Explore and critically evaluate models of collaboration, with reference to the work of two contemporary arts

companies or practitioners.

if, as an art, conversation is the creation of worlds, we could say that to choose to have a conversation with
someone is to admit them into the field where worlds are constructed. And this ultimately runs the risk of redefining
not only the other, but us as well. (Maurice)Tumblr)


In order for human beings to communicate with one another there must be a common language; there has to be a
common ground of understating, a space mutually created within which we may communicate. In this essay I will
focus on how different collaborative models deal with the process of forming, or rather the forging of a space for a
mutual understanding between persons within the collaboration. I will look at how the space differs between
artistic collaborative groups and I will attempt to unravel and examine the processes used to create these spaces
and the languages which inhabit them. I will focus on two models of collaboration; the first being that of an artistic
collaboration between Synne Behrandt and David Harradine. For the second model of collaboration I will focus on
Quarantines collaboration not within the company but between the company and the public. I will examine
Quarantines attempt to collaborate with the public and attempt to understand the space that is created in order
for this to be accomplished alongside reference to my own work. ;
The last century has seen the birth of individualism where the predominant western belief put the individual self
as the highest and most valuable element in western society. (Steiner p xi). From personal experience I am aware
of how hard it is to gain knowledge of oneself or ones artistic work when isolated and working alone, it is not a
case of finding answers but finding the right questions. The relationship between persons, a collaboration of sorts,
facilitates a breaking of the boundaries set by ones understanding and knowledge and thus the finding of new
questions happens inherently within the relationship.
It is clear today how laws and the government look at the country as different groupings and communities. It
would seem people now can only get recognition if they are a group with a clearly defined identity. It is for this
reason that I believe the has given rise to over baring concept of community and collaboration
In the documentation Invisible things of the project An Infinite Line Synne Behrandt and David Harradine speak
directly about their collaboration in terms of the forming of a space for a new language. Synne Behrandt began the
project as a solo practitioner researching and experimenting for some time, finding her relationship with the
subject matter that she was interested in.

the first part was entirely about (my) experience and sensation and feeling and intensity of encounters with the
light. I didnt try to understand anything about.

This encapsulates the joy of working as a solo practitioner; working alone allows one to fully submerge oneself into
ones thoughts and experiences with no need for an understanding or language to translate ones experience for
another. What then becomes challenging is the forming of those experiences into a work to share with others;
making sense of it for yourself by finding the words that will enable you to present it to others.

This is where collaboration becomes a vehicle for this operation. Synne Behrandt joined forces with David
Harradine and they began searching for a common language within which they could form a collective
understanding of the main concepts they were dealing with. To begin this creation of a language they separated
themselves from the bounds and limitations of societys collective language and searched for a language that
would liberate their discussions enabling further searching and a deeper common understanding of the concepts
being discussed.

We were trying to find a language that liberated something rather than pinned it down

I am unable to give an example of this language they speak of as it is intrinsically held within their relationship and
its inherent nature means that it cannot be described or necessarily understood by others. This common language
is not created solely within an artistic collaboration but it appears, to some extent, within each and every persons
relationship whether spoken or otherwise created.

Together we organise the world for ourselves or at least we organise our understanding of it (Steiner. P64)

Language is created in order for one to gain an understanding of the other, ironically this form of understanding
does not allow for a freedom of understanding rather it pins it down allowing very little space to move. This
problem of demarcation prompted Behrandt and Harradine to not only create one space for a language but
multiple ones which overlap creating a liminal unsteady space which serves to contradict and bring about new
misunderstandings. This, in turn, allowed for further searching, reforming and restructuring of the boundaries
around the conceptual frame works discussed. They created a language that is unstable and in constant
negotiation within itself.
Quote

The language, through which, the final piece is created, separates the company from the common language of the
place they are working in, Brighton, and therefore naturally created a gap between audience and the artist
.
In contemporary art, since the 6os, there has been a push for the boundaries of this artistic language to open in
order for the art to reach its audience that it speaks of. A breaking open of companys happened and the audience
was allowed in to help make the work through participation to the point where the author of the work became
ambiguous. The artwork of the future must realise the need for the passing over of egoism into communism


dealing with the numerous attempts to question and transform the fundamental condition of how modern art
functions-namely, the radical separation of artists and their public.(the art of participation p 21)

. The completion of the art work then became only possible due to the presence and often active engagement of
the public. There are certain works that even went beyond that to the point where they pushed the role of the
public within the work beyond participants wanting them to be equal collaborators, such as Stephen Willats work
with the public. For this collaboration to succeed to some degree the language between artist and their public had
to radically change. The challenge in terms of a creation of a language was not so much focused on the language
itself but the creation of a space in which a conversation may be possible between the artist and the public I will
now discuss different examples of works that have attempted to create such collaboration between the artist and
their public and examine how the model of an artist/ public collaboration may be formed.
Quarantine, a cross disciplined company, attempt to bridge this gap between them and their audience. In one of
their latest, on-going works Between Us We Know Everything the public are invited to make a short video where
they speak about anything they know about. This is then uploaded onto a website and a database of knowledge is
thus collected. The videos cover a wide range of random knowledge and beg the question who is making the work?
There are the artists who have come to this idea and the structure of the work, but the content of the work is
totally created by the public. The structure and format of the piece does not however open a space for a dialogue,
it is bounded by the media that it uses and seems unable to bring about the creation of worlds as in a
conversation.

art should be greater than the total sum of its parts. Ruth little

With this project it seems quarantine have gone so far into the public realm and social and cultural realities that
there is no space for the collaboration to create something greater than the sum of its parts. It focuses on the
individual as separate interties within a larger group and does not do as the title suggests; between us we know
everything the word between suggests that there is a dialogue happening between the participants yet the videos
online have no connection as there is no chance to respond to each other. There does not seem to be a space for a
mutual language to be created, there is only space for individual languages that do not connect and are unable to
connect, share or respond to one another. In that respect the project is a collaboration of disconnected individuals.
In Quaratines project EatEat brings the collaboration back into a live setting where the public join in a shared meal
while several untrained performers present a story about their lives. The format of this piece allows the public to
present their knowledge and experience that can thus be responded to by others through conversation over the
meal. Quarantine sees the act of eating as a way of creating a space and time for a dialogue to take place and thus
a new space for a mutual language to be created between the participants.

Everyone has food to celebrate something a birth, a death, a marriage. We have powerful memories of exquisite
food, sacred food, hunger, the taste of something we didnt want to eat, the smell of the kitchen we grew up in.
We all have to eat. (Quarantine website) http://qtine.com/resources/articles-interviews/richard-gregorys-paper-to-
a-conference-on-social-engagement-at-tramway-glasgow/

The act of laying a table or making a place for others to eat is in itself a forging of a new space, a space that invites
people to come together for a period of time determined by the food they all share. Everyone understands that
one of the few things we all truly share is hunger and the necessity to eat. The sitting at the table is the time of
separation from the world around us and a time to focus on those closest to us. This strikes me as a very similar
process to the act of forming a collaboration and I will quote from my portfolio from 2012.

we must create a company separate from others and we must devise in a particular space without interruption,
void of infringement from society. My documentation

It is this space for separation I believe quarantine is trying to recreate with the public in their project No Such
Thing. Similarly in my work, as part of Akitsu and Than Collective otherwise known as the cooking avant-garde, in
the piece Waters Edge we spend twenty minutes preparing a crab ready to be eaten with the audience. The time
spent preparing the crab is very important as it allows for both us, the performers, and the audience to collectively
create a space as a group. Once the crab is prepared we all sit together and share the crab between us. It is this
sharing, which in itself breaks down the barrier between performer and audience members, that then allows a
dialogue to commence often regarding the issues dealt with in the audio that plays during the preparation. What
was particularly interesting, during one sharing an audience member who I knew to be strictly vegan, felt able to
try the crab and, in reference to the opening quote of this essay, this particular audience member willing opened
up a conversation with us and in so doing, redefined a part of herself as we spoke of new ideas and thoughts that
where beyond my original understanding of the concepts addressed in our work. If a dialogue is the underpinning
factor of all collaboration the here we can see the beginnings of an artist/public collaboration only the work that is
created is not physicalized or made tangible rather the work is made in our minds and will no doubt scatter itself
into our lives at some other time.
For an artist form a collaboration with the public would simply require them to start a dialogue, yet with no
intention other than to have a conversation. I t is important for that artist to keep the conversation mutual. This, in
itself, is the same as the collaboration between Synne Behrandt and David Harrradine, they simply talk about their
interests around a certain topics.
This suggests that a conversation can be collaboration; the interlocutors are working with each other towards a
new understanding, therefore is the ideas or experiences reached between the speakers in affect an art work? But
maybe you are only classed as an artist if those ideas are then re-enacted through some medium? To ask it
somewhat differently, is a conversation only classed as a collaboration if the worlds that are created are then re-
used and reformed into something tangible? Such as the piece created by Synne Behrandt and David Harrradine.
Which makes me wonder is art based in the combination of alternatives? To have a meaningful conversation with
someone each interlocutor must have an alternative stance to the other, otherwise the worlds could not be
created, therefore is art what is given birth to when alternatives meet but one can only be named as an artist
when he or she makes, what was born, visible to another?