging cross disciplinarily within the art school structure is important as it helps form bridges between people who are working in different methods of representation who share similar beliefs and viewpoints. The act of drawing could be used as a means for all disciplines to meet as this is the most basic means of communicating ideas and tends to be at the core of most creative ventures.
ReplyDelete2. An exhibition such as ‘Childish Things’ which has recently opened at the Fruitmarket gallery, puts together the work of artists who’s methods and styles of working vary very much so, the exhibition works on the basis that similar parallels in terms of subject matter run throughout the exhibition, allowing works by artists whom you may not have before made connections between to be grouped and examined in a different context. This contrasts from the previous Martin Creed exhibition were by the exhibition was very much held together by a uniform aesthetic chosen by one particular artist.
1. Crossing the disciplines within the art school is vital. It is probably the one opportunity in an artists career that the many different departments are in close proximity. This is the time for experimentation into different mediums and how many of us, even having chosen Drawing and Painting are dedicated to only that.
ReplyDelete2.The 'Bridges and Barriers' project that was undertaken did produce a mixed response. My group eventually worked on something which I enjoyed but overall it was a missed opportunity. My only insight into architecture was their computer room!
The most recent exhibition of cross disciplines I have seen was at the Dovecot during the festival this year. Holly covered this well in previous comments.