stepping out

well...
in light of Sians departure from Tac the (now) two wellington-based members have decided we definitely need to make a priority of finding more collaborators.
The way we see it, a down-scaled unfunded run of posters will do the job just fine. Cheap and cheery, black and white, photocopier printed and distributed over the next couple of months with a plan to meet up in the new year.
It seems practical that there won't be much real action until around late January - considering that, I think we should work towards planning a hoolie of us all around that time in Wellington. Also, by that stage Toms move back won't be far off the horizon. (land ahoy!)
Above is a pre pre pre idea for poster, see comments for a draft of an email to be sent out to potential interested peoples.

Thank you and good night x

Hi all,

Sian here; some confusion over who posted my last post.

Sorry for lack of engagment; Tyree's dad died and so that has taken huge amounts of time and energy, as well as being involved in four shows in as many months. One of which is my solo show opening next week, so still going and working............!

Anyway. We didn't get the Creative Communities funding for our poster recruitmemt project in Wellington. They rang me up to clarify the application and basically the problem was that they just couldn't understand what we were about or for or what our function was in the arts community of Wellington.

Now I did my best but man I really struggled to get a succinct version out of what we are about etc. .........and reading over the recent posts it seems that other people are a bit too?

I think the problems are that we started this group and then Prospect came along so soon that we did a big project which took lots of energy without having that groundwork on working out what we were and what we wanted to achieve. So now I feel like there is a lot of confusion because there is no solid base. I know at work that we have a very simple but totally nutted out and clear manifesto of what we are and what we do and why, so projects can be tested back against that model.

I empathise with others who have tlaked about how we seem to be doing a lot of research or something on our own processes. To me this feels laborious and is not really what I was interested in being part of the group for in the first place. As I said on the previous post, I am interest in making things and I hear you barking Liz when you say that I should pick up and make this happen, but I find at this stage that I just have no energy to do this!!!

I think I have run out of steam for this project of being part of the group, and I know that I have really no time to energise or get going any new projects between now and starting school at the end of Feb. I have plans for next year to set up critique and feedback groups in Wellington for artists who wish to build a more connected and responsive community, and I feel that this is more in line with satifying what I am interested in.

So I think I am done! We have done some great things and it has been cool working with you ladies. Paula and Liz if you would like to meet up and discuss further that would be cool, but I thought it would be useful to post this up here so we can all see it.

TAC in Christchurch

Hi all,

This post relates to our discussion of re-membering TAC, and setting up individual TAC centres in other parts of the country. As sole member of TAC in Christchurch I have obviously been thinking a lot about the potential of setting up a similar group here. As a preliminary step, I have been talking with a number of people who I thought might be interested in being part of something, and in the interested of not being exclusive to people I know, I also got them to extend the network and ask other people around and about if it would be something that would interest them.

After a couple of months of testing the feeling on the ground, I just don't think that there is enough interest here to make TAC worthwhile or beneficial in any way. There just doesn't seem to be enough people who are interested in the idea of collaboration or testing the possibilities of this paradigm.

Another reason for not instigating a TAC in Christchurch was also because I'm not sure that I would have enought time to create recruitment packs and go through the setting up period, which would take quite a bit of energy. I didn't want to get involved in something down here that I wouldn't be able to properly facilitate from the development period which would be important for the group. I'm also probably going to be leaving Christchurch in March which would be a factor as well for the group.

I would still like to involved in TAC and would like to contribute as much as possibly to the Wellington group, although I realise that this is increasingly becoming unfeasible for quick decision making and action-taking on projects. So, once TAC in Wgton has recruited some more members I guess we can assess the situation further and see how our diasporic TAC members can work with this group in the best way?

At long last...Two-fold documentation shots

TAC goes tweedie with Dr Bacharach

Meeting up with Sondra Bacherach was really fantastic! Made me and Liz miss our discussions where we were all together as a group.

She wanted to know:
How we got started, we talked about the everynowandthen project beginnings.
How we made decisions, the consensus process, and how we worked out our times of non-agreement…

Sondra has looked at groups here and overseas. She specifically mentioned gilbert and george and the marukis. She said that as a philosopher, their processes were of lesser interest to her as she thinks through collaborative artistic output. This is because the artwork, in those cases, are the works of multiple individuals, yet each plays their own part – with the Marukis for example, each spends time on a painting before handing it over to the other.

Was interested in the nature of collaboration and the idea of a “true collaboration” as distinct from a role taking scenario where tasks are divided up and completed individually as part of a larger project (eg film crews).

We spoke about how we are a collaborative group formed to work collaboratively to explore, experiment with and test collaborative processes and structures. Sondra thought that was pretty neat and quite philosophical.

Also works collaboratively with her Marsden Grant fellow developing their ideas and writing together – understands the difficulties of long distance communication. She encouraged us to think less as a place based group and try new methods of communication such as skype conferencing.
Talked about the role of communication and our understanding of it as a part of the art that we make (process model).

Sondra said she’d like to meet with us again, later in the year, and is excited about the potential of either working with us or pickin our brains in the future.

Paula and Liz

Flow chart frenzy! 1week decision feedback

Here is our formatted feedback - double click to view.
Taccers please do a close reading because there are some (mostly minor) discrepancies in understanding between members and it would be good to arrive at an overall consensus.
Can we please also feedback further to the suggestions to resolve how best to use "1-Week Decisions".
p.s. Hope you like your designated colours!

Shedding light on collaborative common ground, a book review

Above image: PAD/D: DEMONSTRATE!, installation of art made for public protest, Chicago (circa 1983).

This is the second installment of my quest to harvest relevant tid-bits from between the pages of Temporary Services’ new artists’ book Group Work. The trials and accomplishments of past collaborative and collective activities can offer a lot in the way of cautionary tales and models of success. This group has got them both.

New York collective Political Art Documentation/Distribution was established to archive an amassing collection of ephemera from art/political actions and events but snowballed into something much larger. Temporary Services’ Brett Bloom conducted three interviews with four members of Political Art Documentation/Distribution (PAD/D); Gregory Scholette and Janet Koenig were interviewed together and Jerry Kearns and Barbara Moore were each interviewed separately.

PAD/D was sparked into being by writer and activist Lucy Lippard, in New York’s East Village in 1980. Lippard had been collecting up a bunch of posters and other documentation from the preceding two decades of political art activism, mostly through donations from the artists themselves. At the time the art institutions were largely ignoring socially engaged art so, in the spirit of self-organization, Lippard called a meeting to enlist help with the creation of an archival resource. Jerry Kearns recalled turning up to the first meeting after “seeing a leaflet stapled to a pole”, he describes Lippard’s continuing involvement in the group as contributing a “Leadership of doing”.

So told, this was a period of many collective activities, both locally in the East Village and in the US scene in general. Because of this Lippard was interested only in creating a resource - not in forming another group. However, after the first couple of meetings the artists became frustrated with such administrative documentary tasks and started to get excited about the potential of the group as a site of artistic/activist production. It seems like this kind of self definition and direction from amongst the members so early on really continued through the group’s lifespan. These energies meant the group were both prolific and divergent in their output.

While the documentation team became an autonomous entity within the wider group, largely left to their own devices, PAD/D grew to become an umbrella organisation for a diverse range of activities. These spanned from the initial archival project to a reading group that “kind of mutated” into an anti-gentrification project, the publication of a leftist cultural events calendar and a newsletter to distribute the contents of the archive — to name the few ongoing projects mentioned in the interviews.

I thought it was interesting to note, and of some relevancy to the TAC situation, that as the group became larger the structure of PAD/D became more hierarchical. In their first year of operation consensus was used, after which they moved to majority voting. Jerry Kearns explained “We tried to make power transparent within the group. But we also tried to avoid the endless group therapy sessions that consensus decision making often leads to”. I think one of their most interesting achievements was developing a system to deal with their growth. To keep communication and opportunities open a system was instigated whereby people proposed new projects to the group to gauge interest and gain support. In order to keep a track of all the activities there was a regular event called “Second Sundays” where members spoke about their on-going projects. PAD/D was a real large-scale group, something hard to imagine happening in a Wellington context.

It seemed like there was quite a struggle over keeping the organisation centrally located. A steering committee was formed to oversee the activities of the project-focused sub-committees. At times, although the steering committee conceptualised themselves as advisory, this caused uneven power relationships to arise. Gregory Scholette recalls that “As time went on PAD/D became very structured … to the point where there were elaborate flow charts about how you submitted a proposal to the group”. Long-time PAD/D member Janet Koenig argues “It was no longer Democratic, at that point, at least to my mind. ‘Democratic centralism’ is nearly an oxymoron”.

Despite differences of opinion PAD/D managed to hold it together through some challenging events. Koenig and Scholette were part of a reading group that was accused of trying to create a faction. Scholette explains the initial motivation for the splintering: “Some of us felt that we didn’t have enough theory. We didn’t feel like PAD/D had really thought through these issues of art and society very deeply”. During a big event that PAD/D had organised, designed to bring together other counter-institutional groups into a mega coalition, Scholette circulated an essay that he had written which mounted a critique on PAD/D. Crazy times. Luckily, the group had “a very strict structure for dealing with problems” and after an initial period of tension things settled down and people realised that the reading group was generating valuable resources for PAD/D.

One of the great things about this article was the way the different perceptions and experiences of the group are communicated through the discrepancies in opinions between the separate interviews. This group and its structures were formed from a collective desire to honour and continue the legacy of activist/artistic activities from preceding decades of political and social change. They did this through making a place for the materials that were left behind and, more importantly, through keeping the practice of collective activity alive and functioning.

Throughout the interview with members of “Political Art Documentation/Distribution”, in Temporary Services’ Group Work, there is mention of the other many and varied organisations that influenced their group – both in terms of its structure and its ideology. I haven’t really even gone into the specifics of this. There are a heap of touchstones for TAC in the stuff above, it has been great to read about some of the common threads and I hope it’s been informative for you, dear reader.

The first book review installment, which is about General Idea, can be found here: Group Work artists book review
An article on PAD/D written by member Gregory Scholette can be downloaded in pdf form here: A Collectography of PAD/D

Is artistic collaboration all about talking?

hi guys,

Thought I would make a new post to muse on my dissatisfactions and where they are arising from. I read one of the articles on the list on the main blog;

"Afterall article: Group and Gang (the Absent Collective)

And it really summed up where I am at. It was talking about how making art is something which happens in space rather than in time, and so the group cannot do the same thing at the same time. Which means that in collaborative groups the main thing which happens is lots and lots of talking, rather than doing. Discussing what the group is going to do before doing it. So the decision making is consensual, rather than the doing?

"In other words, even where a group co-operates to make a video, their agreement on how to fill a given part of the visual array at a given moment can only be achieved by talking – again by a negotiation that by definition is operationally separate from the formative visual technique itself. Hence, the actions of performance groups fail to become genuine group agency in two main ways. First, because much of what the performance group does amounts to multiple synchronous actions – a mere proliferation of co-incidental separate actions. Second, because if the interweaving of these actions are integrated then (and here we return to the earlier claim) the terms of the integration must be separately negotiated, determined by talking not by visually doing."

So, this explains why the meetings felt so much better than the blog I think, as obviously talking is more satifying than reading on a screen and disjointed conversations. And also why I have developed a sense of uh I want to be DOING something. The difficulty for me I guess is that my practice and what I really engage with and enjoy about art is the actual doing. I love talking too. don't get me wrong, but it seems like this is one of the real conflicts in collaborative processes which has been hit on the head by this article.

"The group that we want acts. Above all else, it thinks/acts, and it does so beyond mere coordinated efficacy. The group we want acts beyond the linear flows of discursive thought and outside the blind sedimentation of so-called 'swarm intelligence' – the process whereby the swarm of humans en masse sleepwalks into adopting and then incrementally honing the cleverest tricks of its innovative individuals (like turning the wheel, quitting hunting to tend flocks, or flossing before bedtime). Swarm intelligence in its unguided incremental genius is a marvel: no less evident and marvelous in crows and seagulls than it is in humans. But the swarm is not the group, and the group wasn’t liberated by the web or any other revolution. The group that we want is the branching, nodal warren of thoroughfares that composes its thinking not in speech, but in enaction between and around the partial-selves of its members. The group doesn’t march on its stomach."

Sorry to cut and paste the article if you have already read it; just thought it might be easier to discuss.

What does anyone else think?

Meeting minutes 17.9.07, #1 New Members

New Beginnings: re-Membering TAC

It's been 7 months since we were all together in one room. Remember convincing ourselves that our experimentation of collaborative processes could continue long distance? Well, it's official, blog friend just doesn't bring the cheese to the meeting.
We have been discussing new members for tac for AGES, and before we all wither up and die under the greying light of our PC screens, action needs to make it happen.
Welli has plans afoot and has already found ourselves stumbling into uncharted collaborative territory. We need a collective plan for negotiating the borders between autonomy and unity without the need for an international diplomacy manual.
In the absence of any experts, tac once again turns to its members for their sage and silly contributions towards a renewal of localised collaborative projects.
How do we allow new tac regional groups to make their own decisions without loosing the sense of what brought us together in the first place? What components of our current processes should continue and what should change to allow for new beginnings?

Q: How is Collaborative Art Interpreted?

Hello,
I'm a Philosophy lecturer at Victoria Univ whose research is in the philosophy of art. Last year, a colleague and I were awarded a Marsden grant to study how to interpret and understand collaboratively produced art.

Obviously, your work is very interesting to our research. I was wondering how I might get more information about your work - either about your work practices, or about how work work has been received, interpreted, etc.

I'd love to meet up for coffee and hear more about your work, if any of you are still in Wellington. Alternatively, I'd love to correspond with any of you via email, or if you'd be able to tell me how to find any material on your work, that'd be greatly appreciated too.

Thanks!
Best,
Sondra
-------------------------
Hi Sondra,
thanks for your enquiry - how relevant indeed!
i am sure we'd like to communicate with you and your project sounds interesting, but we need to agree by consensus on these matters. since our PROSPECT project earlier this year, we have dispersed around the world.
we communicate mainly via a blog.
Is it okay with you if i post your request (without contacts ) on our TAC blog? It is the fastest way for us to get a consensus decision as a group - about anything.
also: the prospect project can be found at:
http://www.telecomprospect2007.org.nz/artist/TheAssociationofCollaboration.shtml
hope to hear from you soon,
Paula
_____________________________

Hi Paula,
Thanks for the quick response; I’d be delighted if you posted my request on your blog – especially if it speeds things up.
I first learned of TAC’s existence at the Prospect exhibit, and as a result invited Heather Galbraith to talk about collaborative art at Prospect for a philosophy of art course that I taught last term — and now I’m getting started on my Marsden grant more seriously, and really want to learn more about your work before I begin writing.
Looking forward to hear from some/all of you!

Best,
Sondra
______________________________

hi TAC, so here it is, posted as promised!
how exciting, x Paula

-------------------------

Banking

hey all

some feedback from chch where it has suddenly become like antartica, though no snow in the city which i find quite dissapointing.

... [have moved Toms thoughts on new members to the meeting minutes comments section for comprehension -L]

in other news, am having a bit of a dilemma in the banking department. we can't open an account where everyone can withdraw money unless we are registered as a society or charitable trust. after investigation i found out that this costs about $150 to become one. so, i thought that next best option would be to open an account under my name, and someone in Wellington could sign up as a joint-account person so as to have more transparency in banking (hehehe, i accidentally wrote baking before that) matters. i have opened an account with Kiwibank, so if someone would like to volunteer as a Wellington joint treasurer then I can get in communication with them about the details.

another problem is that the cheques we have received have been made out to 'The Association of Collaboration', this means that I am not able to deposit them at all because of course I am T. Sleigh, no The Association of Collaboration which doesn't exist in a legal sense. so, I think I need to get in contact with the Museums Trust and New Plymouth City Council, to see if they can make the cheques out to an individual member of TAC and then they can be deposited in the account.

does all this make sense? and should be have one account now for all splinter groups of TAC?
whew. money matters make me tired.

Group work artist's book review

Temporary Services has just published an artists book called Group Work. I got extremely excited when I found out about their collaborative book about collaboration and got myself a copy. I thought you'd all be interested in hearing about it, I also thought that as a way of helping myself think through the ideas I'd make a book review. I will add to it as I get through the articles, probably going back and changing it a bit. There's heaps of info that's applicable to us at TAC, so we could use the comments section to talk about the ideas too. Let me know if you want more info, something photocopied or - once I've finished - a lend!


The initial five members of Temporary Services (TS) started working together in 1999. The group is currently a triadic collaboration, based in Chicago and they have a very busy exhibition history, website and lots of publishing projects.
The book has been edited by the three collaborators and contains interviews with, and profiles of, active and historical collaborative artist's groups and musicians, all from the US and Europe. Their general thesis holds that — acknowledging the interdependence of human existence — all art making is collaborative at some point.
The generality of the title, Group Work, also follows from their interest in the broader scope of groupings as human/societal organising principles, an interest which, TS's editorial explains, consciously extends beyond the specificity of art practices and languages.
The list of quotes, responding to some well worded common questions on collaboration, are the only direct manifestation of this broader investigation. The rest of the contents explore group work through an artistic and musical context.
I am working my way through the book slowly, and have just finished their first interview with AA Bronson, one of the three artists from General Idea. Other collaborators in General Idea (GI) were Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal (all aliases). GI was a collaboration that began in Toronto in the seventies amongst the hippie commune scene. It was hugely prolific in both art and social activism and only wound up after the death of its two other members from HIV related illnesses.
General Idea seems to have been a big influence on the Temporary Services model.
The interview covers the genesis of the group, the way GI worked together, how they resolved conflicts, the roles and languages that emerged in the group dynamic - and finishes with a discussion of Bronson's individual practice after the dissolving of General Idea in '94.
One of the first projects that General Idea undertook was an underground newspaper called FILE which they began as a communication tool for connecting themselves beyond their small local art community to artists in other cities and countries. Bronson gives the example of their "Artist Directory", a 700-strong list of artists addresses published with the purpose of encouraging open mail contact between readers and artists. TS's questions tease out the way FILE seems to have swung between this total openness and a more insular fictional world.
I was really interested to read about their group processes, the members had a very close working relationship, lived together in the same house and used to have conversations every morning over coffee. Bronson explains "We had a rule of thumb that we only actually carried out a project by consensus. So if anybody wasn't sure about something, then we would put it on the back shelf. We didn't reject it ... at a later date ... we might pick up one of those ideas again and knit it into some other project we were doing". They found this "shelving" method worked well as a way of resolving conflicting opinions.
The roles within the collaboration were flexible, shifting from project to project according to what the members were interested in at the time: "We never advertised who did what. And people always thought they knew. People tended to think that Jorge did all the photography and Felix did all the painting and I did all the writing, but it wasn't true at all. It was truly collaborative". Similarly, their approach to their group identity was one of anonymity, initially using pseudonyms to avoid the "artist as genius" trap, although Bronson now believes that "in the end pseudonyms don't make the slightest bit of difference to all of that".

Stay tuned for more, L.

1 week decisions: How-to guide

What is 1 week decisions for?

1 week decisions is a process that allows for members to not participate in administrative decisions, this means admin decisions can be made by those who do participate without needing to get others approval.
Administrative (or 'operational') decisions are ones which don't affect the structure or direction of tac. 1wds can be about things which haven't been discussion prior to posting them.

How do we use it?

Blog: Always write up the thing that needs to be decided about and post it on the blog. Include the words "1 week decision" in title and attach the same as a subject label.
Email: U decide! this is up to the person who makes the post. Some decisions might not warrant an email, or the post-er might not be into it, so it will always be useful to visit 1 week decision subject label on the side of the blog - as we have all been doing.

This process was established through a testing, review and discussion process. Below are links to the background and lead up discussions:
initial intro of 1wd
Tac flow-charted reviews of 1wd

Trolley storage

Hi guys,

We couldn't cover everything in the meeting and I forgot that we need to discuss storage of the trolley. All great ideas about reusing it but all still involve it being stored in Tyree's space until next Feb! She is doing lots of work at home and really needs the space. It's urgent and I am getting hassled!! Any ideas??

TAC meeting minutes adn discussion points

TAC meeting Monday 27th August

I have organised the points into the three agenda areas so it is easier to read. This means that it is not sequential as the meetings actually ran but will be clearer to follow. Points which require feedback have been marked in italics.

All of the below is my subjective note taking and is open to correction, suggestion, comment, feedback etc.

NEW MEMBERS

All are agreed that we need new members.

Suggestion that new members should be recruited in each area of the diaspora.

Blog would then become group to group post rather than internal communication.

Name suggestions; TAC Wellington, TAC Christchurch etc. The when we do something together we would be TAC United?

So, with suggested new members involved, each TAC project would become under their own regional control. Each group needs to be activated and able to act. Esp as noted by recent problems with blog re communication, loss of energy for group etc.

A group focus could be feeding into a new bio / manifesto which could be used to create a new members pack. Enough history to provide an orientation.

Importance of the power structure remaining level discussed. No experts. Decision making should be consensual.

Manifesto should not be too solid / prescriptive etc. Open; like how we have recorded our processes as conversations. New members could get the assessment of CAMRU as a conversational piece in new members pack.

Differentiation between tac groups can develop. Each group could contribute a chapter to the kit. Organic. There would be a natural progression according to each group’s interests.

Value of the initial openness of the call to TAC. Diverse range of people.

Could use photos in orientation/new members pack.

NEW MEMBERS SUMMARY

New members in each centre
Each centre deciding on how to recruit it’s own members
Create an orientation kit for new members – (photos, manifesto, CAMRU assessment?)


KIT

Use the aesthetic of CAMRU like the scattered notes. Give artists / organisations a page where they could write / draw whatever about their experiences in collaboration.

Flow chart model

Open structure for other collaborative structures to engage with.

Non-directive and non-definitive. Can keep being added to. Could be like a ring binder with new chapters / blank pages.


FUTURE PROJECTS

Developing and spreading TAC

Becoming The Association of Collaborations, ie finding ways to be inclusive of other groups without them having to be part of the every day running. Pages in kit are one way.

Funding application to Creative Communities Wellington. Idea of creating posters about TAC to create interest in group / ideas / new members. Then packs could be sent out after this. This would be relevant for Wellington audience. Other groups apply in own districts? Or may prefer alternative methods of recruitment?

Poster ideas; disseminating info, drawings, text, a series of three, drawing of writing on wall at Enjoy? Good to have a visual project to keep interest up aesthetically. Good to have another tangible project this year.

CAMRU ASSESS – questions for the group

Input are Tom’s questions and Andie’s musings previously on blog.
Discussed these and own input and came up with following Q’s;

What were our individual expectations of the CAMRU project?

What did it do?

What TAC processes worked well?

What TAC processes didn’t work so well?

How effective was CAMRU in communicating with an audience?

What did the responses tell us that was valuable towards understanding the Prospect show?

Two-fold catalogue text + images

Hi all,

Would be great to get some feedback about what kind of writing we should include about TAC in the two-fold catalogue. There's only space for about 200 words, this could be a discussion piece, an interview, a piece of collaborative writing, a piece written about us by somebody else. It could even be a re-hashed collage of writing from our blog, blog found poetry! argh! Also any thoughts about images? perhaps we could use the old trusty circle o' chairs!

let me know your thoughts asap, the deadline for text is friday september the 7th... uh-oh! But it's only 200 words, easy-peasy

xA

Assessment of Prospect

I've been thinking about the necessity of assessing TAC's activity in Prospect in order that me may move onto greener pastures with clear directives, awareness of successes and failures and evident focuses. I don't know if the Wellington meeting of TAC has gone ahead or any discussion has been had a about this?

I thought that since we are all now spread around corners of the globe, one way to collect and assess would be to draw up a number of questions to which each TAC member could respond (perhaps by using the email system). After this we could analyse, assess, see if there are any similarities or wild discrepancies in our responses.

I also thought that these written responses could also partially be used in future documentation of process and potentially some of it could even be re-worked for the toolkit if we decide that is something we want to go ahead with.

A few questions I had thought of so far were:

1. At what stage did you feel most comfortable with TAC's processes?
2. How effective did you feel the trolley project was in engaging with a community wider than the art community?
3. If you could have changed a process in the development of the trolley project, what would you have changed? Why?

ps Best title award goes to Sian for title previous to this one :)

Kit chat

Hi hi

Having looked at that photo and thought it was great.....and also being a good TACCER and making a new post rather than taccing on to the old one with a new subject.....AND using labels.

PHEW.

Anyway. My great idea was about thinking about the kit. And thinking that the element I liked the most about what we did was that it was open and as unjudgemental as we could be. People got to say what they liked and let it be seen. So I wondered if the kit could look something like that? With illustrations and photos like the chairs one and lots of images of peoples comments and stuff rather than long and verbose. Like Liz's visual flowchart was so great and enticing because it looked interesting and good.

My thought is that by describing the project in yummy pictures we create a space for people to think about how they think about artwork and what they want from it and what collaboration is and whether we really were collaborating with the audience or not etc.

I am also thinking about the booklet that MW (is that right?!) made in their Enjoy residency where they asked a bunch of people to describe negative space. Non prescriptive and open and had the feeling that lots more idea could have been added to it too of your own.

Maybe the TAC kit could have blank pages at the end for people to work things out / add to / colour in ?!?!? I guess I just like that idea of it being like a continual work in progress.

PS and no spelling mistakes x

Wellington TAC regroup - postponed

Sian, Paula and I are now meeting up next week to talk TAC, so there's xtra time to add to our agenda. Anything that you want discussed will be reported back in the minutes. It would be great to get some input and gauge where we are at xL

lecturer interested in our empty chairs

Hello All,
yesterday I was asked for and gave a senior lecturer at Vic this image of our work from 'Every Now and Then' at Enjoy.
Another collaborator metioned that this fact could be of interest to the rest of TAC so here is our correspondence about the inclusion of our documentation in her Sydney Lecture.
I am not sure what angle she plans to take discussing our work, however I thought even analysis of the problematics of this installation is useful and fitting for our project.
Since some curators have complained when TAC hasd posted their correspondence on this blog, all personal references will be removed....

.....1st Email.....

Dear (Enjoy Gallery Employee),
When you talked to my class you showed an image of the chair arrangement set up by the Assoc of Collaboration as part of Mel Oliver's show at Enjoy.

I wonder if you could send me a copy of this, good enough quality to show in a powerpoint?

I'm talking as part of a panel discussion at Artspace in Sydney which is part of a project called Aftermath which is canvassing the relationship of performance and installation.
Many thanks
(Lecturer)

.....2nd Email.....

Hello (Enjoy Gallery Employee),

I wonder if you could let Paula know which image I mean and get her to send it to me?
Thanks
(Lecturer)

.....3rd Email.....( my reply)

hi (Lecturer),
I have sourced an image of TAC's residual post-meeting chair set up, from towards the end of the 'Every Now and Then' show (after a few TAC meetings). Please confirm that this is what you seek, it should be sized appropriatly for powerpoint.
See attached
best wishes, Paula

.....4th Email.....

perfect
thanks
(Lecturer)

Loosing our Threads

My hyperactive brain has been whirring around the problems of the hyperlink gymnastics required to navigate our communications here, AKA: our blog is too hard to read, or too hard to follow. Yes, I put up my hand, I have been the culprit of many a post-jumping dialogue, ramble and generally confusing comment spams.
I had a bit of a surf around the pixel-sphere and would like to report that it is a very common problem on blogs, chatrooms, and in open comment forums etc.
There seems to be whole R&D departments devoting themselves slavishly to the development of conversation smart software, (in other news, Cuba is dumping Microsoft in favour of the open-source operating system Linux), but I digress – and this seems to be one of my main problems!!!! A perfectly wonderful way to be conversational but one of the reasons that our TACblog conversations seem to be fizzling out somewhat.
Me and my search-engine have come up with a whole heap of things we could do to make things easier for ourselves and potential other silent browsers (hi mum ;)

To Post or to Comment on a Post? – why don’t we reserve posts for new topics of conversation, subjects or news OR summaries of older conversations.

One subject postings – if we have something to introduce for discussion, then how about boiling it down to its essential elements and posting it as one subject.

Feed your post – when you make a posting, keep it alive by tracking the discussion, responding to comments and summarising ideas as they develop.

Bestow Titles – use them in your posts and comments to draw attention to the focus and type of your communication. Some examples: brilliant new idea, supporting idea, counter-idea, supporting example, counter-example, extrapolation, summary, reminds me that, catch-up, ramble, problem, solution*.

Subject Labels – Surely they were invented to make blog trawling clearer and more interesting. I suggest you look to the right side for labels that already exist, otherwise make up a relevant new label and begin to add these automatically when you make a post

Images – We’re all aesthetes after all, lets keep our neck of web-land pretty!

Banking & 1 week decisions, summary

Admin hats on, buckle your seat belts ...

1 week decisions
summary: We all seem to be in agreement over trialing this process out, so trial starts now and ends on the 4th September. This means checking the blog once a week if you want to keep up with and participate in all small admin decisions.
When you make a posting for a 1 week decision then please enter "1 week decisions " in the subject labels for this post field (at the bottom of window). By doing this we can keep up to date easily by clicking on the 1 week decisions subject label on the side bar.
To keep the discussion coherent all contributions need to be made in the comments section of the posting - not in a seperate posting.

banking/money matters
summary: everyone is in agreement with two people (some combination of Paula, Sian, Tom) opening a Kiwi Bank account under TAC's name, and that Tom will be the treasurer! fantastic! can you Tom, be in charge of working out the details?

If any of the above is unclear or you had a different understanding of it, please comment!!!

CAMRU home?

Hi all,

So just another practical thing to think about. CAMRU is currently housed in our church / studio space. We have positioned her in a corner so she is taking up the minimum of space.......but it still is rather a lot of space. I am conscious that the corner is in Tyree's workspace and she is making lots more work in there at the moment.

I guess we need to consider a more long term solution ie storage or dismantlement or gift or sale or?! I am loathe to dismantle it after all the work, but I also can't store it indefinately. Perhaps we could consider some other uses for it?

One thing I had wondered was if it could be used as something to do with the Fringe Festival? Very vague ideas at the moment, but I just know that is a really public and outdoor event where it reaches lots of non art audiences................

Could it be somehow used to gather information or be a public beacon for finding out about people's collaborative thoughts / experiences? Could it be the locus for launching a booklet?!

X Sian

Money matters....

Hey all,

So should I go ahead and open up a TAC bank account? What does everyone think? And then we can all have access to the Internet Banking side of things and it can be monitored/perused by everyone? If so, Paula and Liz do you think you could send down the checks and I will desposit them?

Congrats on your fantastic new job Andie - that sounds great! I'm really interested at the moment in the intersection of artist/curator. Part of curating Continuous Memory was to give myself the opportunity to experiment with the role of curator, I guess to learn the parameters, neccessary skills, absences and requirements of the role. Working with just one artist obviously made it quite different to constructing a group show, or art historical survey. Essentially Continuous Memory developed out of a conversation and I found that that was a really productive way of working.

I would be really interested to hear what other takes artist/curators have on the experience and where they see one role ending and the other beginning, if that even happens? As far as my involvement in TAC goes, it was almost like a symbiosis of both positions into one. Did others find that? Sometimes I feel like labelling nouns are more trouble than they are worth!

Thoughts from Kassel...

Dear TAC,

Sorry for my lack of communication and input for the last while – I feel particularly bad since what I have been doing lately is quite related to CAMRU - but I am now in a better position to contribute again. (In case you’re not sure where I disappeared to, I am currently in Kassel, Germany working as part of the art mediation team of documenta 12. With the particular focus on Education for documenta and the efforts of the team coordinators to encourage innovative formats for guiding tours and special projects, I’ve been learning and involved with attempts to provide more dialogical educative models within the exhibition.)

So, yes Andie I would love to share my experiences but I'm not sure what is relevant - do you have any specific questions?? Actually, the 3rd documenta magazine themed on Education is now available and perhaps you could find this in Melbourne but the articles are also all available online...

I feel like I can’t really evaluate how the programme is working yet and whether this has been successful, but when I first arrived we heard from some interesting art education theorists and one project in particular was very similar to that of us with CAMRU- it was by Anna Zosik entitled ‘Hannah Arendt Denkraum’ as part of an exhibition held in Berlin (October to November 2006). She basically set up a room in the middle of this group show where people were encouraged to respond in ways similar to CAMRU – she edited responses a little more but really had the same difficulties and results as us… the guards got really into it, people took active ownership of the space, and it took on a life of its own.

The art mediation team is actually part of a research project by Carmen Moersch who is writing her PhD on art mediation and trying to progress this in Germany in relation to UK based models.

Okay, perhaps I can write more on this soon, but love to you all,
M xx

Two-fold: the low down...

Hey guys
Welcome back! ☺
Tom thanks for volunteering to be the treasurer- you be a treasure! And congrats also on your show at HSP it looks really good
So in terms of this two-fold show, I’m sorry for sounding a bit vague last time, basically the focus is on curatorship students who are also practicing artists. Originally the exhibition was going to be a showcase for curatorship students to share what they’ve been up to. However I thought that might turn into a bit of a mixed bag and since Angela and I decided to co-curate the show together we've developed the concept for the show towards challenging curatorial frameworks through artistic practice. Some other artist/curators for example are examining documentation or the support materials that accompany exhibitions, one artist is working in collaboration with a sculptor to make an interactive object- whereby the viewer constructs the work, there are some amazing cabinets that are dying to be used as a wunderkammer but I’m not sure if that will be realised. I’m hoping to create a TAC reading area- so really I’m not proposing a new project as such for TAC, but rather I thought of using documentation of past examples (such as our Prospect room sheets) as a starting point for discussion about some of the issues that haven’t been addressed in our course (such as self-organised projects, working collaboratively and the perception/positioning of art that aims to be socially engaging).
Alternatively I could just create a reading corner without any TAC related material if you’d prefer, but, what are your thoughts?
Andie
p.s. guess what guess what? I got a job working as ‘Project Officer’ for the South Project!!

Banking Scenario

Liz and Paula
new post
subject: Banking
(this post is a parody based on well-established patterns)

Hi every one how’s it going?
We’ve got a couple of cheque payments made out to TAC for the pencils; one from the Govett Brewster for $149.62, and one from City Gallery for $134.00. We also need to send in another invoice to City Gallery for the last 27 pencils that were sold and pay Alex and the rest of us back for outstanding trolley resource purchases.
So we need an account to deposit these cheques into. What shall we do? Shall we set up a joint account with all 6 of us as signatories. who want to do that? or should one of us set up an account under TAC name and deal with all transactions in a transparent manner?

2 DAYS LATER…
Andie writes
I support that, sounds like a great idea!

3 DAYS AFTER THAT…
Sian writes
its awesome that were going to have money in hte bank! Rolling init!!
Htet joint account sounds good if u want somoene to come to that bank I can, as one of hte remaining wellington cru

2 WEEKS AFTER ORIGINAL POST...
No further replies

4 WEEKS AFTER ORIGINAL POST...
Liz writes
Ok, well we seem to be a little slow responding on this one, do i need to do another text around? Maybe you need personal email correspondence?
We do need consensus to move forward!!!

8 WEEKS AFTER ORIGINAL POST...
Paula writes
I want to get this money in the bank so that we can pay our bills etc.
I am happy to set up an account and have all the statements mailed to tac offices.
I am with kiwibank so the accounts are free and statments are online (emailable)
So it doesn’t matter if the money just sits there, as there is no cost. Transparent.
So anyway.....
The lack of communication with Tac is really frustrating.
This kind follows on from my last post, entitled ‘where is the association at?’
To which there was only one reply. (thanks andie!)
Who is in this collaboration anyway?

Where is the Association At?

I really appreciate Andie's efforts over the last few months to make projects happen.
While I have followed her comments and contributions closely I only posted my first feedback comment today.

This made me realise that it is really hard to gauge the participation of various TAC members, especially as we have become a diaspora.
While this spreading can be positive in terms of new opportunities, contexts and associations for potential TAC projects, I think we need to collectivly ascertain a common communication or gathering method. I think we should also review our personnel situation, as suggested by Sian and Liz over the last few months. Is a head count needed?
It is certainly hard to grow legs on Andie's project or any other new initiative at the moment.
This stalling need not coninue if willing TAcers communicate and new members are allowed to be brought in.
hugs from Kassel,
Paula

Tim's article for MOB now finished

Hello dears,
Tim's article on collaboration featuring TAC, Rachael Rakena & Brett Graham, and Nova Paul is finsished and you will find it in the TAC gmail account.
Check it out, it is interesting to see what he quoted from us in the final version!
x p

george paton gallery who ?what? yes let's!

Hey me again

I've been invited to participate in a group show of curated by a fellow curatorship student who back in the 90s (I think) was involved in a group of VCA (Victorian College of the Arts) who started up an ARI called 'Talk'. It was quite a good one I think, anyway the curator was invited by fellow 'Talk' artist/writer/curator and George Paton gallery co-ordinator Sandra Bridie to propose a show. So far the show is looking at curatorship students who are also practising artists. However the curator is adamant she doesnt want the show to just be an opportunity to show their work, but rather set it up as a place for issues regarding contemporary curatorship to be discussed. I was hesitant at first to participate because I don't really think of myself as an artist. I've met the curator and told her about TAC and wondered about the possibility of exhibiting documentation of our work as part of the show.

Of course it is very early days and I havent met any of the other artists yet and don't know how their work will shape the show but I just wanted to post this now to get some feedback from the group. I don't want to stand for TAC but i thought maybe documentation of our work could serve to introduce topics for discussion as part of the exhibition?

look forward to hearing your thoughts

xA

success and failure

Hey guys I just thought maybe we should take some time to reflect on what we consider to be our successes and failures so far...

SUCCESSES:
How things worked out with Heather and Sarah, the way they were open to our unsolicited roomsheets,and the inclusion of visitors' post it notes in the catalogue, etc. The way we allowed for a previously silent audience to participate in art dialogue and discourse alongside the curator. (Limits to this: censorship, not totally democratic-we chose some voices over others, CAMRU initiated dialogue still contained and framed within wider prospect curatorial discourse)
Public response in terms of volume of feedback/post its.

POTENTIAL ISSUES/FAILURES?
criticisms in Artbashthe catalogue and the listener- eg our work was patronising (to an art informed audience) are these points that we want to address? How? Can our work be aimed at these people?
Levels of participation by TAC members- we all have had different availability-working together long distance etc
Misconceptions that TAC is a liz/Enjoy project

Any thoughts? Maybe some other issues came up back on the day of the artist talk?

xA

Handing Over the Responses to City Gall

yo, how's the collab group hanging??
we're giving the little colourful notes to sarah farrah, so she and her helpers can put them in the back pockets of the prospect catalog, as we discussed as a group a wee while ago.
we have only selected responses that related to the Prosect show (in any way) poetic, negative, illustrations, praise, the lot!! we thought that this would be an alright way of selecting the ones to document, and we have kept all the scores of other ones too.
i'll be sad to see some of them go, but they have all had the opportunity to be seen on the trolley or the wall or written about or collated. we have also scanned or photgraphed them all for CAMRU records before sending then to sarah.
liz and i just spent a wee while collating the responses that were still in wellington, many had just come off the trolley in the last few weeks.

can mel and tom please bring to wellington the ones tht they have been sent? we can give those ones striaght to sarrah as they've already been photographed.

word, p

andies response collation

here is Andies contribution that she emailed thru from the responses she was sent. please post your comments and i will turn it into a template to make photocopied exhibition notes from once we have got the go ahead. x p

“Words and thoughts are pointless”

If the above is true, then what use is any attempt to facilitate engagement and critical dialogue in an art gallery? There have been many disillusioned responses with the way New Zealand contemporary art has been presented in Prospect 2007, with the efforts of the Association of Collaboration proven to be no exception. However, self-reflexivity and evaluation are fundamental to our interests, thus every scribbled post-it note has been processed, and we’d like to share some of these thoughts, ideas and feelings with you…

-I’ve never been more bored. Prospect has become mundane, predictable, tired, blasé, indifferent, incompetent, unencouraging. This work could be from the seventies, that work could be a repetition of that work, and this work could be a regurgitation of every work ever made. You could have saved time by putting a pile of FLASHART magazines in the foyer…

The Contemporary Art Mobile Response Unit supported a profusion of responses, though some felt their words were falling on deaf ears…

-You can say its rubbish as much as you like-they will still do it again next year. Proof that institutions just don’t listen unless you say what they want to hear.

The Contemporary Art Mobile Response Unit not only encouraged responses to the artwork but also inspired visitors to engage with one another’s responses

-You are allowed to say, “I don’t like it” and not have to explain yourself
-It’s not that you don’t like it, it’s that you don’t understand it or vice versa? (as Mrs V my 7th form art history teacher often used to say)

Other criticisms centred on the didactic nature of contemporary art survey shows

-Just because you use big words, doesn’t mean that what you think about art is more important, or even relevant. Art is for enjoyment, not for being a pompous ass over.

Some felt intimidated by the pressure to make spontaneous and insightful comments on the spot

-I think my own thoughts are becoming less clear... I am fading with every exhibit

While others used humour to make sense of their experience

When I went to the toilet after seeing the show I felt I might be in an installation…

If nothing else, on viewing Prospect 2007, perhaps some left with a new appreciation for contemporary art.

The Life of CAMRU

I made a visit to the ol' City Gallery today to take CAMRU some more pads, pencils and pins and thought I would do a little report back for those of us that can't wander down the road to see it!
Since its outing with the sheep CAMRU has been parked back in the original installation spot, next to the comments wall. As always, not long after its 'denuding', I found it filled up again with comments and drawings. It was looking a little disshevelled, as sometimes happens after a busy weekend and especially in the current school holidays - I also found a heap of fantastic kids drawings both on the trolley and pinned low down on the comments wall.
Polly (the very fantastic full time security assistant) asked if she could have CAMRU in her gallery (contemporary abstraction) for the rest of the show. She tells me she really likes having something to do in the quiet times, and promised that she could keep it tidy (but not too tidy so as no one would think they could use it) and let visitors know they could write things, and where the wall is for pinning their comments up. So that's great news for us, and thanks to Polly for her care. We moved it into gallery one and she chose a park in the centre of the room, just to the left as you walk in.
I have had heaps of positive feedback from the gallery hosts, who have really enjoyed watching the comments growing and changing over the weeks. Lots of them are particularly impressed by one gallery visitor, who I am told stayed for a couple of hours building a very sophisticated pencil sculpture, which he then attatched to the comments wall with the help of a gallery host. Its quite an addition, with postit note eyes and long snaky body it looks like a stationary cupboard taniwha.
Most of the folders are now also housing relevant audience responses, and there has been a handfull of flow charts filled in, often in really lateral, sometimes insightful and amusing ways.
The TAC roomsheets are sitting on the fold out desk, looking quite the part and adding some weight (and more humour) to our orange experiment. I am now wondering whether it would be better to print your roomsheet now Tom, rather than wait for the next batch of Andies. It is a good way to communicate to the audience how we see the project rounding out and your summaries are really spot on, I can see those trends continuing with the current responses and it would be good to have recognition of that on CAMRU before the show ends so the audience could potentially respond to response themes. Prospect finishes in two weeks!!!
There is a whole lot more to be said, and a whole box of responses which I have taken away to sort through (Paula, Sian and I are catching up on Wednesday so perhaps we can do that then yes?), but I am a little bleary eyed at the end of my day and think I better stop before I stop making sense... I will report before I go that Et al. has packed down further to the national interest and turned off her gallery spotlights, leaving the gear tidily in the corner and a brown taped out border on the floor - quite a sombre composition. I must say I miss the audio track which had become strangely soothing... I really have to go now!

Tim Wong interviews TAC here!

Consensus reached - onwards through interview process. TAC : Remember to use the association's login for commenting, and that all contributions are up for grabs for quoting. Tim: Look forward to your questions, and resulting writing!

Below is an anonymous comment gleaned from CAMRU that I thought might add something to the conversation
click on image to see larger view.
x p

New members wrapping up CAMRU

I been thinking and I reckon we should think about inviting some new members to the group. Online is good but it would also be great to have some more peeps in welly. And I wonder whether we should just be quite open in who it is or select? And when we should start looking if we decide we do want to, cos what is our next project....what more do we want to do with the CAMRU info and would new people be interested in that or should we do collating etc ourselves and then invite new people to a new project?

My suggestions are that at the end of the show we do what we have done for the room sheets; ie document the responses and sort them into groups and condense them into an appropriate format. And then they could be made into a document or part of the kit or an online thing.

Then we look for new people who are interested in researching other collaborative structures, to move forward with the kit.

RE the kit; is this still something we want to do? Who do we think the audience is? How much information do we already have which we can use for it ? ( I think we have quite a lot and that we could use making the kit as a kind of debrief session which we had discussed before ie we could all write down what we think has worked well adn not so well in our group and this could start to form part of the kit.)

Personally I have to admit I am all about the art. I am not that interested in going to talk to other groups about thier structures. i am interested in collaboration in an art context and how it works in terms of authorship, ownership, how the magic still gets to happen which so often happens in solitary confinement of the studio........why collaboration is currently important / trendy / contemporary..............all that kind of stuff. Perhaps we would be able to look at areas which interest each of us?

But I do think we have a lot of info already which we haven't put down in terms of how the process has worked for us which we could start by using.

Hmm. What do others think?!

X S

City gallery publication

Hi huys,

Just read the gmail account and they wanna put our popcorn room sheet in the print publication. Sounds like a good plan to me...no cost to us; they will print. Everyone keen? Sounds like we all need to agree adn let them know ( as usual ) asap

X S

p.s. a few days later Liz logged into post and uploaded new roomsheet, above. Click to view at larger size - L

TAC reviews

hey guys
just thought since we're constantly re-evaluating our practice i'd cut and paste a comment from (din din din) artbash!

"My point about participants using language that is concise is an important one, for Bagnall's project has relational aspects. It is makes good sense that it is part of a partnership with Enjoy Public Gallery. CSC has similarities with the current work in Telecom Prospect by The Association of Collaboration, a seven person group linked to Enjoy that interacts with visitors to City Gallery. Again the problem is what is the desired result apart from touchy-feely vibes? Having visitors sticking little memo pad notes on the gallery wall is not a super smart method of encouraging sophisticated discourse. It is skimpy and shallow. There needs to be a lot more than fragmented and unfocussed chat for its own sake. If art is now 'post-production' and moving from 'goods' to 'services', those 'services' need to be thoroughly thought through in terms of the desired results. That is the problem for TAC and CSC."

http://www.artbash.co.nz/article.asp?id=982

maybe this is something we can discuss later

xxA

Interview Request

hey all, a place holder post for possible discussions re interest from Tim Wong in interviewing us for a piece he has been commisioned to write, on the theme of collaboration in the Prospect show.
Check out our email for all the info including full disclosure of the very directive brief he has been given to work off by the commisioner: elecom 'Mob' publication. It makes for an interesting study in the commercial and economic capital spin off of the ol creative process'. I'm confident Tim has got the skills to turn out an interesting piece of writing (based on reading several pieces he has written, you can check out his reader www.Lumier.net.nz to see for yourself) - and it would be great to have a thoughtful response to the relationship between our collaborative process' and the CAMRU work.
I am also wary of our project being championed as an illustration for the values of the evil coca cola bottling company - ah i mean, telecommunications magnate (it costs E.T. alot to phone home these days!). Having said that - we are going to be mentioned with or without our involvement and it could be a chance for us to get something productive out of the inclusion. As usual, we would be working with a truncated time-line...
I suggest to you guys that if we want to go ahead that Mr T. Wong could post a few questions onto the blog and we could let it unfold from there.
What do you think???

Collational activity

greetings all from merry chch,

thanks for feedback on 'negative response collation'. perhaps to avoid excessive negativity we could wait until the positive reponses have been collated from across the tasman and produce those in tandem?? this would perhaps create a better balance, and potentially get some good conversations going between the respondees (i'm making up words today).

also, i thought that the little blurb (in grey?) which was on sian and liz's collation could be transferred as a brief ending for all of the collations. it sounded quite universal i thought. how much longer does prospect even run for? i've lost track of time..........

and, um, other stuff.....HSP would love some pencils to sell down here! there is a little spot in the reading room which i would love to fill up with orangeness!!

also, just a little thing to think about. HSP is all about the off site projects this year. we even have a new position to coordinate these, and we are busy coming up with new and exiciting ideas. i realise we are all very busy, and thinking about lots of different projects. but i thought that this might be a great way to faciliate a TAC project in chch sometime in the future. whether it be talks, workshops, investigation of local art community, a publication, a discussion, perhaps even a collaboration toolkit!! i'm just planting the seed in all of your minds (speaking of seeds, one has to be careful of falling acorns in chch, they are quite sore on the old noodle!!)

hope you are all well, and miss you all heaps xxxx

A windy Sunday with the Baas

It was a windy Wellinton day and the trolley was about as queit as the sheep we were collecting feedback on. This was an unusual lul for what has been a very busy site of response and writing, folding, colouring and general productivity of some form or another - including inane shout-outs.
This led Sian and Paula to deduce that while the CAMRU certainly is a mobile unit, it is dependant on the gallery's supporting framework, context as place of quiet contempation to make it communicate to an audience and act out its own role within the Prospect show.

A weekend with the sheep for Mobile Response Unit

Hello TACers!
The Wellington crew have a big weekend ahead with Gregor Kregar's sheep out in Civic Square.
We''ll be there Sunday, eliciting thoughtful and crass feedback alike from 9.30am till 5.30pm...Sweating it out with the baa baas! Get your Welly pals to come visit us.

In the meanitme I emptied the trolley of its tac'ed on responses today to prepare for its sideways journey thru the front door of the City Gallery. I took some snaps as it was looking so amazing and i was sad to de-nude it. : ) p

Question Ideas & Meeting Minutes - 29/3/07

The upshot of the meeting was back to Collaborative Kit research, starting by formulating some questions to ask those interested and involved in collaborative processes. This is intended to give us a better idea of potential content and an understanding of who might use a resource on collaborative processes. See comments for partially edited meeting minutes where we threw these ideas around and as a repositary for your contributions & question ideas.
And after a frustrating attempt to chat between 5 people in googleland it's back to the drawing board on how to talk online!
- LIz

I CAN BE A SATELLITE

Dear TAC.

I am the person in question, the subtext in Andy’s post regarding Next Wave festival 2008 in Melbourne, later revealed by Paula as Jessie (Borrelle). I guess they can vouch for me. I am part of a unit-type-thing Poloni & Borrelle in Melbourne, a curatorial collaboration currently working on a show called ‘Shrine on! You crazy diamond’. It’s a group show at the Platform Group in the city of Melbourne that invited artist to make a shrine around the idea of 'Unusual wealth in unusual places'. Poloni & Borrelle also wrangled a proposal for NW that will offer a tea service and conversation to audiences at NW. It’s quite a kitsch enterprise that may operate using anachronistic and gendered performances (i.e. we shall dress like 1950’s air hostesses). So methinks it is different to TAC in that it isn’t especially analytical or critical necessary so

Andy and I talked about how it would be interesting to make a kind of switchboard for NZ & OZ artists/writers/curators, as I (as Liz did say!) have a wee crush on Romance formats and I have been vaguely harbouring an Art Dating Service of sorts idea for a while. But don’t get me wrong, the idea is not an in-house hook up for artists, not real saucy dates (unless that’s part of your practice) but a project that uses the format of a dating service.

I like Andies mention of an approachable booth with files, and the person manning the booth acting as an intermediary by having a system that allows Oz Artists (etc) to show interest in extant NZ artists using a dating device such as an E-card or something? As Andy said this could then use internet without overwhelming the material interface, and references the Closer Together theme -quite bang on.

I can be pretty sloppy and tacky when it comes to art so I’d be careful about having me in a reputable group like TAC. Also I get quite busy so may not be able to pow-wow online etc post and what-not that often, but really - I’d love to be part of the Diaspora and see what happens to this switchboard idea in a collaborative process.

Next Wave Proposal

Sorry for the delay guys I've got a whopping 3000 word essay due at the moment on the scintillating topic of Arts Policy in Australia. But I've had a few conversations about TAC and how we might approach the Next wave brief and have come up with some ideas (not all my own) that I thought I might put out there and see what you think...

as TAC we stand for:
-collaboration
-audience interaction/participation
-questioning of frameworks (collaborative and institutional)

The Next wave brief alludes to:
-globalization (media driven?)
- the break down of public and private

eg.'The collapse of the private sphere into the public and the increasing tendency to live out our personal lives in very impersonal arenas'- A big part of globalization and the inherent blurring of public and private is the increasing number of interactions-whether mediated or face to face. YAC examines what potential these interactions have for critical, democratic or productive dialogue + exchange.

Drawing on genres of realityshows (global media phenomenon) and big screens at sports events (public/private) TAC members interview Next Wave audiences and employees asking TAc art-type questions. These interactions are filmed digitally and films are displayed at Next Wave and maybe globally online.

As well as continuing TACs practice from PROSPECT, the turning of these exchanges into public artworks addresses the breakdown of public/private spheres etc.

TAC questions,
-are people open and genuine in their responses, or fake/shy etc?
-does mediating lead to genuine production exchange or do people see this an an invasion of privacy etc?

Putting how people respond to art under the lense may give an interesting picture of how it all works.

ALTERNATIVELY we could document the audience of Next Wave by taking their photo (polaroids?) and ask them to write their response to the exhibition/event they have just attended at the base of the photo, set up as some kind of central station area with a pinboard or something. Kind of Vox-Pop-like. Not as true to the 'process' as video but less maintenance for us.

ANOTHER IDEA
is that we collaborate with another Next Wave contender.Perhaps even invite them to join the collaboration? She is a long time reader of our blog and curator of sister cities- which is quite fitting- i am wary about spilling her proposal online, perhaps if she's reading this she might post it in a comment herself? She's based in melbourne of course, which would be hugely helpful if we were to collaborate. her next wave proposal has been conspired in partnership so she needs to discuss the possibility of colllaborating with us with her co-proposer first. Because the next wave brief talks of technology etc their work is more domestic and personable which i think will be refreshing. Actually providing refreshments at the various next wave events/exhibits makes up a good part of the form and function of their work. i think there is a little bit of an overlap between our practice and theirs which would make it an ideal collaboration.

OR....?
an idea-posed by the aforementioned contender, might be to set up an art and artists dating service?! kind of like a switchboard between melbourne and wellington, with profiles on different artists. maybe it could be a way to connect artists with curators and vice-versa? I envisage this to be played out in a booth using one of those old library catalogue systems, with the little drawers. perhaps we could profile 10 nz artists and 10 australian artists and invite those interested to contact us with their tastes and interests, then match em' up. The development of their correspondence is not our concern.

This could also lead to more contacts for us to draw from in future projects for TAC?

The deadline for next wave is FRIDAY the 30th of MARCH! that's just over a week away!!!

I'm confident we can whip something up if we can make a consensual decision in time. failing that, maybe we could hook up a sattelite show. Maybe we decide we dont want to work within the confines of the institution afterall-or whatever it was that was criticised about us in the Listener?

Looking forward to your comments!
xxA

-

Where for art thou?

TAC hits paydirt with pencil profits!!

Dear public:
To own your own 'People's Pencil' designed by TAC - as modelled by 'Paula' - please visit City Galley in Civic Square, Wellington, NZ and talk to a nice counter assistant to see our full range of merhandise. Prices start at just NZ$5






That is right folks, we've offically sold 40 pencils at the City Gallery Prospect Multiple Cabinets netting a total of $134.
Woo hoo..another 40 pencils and well be out of the black and into real profit!!

Meeting & CAMRU visit & Flowcharts

Draft version of responses about CAMRU collated into a flowchart. Click to view at readable size.

(Bad photo of) drawing of proposed outpost additions.


Collaborators reading & harvesting the first round of responses for roomsheets.


One example of the conversations that sprout up on the Contemporary Art Mobile Response Unit.


An audible silent response.


Self authored info panel.


Hi all,
we had a power meeting this morning with just 1 hour and the three of us available: Sian, Paula and myself (Liz).
It focused on three main things:

*How to modify the outposts so they can function better as a display for the responses generated in their respective galleries (with view to keeping the responses site specific). We now pose to you that: wires are attatched to the outposts and the mini bulldog clips we are using on the wall down stairs are attatched to the end of the wires for attatching the resposes. Concrete cinder blocks are also suggested - strapped on with the kind of blue tape you see around bundles of newspapers - for raising the height of the outposts - logic - temporary/functional/building site.
We want to get this done ASAP so please lodge your opinions now!!!

*Catalogue inserts: we had a chat about this but Paula has made a posting about it already, so see below: 'what to do with written feedback - catalogue' for that discussion. Additional comments included "that would be like slipping someone a note" and "nice and random".

*Managing distance: how can Andie, Mel and soon Tom contribute to the creative decision making process from their ends and avoid being relegated to the function of 'rubber stamping' decisions that Wellington members make?
We talked about the time-delay involved in making decisions (see above) and discussed the possibility of making calls for the group in peoples absence: when is this appropriate and when is this not? and the need for members to initiate potential new ideas for current and new projects from their end: see Andie's new post below for pre-emptive movement on that front!!

THEN:

We went next door to the city gallery and took away all of the responses (off the wall and the trolley) that had been around for a while (with help from an attentive gallery host) and Sian now has them to document. Since that meeting I have contacted Tom and Mel, fielded their (positive) reactions to the alternative roomsheet idea. We should be on task to collate responses into seperate piles for each work, and send them out to all us talented writers to collate compile and draft up an incorporative collective take on an alternative room sheet for situating next to Heather's.
This is going to be a creative challenge i rekon, so lets share methodologies in a similar way to the process we went through when making the flowcharts.

xxliz

Closer Together

hello!

I just got an email about next wave 2008, which is well a whole year awaybut got me thinking about the possibility of our involvement given the theme which is CLOSER TOGETHER, here look i'll cut and paste the info for ya..

-------------

"Applications are now open for the 2008 Next Wave Festival!

We are calling for proposals from projects across artforms, to be a part of the 2008 Next Wave Festival program, which respond to the festival theme, Closer Together.

Applications are due on FRIDAY 30 MARCH 2007 at 5pm.

Further information and application forms can be downloaded from Next Wave's website at www.nextwave.org.au . Alternatively, email nextwave @ nextwave.org.au or call the Next Wave office on 03 9329 9422.


ABOUT NEXT WAVE

Next Wave is a biennial festival dedicated to developing and presenting innovative work by Australia's most interesting young artists. Next Wave supports the creation and presentation of new work across all artform areas including visual arts, performance, dance, new media, literature, hybrid projects and beyond, pushing the boundaries of traditional media and encouraging connections between diverse artforms and disciplines. Established in 1984, Next Wave encourages artists to undertake ambitious new projects, to experiment and engage with new ideas, and develop new skills and networks. Next Wave is also dedicated to exploring different contexts for contemporary arts practice, activating unconventional spaces for exchange between artists and audiences.

The 2008 Next Wave Festival will take place in May 2008, with exact dates to be confirmed in the coming months.

2008 NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL THEME
CLOSER TOGETHER

The rhetoric of global culture tells us that we are being brought closer and closer together. By media, communication technologies, the free market and other snappy buzzwords which signify somewhat less transparent systems. But how close are we, and how much do we really know about each other?

The 2008 Next Wave Festival will explore new ideas of closeness and its conflicted nature: as a catalyst for connectedness, community and exchange, but also of claustrophobia, confrontation and invasion. The collapse of the private sphere into the public and the increasing tendency to live out our personal lives in very impersonal arenas. The demise of public space, as a concept and a reality...where is the space for vulnerability, intimacy, privacy and exchange in an increasingly globalised world? What is the potential for genuine, unexpected connections, and what might they look like?"

--------

it's true that we are not australian artists as this brief seems to be targeting, there is also a condition that the festival also favours artists 25 and under, or at least prefer a portion of artists to be 25 or under, I'll still be under 25 by then, and Tom too out of our lot which could pose a problem but maybe the content of our work might override this....
just thought I'd put this to you all as I thought our practice could work with this framework quite nicely in regards to blogging, the way our work demands interaction, participation and engagement and human connections/collaboration etc

let me know what you think, perhaps we could put together some kind of proposal if you're interested,

Andie