BIO
Collaboration is the answer but what is the question? 1
The Association of Collaboration (TAC) is an art project currently consisting of seven participants who meet on a regular basis to practice and critically discuss collaborative processes and frameworks. Current members were initially recruited through an artwork established by an open call for involvement. A number of these participants recombined to begin TAC’s ongoing collaborative experiment through the forum of Every Now and Then, a show designed to investigate relational practices at artist-run initiative Enjoy in late 2006.
Challenging the potential of a ‘creative democracy’, the Association seeks to develop their skills with regards to the collaborative process and consensus-based 2 decision making.
The Association of Collaboration is an ongoing experimentation that attempts to distill and explain collaborative models for others to make use of. To find out more about our processes you could visit http://www.theassociationofcollaboration.blogspot.com
1 Hans Ulrich Obrist, Cited in Hal Foster, ‘Chat Rooms’ (2004)
2 “Consensus involves the complete exploration of a particular situation with the recognition that there are going to be conflicting points of view, and that it is important that these come into the open during this process. These differences are not resolved just because a decision is reached. Individuals who are not in agreement with the “majority” perspective do not just give up their differences and comply with the majority […] It mean[s] that everyone has been involved in the process, and that every one agrees to test a particular outcome for its workability.”
Blurb on Work
Do you avoid asking questions about contemporary art for fear of seeming ignorant? Are you choked up and jittery when asked for feedback from an artist? Do you avoid eye contact with gallery hosts?
TAC helps you to help yourself.
Contemporary Art Mobile Response Unit oranges up a rally cry for the audience to join TAC and the trolley volunteers in the common cause of enriching our collective Prospect art experiences.
The Unit aims to provide an open, interactive alternative to the curatorial voice. The work’s primary function is an attempted intervention in the gulf between art and its audiences, a complication and analysis of **** roles. With participation and critique at its core, it offers a forum for animated conversation, provoking interrogation of meaning and response.
By providing interpretive models that are suggestive rather than prescriptive, The Association of Collaboration (TAC) has designed ’Mobile Response Unit to encourage visitors, providing thinking tools and opening the passage of communication around contemporary art. The unit establishes an opportunity to share a critical response, to clarify and challenge.
’Mobile Response Unit is an expression of a stage in the journey TAC is making to explore useful and operational models of collaboration. The trolley is the first product of TAC’s collective process, hopefully building an auxiliary curatorial voice and challenging notions of individual authorship. Audience participation (input) will widen the scope of the collaboration.
YOU, the public as a potential collaborator…
Join in and make this a zesty collaborative experience!
Perhaps prompted by our festive flow charts? Or by adding thoughts you’d like to share…
Do you like a work just because it’s blue/tiny/shiny…?
Does it make you happy/sad/angry…?
Sharing is caring :-)
Love, The Association.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Final Draft Go
BIO
Collaboration is the answer but what is the question? 1
The Association of Collaboration (TAC) is an art project currently consisting of seven participants who meet on a regular basis to practice and critically discuss collaborative processes and frameworks. Current members were initially recruited through an artwork established by an open call for involvement. A number of these participants recombined to begin TAC’s ongoing collaborative experiment through the forum of Every Now and Then, a show designed to investigate relational practices at artist-run initiative Enjoy in late 2006.
Challenging the potential of a ‘creative democracy’, the Association seeks to develop their skills with regards to the collaborative process and consensus-based 2 decision making.
The Association of Collaboration is an ongoing experimentation that attempts to distill and explain collaborative models for others to make use of. To find out more about our processes you could visit http://www.theassociationofcollaboration.blogspot.com
1 Hans Ulrich Obrist, Cited in Hal Foster, ‘Chat Rooms’ (2004)
2 “Consensus involves the complete exploration of a particular situation with the recognition that there are going to be conflicting points of view, and that it is important that these come into the open during this process. These differences are not resolved just because a decision is reached. Individuals who are not in agreement with the “majority” perspective do not just give up their differences and comply with the majority […] It mean[s] that everyone has been involved in the process, and that every one agrees to test a particular outcome for its workability.”
Blurb on Work
Do you avoid asking questions about contemporary art for fear of seeming ignorant? Are you choked up and jittery when asked for feedback from an artist? Do you avoid eye contact with gallery hosts?
TAC helps you to help yourself.
Contemporary Art Mobile Response Unit oranges up a rally cry for the audience to join TAC and the trolley volunteers in the common cause of enriching our collective Prospect art experiences.
The Unit aims to provide an open, interactive alternative to the curatorial voice. The work’s primary function is an attempted intervention in the gulf between art and its audiences, a complication and analysis of **** roles. With participation and critique at its core, it offers a forum for animated conversation, provoking interrogation of meaning and response.
By providing interpretive models that are suggestive rather than prescriptive, The Association of Collaboration (TAC) has designed ’Mobile Response Unit to encourage visitors, providing thinking tools and opening the passage of communication around contemporary art. The unit establishes an opportunity to share a critical response, to clarify and challenge.
’Mobile Response Unit is an expression of a stage in the journey TAC is making to explore useful and operational models of collaboration. The trolley is the first product of TAC’s collective process, hopefully building an auxiliary curatorial voice and challenging notions of individual authorship. Audience participation (input) will widen the scope of the collaboration.
YOU, the public as a potential collaborator…
Join in and make this a zesty collaborative experience!
Perhaps prompted by our festive flow charts? Or by adding thoughts you’d like to share…
Do you like a work just because it’s blue/tiny/shiny…?
Does it make you happy/sad/angry…?
Sharing is caring :-)
Love, The Association.
Collaboration is the answer but what is the question? 1
The Association of Collaboration (TAC) is an art project currently consisting of seven participants who meet on a regular basis to practice and critically discuss collaborative processes and frameworks. Current members were initially recruited through an artwork established by an open call for involvement. A number of these participants recombined to begin TAC’s ongoing collaborative experiment through the forum of Every Now and Then, a show designed to investigate relational practices at artist-run initiative Enjoy in late 2006.
Challenging the potential of a ‘creative democracy’, the Association seeks to develop their skills with regards to the collaborative process and consensus-based 2 decision making.
The Association of Collaboration is an ongoing experimentation that attempts to distill and explain collaborative models for others to make use of. To find out more about our processes you could visit http://www.theassociationofcollaboration.blogspot.com
1 Hans Ulrich Obrist, Cited in Hal Foster, ‘Chat Rooms’ (2004)
2 “Consensus involves the complete exploration of a particular situation with the recognition that there are going to be conflicting points of view, and that it is important that these come into the open during this process. These differences are not resolved just because a decision is reached. Individuals who are not in agreement with the “majority” perspective do not just give up their differences and comply with the majority […] It mean[s] that everyone has been involved in the process, and that every one agrees to test a particular outcome for its workability.”
Blurb on Work
Do you avoid asking questions about contemporary art for fear of seeming ignorant? Are you choked up and jittery when asked for feedback from an artist? Do you avoid eye contact with gallery hosts?
TAC helps you to help yourself.
Contemporary Art Mobile Response Unit oranges up a rally cry for the audience to join TAC and the trolley volunteers in the common cause of enriching our collective Prospect art experiences.
The Unit aims to provide an open, interactive alternative to the curatorial voice. The work’s primary function is an attempted intervention in the gulf between art and its audiences, a complication and analysis of **** roles. With participation and critique at its core, it offers a forum for animated conversation, provoking interrogation of meaning and response.
By providing interpretive models that are suggestive rather than prescriptive, The Association of Collaboration (TAC) has designed ’Mobile Response Unit to encourage visitors, providing thinking tools and opening the passage of communication around contemporary art. The unit establishes an opportunity to share a critical response, to clarify and challenge.
’Mobile Response Unit is an expression of a stage in the journey TAC is making to explore useful and operational models of collaboration. The trolley is the first product of TAC’s collective process, hopefully building an auxiliary curatorial voice and challenging notions of individual authorship. Audience participation (input) will widen the scope of the collaboration.
YOU, the public as a potential collaborator…
Join in and make this a zesty collaborative experience!
Perhaps prompted by our festive flow charts? Or by adding thoughts you’d like to share…
Do you like a work just because it’s blue/tiny/shiny…?
Does it make you happy/sad/angry…?
Sharing is caring :-)
Love, The Association.
Documenting processes and writers
Coupla things, one is just to comment that I reckon LIz's idea about documenting some of the processes we have used would be a great idea. Any ideas on how this might be do able? Obviously there is consensus, and then there is our ad hoc kind of everyone makes lots of comments on a thing and then we pull out words or phrases which we think expresses what we are trying to say. Collective writing?
Also, during Prospects there will be a writers thing where writers have been invited to read for 5mins each either an existing work or a work in response to the show. A friend of mine, Therese Lloyd told me about it, adn I suggested that she might like to come and check out the trolly as an artwork which will hopefully have some writing happening too. I thought it might be worth seeing if we can contact the writers involved to let them know what we are about and see if there are any ways we want to work together / collaborate / have them respond to us / just let them know we exist.........could be interesting.
Also, during Prospects there will be a writers thing where writers have been invited to read for 5mins each either an existing work or a work in response to the show. A friend of mine, Therese Lloyd told me about it, adn I suggested that she might like to come and check out the trolly as an artwork which will hopefully have some writing happening too. I thought it might be worth seeing if we can contact the writers involved to let them know what we are about and see if there are any ways we want to work together / collaborate / have them respond to us / just let them know we exist.........could be interesting.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Criticality in Curating and Writing
Hi folks
An essay The Great Curatorial Dim-Out
by Lawrence Alloway in Thinking About Exhibitions has got me thinking about the role of the trolley - Contmporary Art Mobile Response Unit, and how it has an intereractive and educative purpose within the wider construct of the curated survey Prospect 2007. I found the excert below especially relevant thinking about Response Unit's alternative to the 'curatorial voice'.
Here's a quote
"Assuming there is an academic ideal, it can be expressed as knowledge. Clearly museums are ontinuous with universirties in the aim of training our investigative capacity and increasing self-knowledge...Curators, instead of maintaining intellectual independace which can be equated with cultural responsibility have allowed decisions to slide from their hands to others...There has been a failure of eduation in museums. This can be seen in the way they habitualy restrict the term, so that "education" has come to mean the complex of school visits, gallery guides, lectures & other community services - all peripheral to the collection and exhibitions...The curators often supply some cues and notes... but as an additional chore, not as a central activity. Actually the key educative acts are the presentation and interpretation of art both in the exhibition and catalogue..."
And in terms of catalogue essays, I found a writer who can tell me what they're for!
Ibid
"A museum catalogue in not for puffing and it is not for amatuer aesthetics. It is useful if it contains verifiable biographical, stylistic, comparative or social information in an easily consultable form. Analysis, which is not the enemy of cordiality or passion, is what is needed."
Whether y'all agree with Alloway or not, I think they are really good points to keep in mind when preparing our catalogue text.
x Paula
An essay The Great Curatorial Dim-Out
by Lawrence Alloway in Thinking About Exhibitions has got me thinking about the role of the trolley - Contmporary Art Mobile Response Unit, and how it has an intereractive and educative purpose within the wider construct of the curated survey Prospect 2007. I found the excert below especially relevant thinking about Response Unit's alternative to the 'curatorial voice'.
Here's a quote
"Assuming there is an academic ideal, it can be expressed as knowledge. Clearly museums are ontinuous with universirties in the aim of training our investigative capacity and increasing self-knowledge...Curators, instead of maintaining intellectual independace which can be equated with cultural responsibility have allowed decisions to slide from their hands to others...There has been a failure of eduation in museums. This can be seen in the way they habitualy restrict the term, so that "education" has come to mean the complex of school visits, gallery guides, lectures & other community services - all peripheral to the collection and exhibitions...The curators often supply some cues and notes... but as an additional chore, not as a central activity. Actually the key educative acts are the presentation and interpretation of art both in the exhibition and catalogue..."
And in terms of catalogue essays, I found a writer who can tell me what they're for!
Ibid
"A museum catalogue in not for puffing and it is not for amatuer aesthetics. It is useful if it contains verifiable biographical, stylistic, comparative or social information in an easily consultable form. Analysis, which is not the enemy of cordiality or passion, is what is needed."
Whether y'all agree with Alloway or not, I think they are really good points to keep in mind when preparing our catalogue text.
x Paula
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Prospect Catalogue Writing
Sarah Farrah contacted us yesterday to discuss the piece of writing on our work that is to be included in the Prospect catalogue and website.
She has offered to write a piece herself but also wondered whether we would prefer to write our own, in the spirit of continuing our presence as an alternative to a curatorial voice.
The writing is 250 -300 words in length and is due tomorrow (!!!)
Update:
Jury is in, we all agree that writing our own piece for the catalogue is a great idea (haven't heard from alex but am assuming from this that she is happy to go with consensus also considering she is most likely working her ass off in film land right now)
Sarah has kindly given us till late sat arvo to come up with something;
see comments below for our email reply to Sarah
please use comments below to feed into the content of this writing, noting that we will also need a re-written slimmed down (100) bio to include below the catalogue writing also.
She has offered to write a piece herself but also wondered whether we would prefer to write our own, in the spirit of continuing our presence as an alternative to a curatorial voice.
The writing is 250 -300 words in length and is due tomorrow (!!!)
Update:
Jury is in, we all agree that writing our own piece for the catalogue is a great idea (haven't heard from alex but am assuming from this that she is happy to go with consensus also considering she is most likely working her ass off in film land right now)
Sarah has kindly given us till late sat arvo to come up with something;
see comments below for our email reply to Sarah
please use comments below to feed into the content of this writing, noting that we will also need a re-written slimmed down (100) bio to include below the catalogue writing also.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Welcome hosts and volunteers to TAC blog
Thanks for your interest in the Contemporary Art Mobile Response Unit. Special thanks to the City Gallery hosts that turned up on Tuesday to hear about our project to date, we appreciated your feedback and questions and are keen to keep in touch with any continuing thoughts, questions and suggestions you might have. This post has been set up as a place for continuing discussion so please feel free to make comments below...
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Images of unfinished trolley unit/lift height
Here's some pics of the trolley under construction at Nae Nae in Tyree's workshop.
The bottom photo shows the trolley awaiting City Gallery pickup truck a few days after the images above it were taken.
Phew! The trolley will fit in the lift!
It's taller than 2.2metres I'm sure of it.
(wo)manning
hey guys
i really like the idea of creating a little write up for the hosts to read and use when it comes to (wo)manning the trolley in our absence. maybe it could say:
-who we are and what we want to achieve
-ways in which people can use the trolley
-ways in which is might make their job more interesting
-ways in which the trolley can be used by the old and the young alike
-encourage them to take the trolley for a spin....
i guess this might be redundant if all the hosts come to the meetings. but the show does run for 11 weeks and it may be useful to have reminders in order to increase the efficacy of the trolley/project in general?
i also thought that this could be quite tongue in cheek and hopefully the hosts would feel like it is their perogative to have some fun with the trolley, to mix it up on a dull sunday afternoon.?!?
i really like the idea of creating a little write up for the hosts to read and use when it comes to (wo)manning the trolley in our absence. maybe it could say:
-who we are and what we want to achieve
-ways in which people can use the trolley
-ways in which is might make their job more interesting
-ways in which the trolley can be used by the old and the young alike
-encourage them to take the trolley for a spin....
i guess this might be redundant if all the hosts come to the meetings. but the show does run for 11 weeks and it may be useful to have reminders in order to increase the efficacy of the trolley/project in general?
i also thought that this could be quite tongue in cheek and hopefully the hosts would feel like it is their perogative to have some fun with the trolley, to mix it up on a dull sunday afternoon.?!?
TAC apologises! The NEW 'how to' communicate with Prospect curators.
please visit our gmail account to check up on the recent communications with Heather and Sarah
Many apologies to Heather and Sarah whose communication we have been posting without their awareness or permission!!!!
Apologies to the artists whose unconfirmed works have been mentioned also.
Many apologies to Heather and Sarah whose communication we have been posting without their awareness or permission!!!!
Apologies to the artists whose unconfirmed works have been mentioned also.
Meeting with hosts
Hi TAC, there was an email here from Heather, but now the post has been removed out of respect for its intention as private communication. See gmail account for original correspondence. See below this for comments on the original post though.
Meeting Minutes - 15/1/07
Finished minutes for meeting on Monday 15th Jan
Adgenda whip - Tom
Notes – Liz
Catering – Paula, Liz and Roar
Adgenda:
- Wallspace: need and purpose
- Hosts: how to bring them on board
- (Wo)manning the trolley
- Acknowledging Tyree and self identification
- Entitling the trolley
- Trolley update
- One liner pencils
- 100 words
- Flowcharts
- Thursday night working bee and meeting
- Materials budget
- Turning the criticality on ourselves
Alex sent her apologies, general comiserations: Paula will keep in contact, update & refer to blog.
Wallspace: need and purpose.
Decided that yes, we do need wallspace for collating and displaying audience feedback notes. General discussion on how audience would be encouraged to write their responses on notes: Tac to start the activity (lead by example), more ‘examples’ created fresh each day by gallery hosts, favourite past responses recycled and positioned around the gallery on audience barrier floor markings (don’t cross the line, be well mannered but active in distribution).
Hosts: how to bring them on board.
Andie to ‘drip feed’ info to the city gallery hosts about tac and the project as a way of cueing them into the concerns in manageable chunks . We decided it was important to contact hosts personally as soon as we could put together a good description of the aims and concerns of the project. We decided the best way to do this was a meeting with the hosts in the board room, tac supplying food (each bringing a plate), on Tuesday the 23rd – 5 or 5.45 – to confirm. Andie to check with Heather and email hosts in reciept of go – ahead.
Although there was some suggestion we could tack (!) ourselves onto the end of the walkthrough it was generally agreed that the distinction between hosts turning up because they are required to (walkthrough) versus because they are interested (tac meeting) would provide a way to differentiate those who are (personally) interested from those who are not. A separate meeting would also provide a distinction between the standard institutional blurbage and our intentionally more critical venture.
(Wo)manning the trolley;
It was agreed that we would all be present for the first weekend of Prospect, hanging around the trolley, painting our nails and getting the critical responses off to a healthy start. We discussed what other ‘high traffic’ times there might be, such as weekends in general and the symposium weekend in particular, and decided to arrange for a member of tac to be present during these times. Mel to post symposia timetable on the blog. Tom to make availability diary for filling out at next meeting.
It was noted that we were waiting to hear back from Heather re the stationing of a host in the west wing and their possible facilitation of the trolley.
Acknowledging Tyree and self identification;
We talked about Tyree’s request to have her labour and skills acknowledged, which opened up some questions about how Tac wanted to acknowlege ourselves (and the distinction between fabrication, construction and cabinet making). It turned out that there was a discrepancy in the groups perception, some thinking that Tac was going to remain anonymous and others thinking that we were going to identify (name) ourselves. We talked about what it would mean to be anonymous, agreed that anonymity wasn’t an important goal to persue and that we (and our work) would operate with more disgression by us remaining identified. We compared this choice to the that of the et al collective, and discussed how direct comparisons would be drawn between our choices because of the curatorial neighbouring of our two works. Mel described this difference, rather eloquently, as ‘many attempting to be one rather than one attempting to be many’ and we all ohhed and aaahhhed at her. We decided to make a flowchart comparing our work to et al’s and add it to the trolley.
Through that discussion we, somehow, arrived at the decision to acknowledge Tyree for construction (her pick) and Tac: [list of our names] for conceptualisation.
Entitling the trolley;
We debated the current idea: Contemporary Art Mobile Response Unit. General positive response, Melanie suggested dropping contemporary art and Liz (ah - I) said I liked it because it comedically connoted an emergency service like the police or ambulance. We decided to take it home and try it out on our friends.
Trolley update;
We updated Andie on the changes to the trolley, namely the stripey canvas instead of the umberella. We were concerned the umberella was making a suggestion that the audience needed some kind of shelter and protection from the scary art exhibition, and felt the canvas was more like a stall, more festive. We also covered our decision against a banner because of the desire to be more suggestive and less prescriptive.
One liner pencils;
We decided on printing pencils with slogans on them to sell in the multiples cabinet. Slogan ideas included;
- have you tookin a lookin?
- language at me
- Fear no Art
- TAC it on
- try not trying so hard
100 words;
We checked out the draft on the blog – thanks Andie- and worked through a few concerns including:
- the aim to expose & challenge the limitations of the institutional framework rather than the curatorial voice or the format of prospect shows
- the provision of an environment (physical and social) where people will feel comfortable and open about sharing their responses
- the desire to provide a means for audience responses to be physically present alongside the standard curatorial narrative and develop into a conversation between many voices
- a chance for this conversation to potentially widen the scope and diversity of comprehension
- the provision of a place to pause, sit and be
We made some headway but decided it would be faster to work independantly and blog it. Cut off for contributions and feedback is 10pm on Wednesday night after which Paula to edit and Andie to pin on hosts notice board.
Flowcharts;
We did a check in on how everyone was feeling about the progress of their flowcharts. General agreement that seeing everyone elses attempts, with their different approaches, content and designs was very helpful and would make subsequent flowchart making easier. We talked about the success of;
- using phrases like yuk! Relax! Try not trying so hard! as a good way of lightening the tone and taking people out of themselves
- andies design layout for its comprehension
- leaving gaps for the audience to fill in their individual responses
It was decided that we would stick to the origional plan to include one flowchart from each tac member so that the diversity of design and conceptual formats could be represented.
Thursday night working bee and meeting;
To be held at the boxing church workshop Thursday night. From 6pm. Sian mentioned there were lots of great fish and chip shops in Naenae for getting dinner at. General appreciation of Tyree’s discovery of the trolley width versus door width. Sian to spray canvas for Paula to carefully craft canopy stripes.
Materials budget;
($400) needs to cover:
laminator (Melanie to research)
uphostery pins
pencils (Melanie to research)
ribbons & pins
coffee grinder (Tyree koha)
Bunnings materials ($104.51 on Liz’s credit card)
Paint ($34-8[?] on Melanies credit card)
Turning the criticality on ourselves;
Sian talked about the importance of keeping in mind the origional aims of TAC – to be self critical of the means and processes of our collaborative activities. She suggested we document our beginning, developments and current processes and create an archive of them. General agreement and interest in making a folder with the history of the association and further reading in it for potential inclusion on the trolley. No decision on who to action this (!)
Liz (me again) suggested the need for a document stating the values of TAC, the functions of the members and an auto biographical statement on our individual contributions which could be supplemented by other members. Sian exampled her boss’s habit of writing something like ‘I will always believe wholeheartedly in what I say until I change my mind later’ on the board during meetings as a possible value.
Melanie talked about her desire to keep some information (such as this ‘internal admin’) closed to public access to provide an intrigue factor and we decided to keep the autobiographical discussion (and potentially our values and member functions? Mel can you clarify?) within an email only circulation.
Phew! I hope that’s covered everything, I rekon this meeting went really well, we kept to time thanks to our nights whip Tom, and the adgenda was completed almost within our 2 hour timeframe aim. Yeah!!!
Adgenda whip - Tom
Notes – Liz
Catering – Paula, Liz and Roar
Adgenda:
- Wallspace: need and purpose
- Hosts: how to bring them on board
- (Wo)manning the trolley
- Acknowledging Tyree and self identification
- Entitling the trolley
- Trolley update
- One liner pencils
- 100 words
- Flowcharts
- Thursday night working bee and meeting
- Materials budget
- Turning the criticality on ourselves
Alex sent her apologies, general comiserations: Paula will keep in contact, update & refer to blog.
Wallspace: need and purpose.
Decided that yes, we do need wallspace for collating and displaying audience feedback notes. General discussion on how audience would be encouraged to write their responses on notes: Tac to start the activity (lead by example), more ‘examples’ created fresh each day by gallery hosts, favourite past responses recycled and positioned around the gallery on audience barrier floor markings (don’t cross the line, be well mannered but active in distribution).
Hosts: how to bring them on board.
Andie to ‘drip feed’ info to the city gallery hosts about tac and the project as a way of cueing them into the concerns in manageable chunks . We decided it was important to contact hosts personally as soon as we could put together a good description of the aims and concerns of the project. We decided the best way to do this was a meeting with the hosts in the board room, tac supplying food (each bringing a plate), on Tuesday the 23rd – 5 or 5.45 – to confirm. Andie to check with Heather and email hosts in reciept of go – ahead.
Although there was some suggestion we could tack (!) ourselves onto the end of the walkthrough it was generally agreed that the distinction between hosts turning up because they are required to (walkthrough) versus because they are interested (tac meeting) would provide a way to differentiate those who are (personally) interested from those who are not. A separate meeting would also provide a distinction between the standard institutional blurbage and our intentionally more critical venture.
(Wo)manning the trolley;
It was agreed that we would all be present for the first weekend of Prospect, hanging around the trolley, painting our nails and getting the critical responses off to a healthy start. We discussed what other ‘high traffic’ times there might be, such as weekends in general and the symposium weekend in particular, and decided to arrange for a member of tac to be present during these times. Mel to post symposia timetable on the blog. Tom to make availability diary for filling out at next meeting.
It was noted that we were waiting to hear back from Heather re the stationing of a host in the west wing and their possible facilitation of the trolley.
Acknowledging Tyree and self identification;
We talked about Tyree’s request to have her labour and skills acknowledged, which opened up some questions about how Tac wanted to acknowlege ourselves (and the distinction between fabrication, construction and cabinet making). It turned out that there was a discrepancy in the groups perception, some thinking that Tac was going to remain anonymous and others thinking that we were going to identify (name) ourselves. We talked about what it would mean to be anonymous, agreed that anonymity wasn’t an important goal to persue and that we (and our work) would operate with more disgression by us remaining identified. We compared this choice to the that of the et al collective, and discussed how direct comparisons would be drawn between our choices because of the curatorial neighbouring of our two works. Mel described this difference, rather eloquently, as ‘many attempting to be one rather than one attempting to be many’ and we all ohhed and aaahhhed at her. We decided to make a flowchart comparing our work to et al’s and add it to the trolley.
Through that discussion we, somehow, arrived at the decision to acknowledge Tyree for construction (her pick) and Tac: [list of our names] for conceptualisation.
Entitling the trolley;
We debated the current idea: Contemporary Art Mobile Response Unit. General positive response, Melanie suggested dropping contemporary art and Liz (ah - I) said I liked it because it comedically connoted an emergency service like the police or ambulance. We decided to take it home and try it out on our friends.
Trolley update;
We updated Andie on the changes to the trolley, namely the stripey canvas instead of the umberella. We were concerned the umberella was making a suggestion that the audience needed some kind of shelter and protection from the scary art exhibition, and felt the canvas was more like a stall, more festive. We also covered our decision against a banner because of the desire to be more suggestive and less prescriptive.
One liner pencils;
We decided on printing pencils with slogans on them to sell in the multiples cabinet. Slogan ideas included;
- have you tookin a lookin?
- language at me
- Fear no Art
- TAC it on
- try not trying so hard
100 words;
We checked out the draft on the blog – thanks Andie- and worked through a few concerns including:
- the aim to expose & challenge the limitations of the institutional framework rather than the curatorial voice or the format of prospect shows
- the provision of an environment (physical and social) where people will feel comfortable and open about sharing their responses
- the desire to provide a means for audience responses to be physically present alongside the standard curatorial narrative and develop into a conversation between many voices
- a chance for this conversation to potentially widen the scope and diversity of comprehension
- the provision of a place to pause, sit and be
We made some headway but decided it would be faster to work independantly and blog it. Cut off for contributions and feedback is 10pm on Wednesday night after which Paula to edit and Andie to pin on hosts notice board.
Flowcharts;
We did a check in on how everyone was feeling about the progress of their flowcharts. General agreement that seeing everyone elses attempts, with their different approaches, content and designs was very helpful and would make subsequent flowchart making easier. We talked about the success of;
- using phrases like yuk! Relax! Try not trying so hard! as a good way of lightening the tone and taking people out of themselves
- andies design layout for its comprehension
- leaving gaps for the audience to fill in their individual responses
It was decided that we would stick to the origional plan to include one flowchart from each tac member so that the diversity of design and conceptual formats could be represented.
Thursday night working bee and meeting;
To be held at the boxing church workshop Thursday night. From 6pm. Sian mentioned there were lots of great fish and chip shops in Naenae for getting dinner at. General appreciation of Tyree’s discovery of the trolley width versus door width. Sian to spray canvas for Paula to carefully craft canopy stripes.
Materials budget;
($400) needs to cover:
laminator (Melanie to research)
uphostery pins
pencils (Melanie to research)
ribbons & pins
coffee grinder (Tyree koha)
Bunnings materials ($104.51 on Liz’s credit card)
Paint ($34-8[?] on Melanies credit card)
Turning the criticality on ourselves;
Sian talked about the importance of keeping in mind the origional aims of TAC – to be self critical of the means and processes of our collaborative activities. She suggested we document our beginning, developments and current processes and create an archive of them. General agreement and interest in making a folder with the history of the association and further reading in it for potential inclusion on the trolley. No decision on who to action this (!)
Liz (me again) suggested the need for a document stating the values of TAC, the functions of the members and an auto biographical statement on our individual contributions which could be supplemented by other members. Sian exampled her boss’s habit of writing something like ‘I will always believe wholeheartedly in what I say until I change my mind later’ on the board during meetings as a possible value.
Melanie talked about her desire to keep some information (such as this ‘internal admin’) closed to public access to provide an intrigue factor and we decided to keep the autobiographical discussion (and potentially our values and member functions? Mel can you clarify?) within an email only circulation.
Phew! I hope that’s covered everything, I rekon this meeting went really well, we kept to time thanks to our nights whip Tom, and the adgenda was completed almost within our 2 hour timeframe aim. Yeah!!!
Vote for images from TAC's Enjoy show
Hey all, here are 4 images 1 - 4 from the top. I think we'll be able to publish 2 or 3 at the most so please list your fave two, with an optional third if you like. (e.g. #3,4 and optional 1) FYI for #2 when the image is bigger you can see wall writing.
We need to know what we all want to have published with Andie's discussion transcript for 'Hue and Cry'
We have lots of shots, but pretty much all the same at mo. Do we need another action shot? During construction perhaps? Can Mel supply? Or is this going to do for this publication? We can always use different images for the prospect catalogue.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Our email to City Gallery re: meeting with hosts
Hi xxx,
Could we please use the boardroom on tuesday the 23rd of January at
6pm for about half an hour to an hour? We'd just like to introduce
ourselves to the hosts, and brief them a little on our project and how
we'd like them to be involved. We don't need any supervision, infact
Andrea is happy to lock up the gallery afterwards if need be, and can
also organise the inviting of the hosts to the meeting (we'll each
bring some kind of plate of food to try and entice the hosts to the
gallery after-hours)
We thought about trying to incorporate our briefing into your walkthru
with the hosts before the exhibition-and we havent entirely ruled out
this option for the hosts who are unable to attend on the 23rd-but we
thought it'd be nice to have a small get together in an informal
environment to give hosts an opportunity to ask questions about the
project. Because our project relies on participation in order to
succeed, we feel that by getting them on board as early as possible we
can better invest in them. Andrea will also contact the hosts via
email and post information on the hosts' noticeboard to avoid any
confusion over the purpose of the project.
We're happy to run the briefing ourselves and look forward to your
response in regards to the borrowing of the boardroom.
Many thanks!
TAC
Could we please use the boardroom on tuesday the 23rd of January at
6pm for about half an hour to an hour? We'd just like to introduce
ourselves to the hosts, and brief them a little on our project and how
we'd like them to be involved. We don't need any supervision, infact
Andrea is happy to lock up the gallery afterwards if need be, and can
also organise the inviting of the hosts to the meeting (we'll each
bring some kind of plate of food to try and entice the hosts to the
gallery after-hours)
We thought about trying to incorporate our briefing into your walkthru
with the hosts before the exhibition-and we havent entirely ruled out
this option for the hosts who are unable to attend on the 23rd-but we
thought it'd be nice to have a small get together in an informal
environment to give hosts an opportunity to ask questions about the
project. Because our project relies on participation in order to
succeed, we feel that by getting them on board as early as possible we
can better invest in them. Andrea will also contact the hosts via
email and post information on the hosts' noticeboard to avoid any
confusion over the purpose of the project.
We're happy to run the briefing ourselves and look forward to your
response in regards to the borrowing of the boardroom.
Many thanks!
TAC
Edited Discussion transcription for Hue +Cry
I'm actually going to try and post the script as a comment 'cos it's MEGA and that way there'll be lee scrolling to get to other important posts. This is what I've sent to Chloe at Hue+Cry just now because of deadlines but I've said I want the OK from you lot first. I've removed the names of who said what and cut and pasted a little, let me know what you think...
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Finished TAC Manifesto in 155 words
TAC Manifesto developed for Prospect 2007
--------------------------------
The Association of Collaboration (TAC) is an art project currently consisting of seven participants who meet on a regular basis to critically discuss collaborative processes and frameworks. Working within the format of a survey exhibition, Prospect 2007, TAC has developed the project: ‘Contemporary Art Mobile Response Unit’ to provide an open, interactive alternative to the curatorial voice.
The work attempts an intervention in the gulf between art and its audience, a complication of roles. With participation and critique at its core, ‘Contemporary Art Mobile Response Unit’ offers a forum for animated conversation, provoking interrogation of meaning and response.
By providing models that are suggestive rather than prescriptive, TAC seeks to equip and encourage visitors, empowering them with tools to think through aspects of contemporary art. The unit establishes an opportunity to share a critical response, to clarify and challenge. We're hoping to create blanks for the audience to fill in – and a place to be.
----------------------------------
Hi guys this is a summary of what we discussed to be included in our manifesto, please add to or subtract from it in the comments Andie :)
Working within the format of a survey exhibition The Association of Collaboration is a project with a critical rather than curatorial voice. Incorporating visitor participation TAC exposes the institutional framework from within. It's an intervention in the interaction between art and people. It's a confusion of meaning as much as it's a faciliation of meaning and of response.
The TAC seeks to equip and encourage visitors, empowering them with tools to clarify and challenge. We're hoping to create holes for the audience to fill in.
-there was also something about flowcharts being suggestive rather than prescriptive, I wasnt sure where to fit it in though, just wanted to get this up asap so the comments can proliferate a plenty before our next meeting :)
--------------------------------
The Association of Collaboration (TAC) is an art project currently consisting of seven participants who meet on a regular basis to critically discuss collaborative processes and frameworks. Working within the format of a survey exhibition, Prospect 2007, TAC has developed the project: ‘Contemporary Art Mobile Response Unit’ to provide an open, interactive alternative to the curatorial voice.
The work attempts an intervention in the gulf between art and its audience, a complication of roles. With participation and critique at its core, ‘Contemporary Art Mobile Response Unit’ offers a forum for animated conversation, provoking interrogation of meaning and response.
By providing models that are suggestive rather than prescriptive, TAC seeks to equip and encourage visitors, empowering them with tools to think through aspects of contemporary art. The unit establishes an opportunity to share a critical response, to clarify and challenge. We're hoping to create blanks for the audience to fill in – and a place to be.
----------------------------------
Hi guys this is a summary of what we discussed to be included in our manifesto, please add to or subtract from it in the comments Andie :)
Working within the format of a survey exhibition The Association of Collaboration is a project with a critical rather than curatorial voice. Incorporating visitor participation TAC exposes the institutional framework from within. It's an intervention in the interaction between art and people. It's a confusion of meaning as much as it's a faciliation of meaning and of response.
The TAC seeks to equip and encourage visitors, empowering them with tools to clarify and challenge. We're hoping to create holes for the audience to fill in.
-there was also something about flowcharts being suggestive rather than prescriptive, I wasnt sure where to fit it in though, just wanted to get this up asap so the comments can proliferate a plenty before our next meeting :)
Documentation of Every Now, And Then
Paula or Mel could you please email me some pics taken from Every Now, And Then? Do we have any images of the chairs in a circle like in Mark Amery's article and/or of the wall brainstorm? Would everyone be happy for the possible inclusion of these images alongside an edited discussion transcript to be included in Hue and Cry? (discussion transcript soon to be posted!)
Andie
Andie
Meeting Minutes 13 January 2007
Today we talked about so much stuff I'll try not to miss anything out. In any case I'll soon re-live the whole meeting as I attempt to transcribe it :-/ just as an aside I composed a very draft essay type writing piece for Hue and Cry but I felt the style of writing should have better reflected our way of working- today's meeting was a good 'un so fingers crossed it's not as earstrainingly difficult! soon as it's done I'll paste it on the blog, get your approval and voila!
We talked about flow-charts:how ours didnt function so well linear-ly but more as a mindmap type of structure. We started to discuss our 100 word manifesto but I'll save that one for the next posting.
We also talked about who to contact in regards to info packs for hosts and using hosts as facilitators. I think Liz said she'd contact Sarach about that. Andie said she'd sort out a meeting time for the hosts and or some kind of note for hosts to read on their noticeboard. It feels weird talking about myself in the third person.
We talked about how we can intervene between the artworks and the public, post-it notes were suggested as a means for visitors to voice their opinions on artworkd, but post-it notes are bad for the environment, so that idea was quickly dismissed! We also considered using honesty boxes (orange painted shoe boxes) around the gallery) for visitors to write their comments in as their comments might be more honest/less banal that way. But then we wondered what to do with all the comments at the end of it? Does it matter as they're anonymous anyway?(to be discussed more in next meeting).
We looked critically at our project and agreed that it's all a bit geeky really.
The diagram of the trolley was next addressed and we decided against the umbrella for its overly 'nice-nice' connotations, also we want visitors to feel comfortable in the whole institution not just at our station, AND opening umbrellas inside is bad luck! Sian's partner also helped us discussing technical details of the trolley as she'll be helping us build it tomorrow.
Instead we agreed on some kind of banner with some kind of slogan or branding painted on it (yet to be decided)
And we agreed on an orange, tangerine I believe it was.
By our next meeting (Monday the 15th 6pm at Roar) we've got to come up with a name for our work.
There's one thing that we might need to clear with the gallery...providing water for visitors (we're going to use Liz and Paula's camping water container and collect plastci cups) this could be problematic considering the 'no drinks in the gallery' rule? Of course they should make an exception for us! But it probably is something we should check out...
We talked about doing an alternative podcast, doing ours during installation week as reflective of our behind the scenes approach, also we might get to ask difficult questions of other artists and have more fun that way.
In terms of manning the station we discussed contacting Biddy Grant and getting volunteers from PACE to mind our space, aswell as hosts who can SIT in the gallery.
Tom's going to organise our stationery (STEALTH!)
Maybe we can have personalised pencils in the multiples cabinet, with helpful slogans such as...'try not to try'
right-o i think that just about does it! If anyone can think of other things we discussed please attach as a comment, cheers, Andie
We talked about flow-charts:how ours didnt function so well linear-ly but more as a mindmap type of structure. We started to discuss our 100 word manifesto but I'll save that one for the next posting.
We also talked about who to contact in regards to info packs for hosts and using hosts as facilitators. I think Liz said she'd contact Sarach about that. Andie said she'd sort out a meeting time for the hosts and or some kind of note for hosts to read on their noticeboard. It feels weird talking about myself in the third person.
We talked about how we can intervene between the artworks and the public, post-it notes were suggested as a means for visitors to voice their opinions on artworkd, but post-it notes are bad for the environment, so that idea was quickly dismissed! We also considered using honesty boxes (orange painted shoe boxes) around the gallery) for visitors to write their comments in as their comments might be more honest/less banal that way. But then we wondered what to do with all the comments at the end of it? Does it matter as they're anonymous anyway?(to be discussed more in next meeting).
We looked critically at our project and agreed that it's all a bit geeky really.
The diagram of the trolley was next addressed and we decided against the umbrella for its overly 'nice-nice' connotations, also we want visitors to feel comfortable in the whole institution not just at our station, AND opening umbrellas inside is bad luck! Sian's partner also helped us discussing technical details of the trolley as she'll be helping us build it tomorrow.
Instead we agreed on some kind of banner with some kind of slogan or branding painted on it (yet to be decided)
And we agreed on an orange, tangerine I believe it was.
By our next meeting (Monday the 15th 6pm at Roar) we've got to come up with a name for our work.
There's one thing that we might need to clear with the gallery...providing water for visitors (we're going to use Liz and Paula's camping water container and collect plastci cups) this could be problematic considering the 'no drinks in the gallery' rule? Of course they should make an exception for us! But it probably is something we should check out...
We talked about doing an alternative podcast, doing ours during installation week as reflective of our behind the scenes approach, also we might get to ask difficult questions of other artists and have more fun that way.
In terms of manning the station we discussed contacting Biddy Grant and getting volunteers from PACE to mind our space, aswell as hosts who can SIT in the gallery.
Tom's going to organise our stationery (STEALTH!)
Maybe we can have personalised pencils in the multiples cabinet, with helpful slogans such as...'try not to try'
right-o i think that just about does it! If anyone can think of other things we discussed please attach as a comment, cheers, Andie
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Provisional drawing of TAC trolley
Sketched out by Liz, Sian and Paula
This drawing is provisional, we just need to get something done to look at before Saturday's meeting. I hope yopu can see the little notes with the details of what is what.
We have dicussed beginning construction on Sunday 14 Jan and Sian's partner has offered to build it. Anyone keen to help (you're all needed!) is welcome to join in at Sian's place in Naenae on Sunday. More details at the meeting.
The essence of time's passing nature has occured to me...I'm sure i'm not alone on that.
Paula
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