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.
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7 comments:
not sure if i'm going to be able to check the blog again til tonight but i definitely think we should use our own voice in the catalogue since our work for Prospect is based around offering an alternative voice to the institution. The only quarm i have is the very short time-frame, can we get it written in time?
Here's the reply I sent to Sarah Farrar
Hi Sarah,
We've decided your suggestion for TAC to write our supporting text for Prospect 07 catalogue and website is great.
We'll have this through to you by late afternoon, Saturday.
We were quite interested in your outsiders perspective, though.
It could be good to incorporate that angle with a few questions you might like us to answer in our text.
If you agree we'll need 4 or so questions sometime today.
We also intent to create a new specific 100 word bio just for TAC, as the earlier 150 word blurb we wrote was all about our Prospect project too. That will come through tomorrow too.
Sorry for pushing the deadline like this, but i hope with several art writers and a couple of curators among the other creative collaborators we can get you something appropriate and not (too much) a waste of your precious editing time.
best
TAC
Just checked the gmail and Sarah is hoping to email us some questions to table at the meeting tomorrow (10am, Olive). I am geeking out tonight and will try to put together some content after dinner.
I have been thinking about the term 'creative democracy' as a way of describing TAC's concerns - both practical and theoretical - with collaborative processes (ie consensus).
Creative democracy to me means being creative with and experimenting with different forms of democracy. I guess I am using the term democracy here as synonymous with collaboration because I think its interesting to make allusions to the ideology of our political process. I think this could give people something to relate to - like a lateral link.
Just putting it into the middle. . .
more later
x
hi
i've made a post about criticality with writing and curating above, which contains some ideas i think pertinent when thinking about our writing. see y'all at the cafe tomorrow morn.
Hi peeps heres some banged out responses to Sarahs questions (in bold), not sure if theres much point posting them so soon before the meeting but just in case there are any early birds amongst us. . .
How did The Association evolve?
Out of a participatory artwork, Sister Cities, developed by one of its members, a group of interested people configured themselves and later received an invitation to be part of a collaborative project for Every now and then.
How do you make your decisions?
Consesus- maybee we should include a brief description of what that is?
Is there a collective TAC 'voice'?
Too young – our voice is maybe our conversations?
Do you each take on certain roles, or is every decision the result of consultation with all members?
At the mo we are operating on consensus decision making – everyone always agrees before any major action occurs.
Informally, we all have particular interests, strengths, skills
(stylistic, comparative)
Some of the language TAC uses seems similar to self-help books ormotivational workshops. What attracts you to this territory?
Really? (from blog? Perhaps?) she surely cant have spyed out my bedside table!!! I think there is a healthy level of ironic selfconciousness operating amidst the daggy terminology we use in conversations about Tac. We are definitely aware that trying too hard is terminally uncool - but underneath that take the piss reflex is chord of sincerity that Sarah might be picking up on and registering as self-help / motivational? Self organising, self helping - ?
Does the fact that you've created a 'Contemporary Art Mobile Response
Unit' suggest that contemporary art is in need of a health check?
It makes a play at the supposition that Art might be seen as being fundamental to survival. I think that view would be taken for a bit of a joke in New Zealand in a generalising sense, and I think that’s saying something.
A health check?
How about an audience audit? (a reality check) I have quote some where about how the public is only public in its capacity to speak out - kind of relates back to that creative democracy idea - yeah I guess I saw our focus as being more particularly towards the audiences of contemporary art than directly at the art necessarily but I guess it cuts both ways – which is one of its its strong points.
What do you want to change?
. . . AHH. . . world peace???
I really do think that there is an unneccesary level of anxiety that operates amongst audiences that are unfamiliar with contemporary art, and often the access that the gallery provides to the work (wall text, catalogues, docent tours etc) just don’t help connect people to any greater extent (or even alienate, boor or complicate). I learn more about art and what I think about it through conversations with other people than a wall text or a rehearsed tour could provide by way of understanding.
We are trying to experiment with ways that can develop a bit more engagement; with the work, around the work, amongst the workers at the gallery and between them and the audience etc. The work aims at being conversational – if not aurally then written. Dialogical is a term with a similar meaning and used by a writer called Grant Kester to describe art works which base themselves around the conversational function. Perhaps a good one to mention to tick the stylistic info box from the list of catalogue ingredients that paula posted earlier?
How did The Association evolve?
*Don't think we need to give all the details of the show here...to long winded. I think the main thing is that it is a fairly random (Enjoy supporters) group of people with different interests and reasons for wanting to be in the group. Also that it was an open access project rather than something which people needed to put proposals in for etc. I think it's important to emphasize that we are a group of 'real' people rather than a high felootin bunch of artists doing something very very clever..........
How do you make your decisions?
*Consensus- yes put the definition in, it's succinct and clear. Also makes it clear that we do have an agreed process and are trialing things.
Is there a collective TAC 'voice'?
*Collective writing - phrases from different people make up statements etc.
Do you each take on certain roles, or is every decision the result of consultation with all members?
*Same question as above. Consensus decision making.
Some of the language TAC uses seems similar to self-help books or motivational workshops. What attracts you to this territory?
*Whilst in working in a group, collaborative, collective context we have aimed to give every member an equal voice, we uphold a* healthy level of ironic selfconciousness.
chord of sincerity
Self organising
Does the fact that you've created a 'Contemporary Art Mobile Response
Unit' suggest that contemporary art is in need of a health check?
It makes a play at the supposition that Art might be seen as being fundamental to survival.
*And that it is so serious. I see the trolley as well as illiciting serious and engaged responses as also asking why it's not ok for someone to just like a picture because it's blue, or it feels nice...........or for someone to be bored or frustrated. We had friends staying who went to see the Peter Madden show and LOATHED it! She was totally bemused, though kids could do it and didn't relate to it at all. While I really enjoyed the show, it was quite refreshing to hear such an unbridled outburst. Wish the trolley had been there to catch her responses!
So I guess I think yes a reality check.(a reality check)
What do you want to change?
Agree and like what Liz says about audience ;
"I really do think that there is an unneccesary level of anxiety that operates amongst audiences that are unfamiliar with contemporary art, and often the access that the gallery provides to the work (wall text, catalogues, docent tours etc) just don’t help connect people to any greater extent (or even alienate, boor or complicate). I learn more about art and what I think about it through conversations with other people than a wall text or a rehearsed tour could provide by way of understanding."
ESP the converstation bit. The trolley is manned, people can talk, they can read others' responses, respond to them. Get some kind of ownership and sesnes of participation in teh show itself, engagement with the works as well as with the trolley and it's purpose.
LIke this too;
"The work aims at being conversational – if not aurally then written. Dialogical is a term with a similar meaning and used by a writer called Grant Kester to describe art works which base themselves around the conversational function."
Also I like 'creative democracy'. I like it for us and also for the project and the way it engages with the show. I like the idea that it is making the show more democratic, giving the audience a voice, encouraging speech and dialogue and rebellion and interaction.
Oh, and implying that any ole person can be creative if they choose to engage, it's not just the preserve of the godly artist.
Very self help...... I also like the thought that it is about self-organising. LIke that article.
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