Collaboration 1
Sharing Influences
Duration: 1 Week
For this week's workshop we will be asking you to share what influences you, your work, and in what ways the influences are shown. But sometimes explaining your influences in words or visuals is not the most effective vehicle. Let’s try using audio.
The task at hand will involve creating an audio playlist of at least 8 pieces for your partner to listen to, sharing it with them with minimal explanation to accompany, and then creating something in response to your partner’s playlist. The playlist should contain audio files that you feel represent your influences and how your work translates the influences. Try to create something that feels self explanatory so that there’s no need for you to explain yourself when you share it. Then, listen to the playlist your partner has given to you and create something as a response from what you perceive as the influences and expressions being communicated within the playlist’s audio. Examples of “something” can be drawings, written words, interpretive dance numbers, another playlist, a giant sculpture, or a poem. But be aware of scale of work and the 1 week duration. Prior to the next week’s huddle, you will have uploaded your playlist and response piece to the shared google drive.
In 2021, Chris King & Oluwakayode “Oba” Moyosade had lots of conversations about what inspired them, and were able to work off of their shared interest in rap music. This helped them find common ground as artists, and gave them something to connect on. Follow this vein, this is an opportunity to share a dialog with each other about your influences while working under the limitations of your own exposure to audio (however broad or narrow that may be). Additionally this provides the challenge of taking what your partner has shared with you and communicating it back to them in a different form.
In completing this exercise you have the opportunity to become more familiar with each other, your influences, and their influences. You’ll be able to have a dialogue between you and your partner utilizing something other than words and may find some unexpected commonalities. Additionally this tasks you to think about and interpret how to communicate both your own influences & art and your partner’s.
Collaboration 2
AUDIO JOURNALS
Duration: 1 Week
This week you will be participating in an audio journal exercise with your partner. Your tasks will include recording an entry at the same time of day as your partner for six days, and then listening to the other’s recording and discussing the results. Additionally, throughout the week, you will create a response piece inspired by the audio recordings you receive. You can choose to add to this piece each day as you listen to your partner’s recordings—perhaps layering elements to form a collage—or compile everything into a single reflective piece at the end of the week. After the experience, we will review the findings as a group, and the nature of your progress throughout a week. Prior to the next week’s huddle, you will have uploaded your journal entries to a shared google drive account.
During the 2021 North Louisiana Virtual Residency, Sarah Nguyen, Mami Takahashi, & Eden Radfarr (S.E.M. Collective) had success with this exercise by recording an audio journal each week at the same time, in their different time zones. The participants were interested to see what the others happened to be doing at the same time, as there was often a sharp contrast. This practice helped them feel more connected with each other, especially in the midst of lockdown.
To illustrate how it might work for you: You and your partner could decide to choose 9:00pm as the time that each day you’ll record a 1 minute audio recording with your phone/computer, you’ll each then upload your recording to a shared folder so that you can then listen to your counterpart's recordings as the week progresses. On Monday evening, you call each other and discuss the experience from your perspectives. On Tuesday’s group huddle, we as a group discuss the experiment and share what we found from it.
In completing this work, you’ll be more familiar with your routine from day to day. You will also have the opportunity to participate in a dialogue about you and your partner’s progress through the week in spite of and/or because of the audio journals. This should be a playful experience, be as free with it as you wish. I’ll also note that many of last year’s artists were surprised in their feelings toward this exercise. Some felt it to be a deeply personal thing that pushed their boundary of comfortability while some were surprised at how mundane their chosen time ended up being.
You can gain more insight to this collaborative idea by watching S.E.M. Collective’s video or listening to their podcast episode.
Collaboration 3
Work & Association
Duration: 1 Week
Let’s revisit work you’ve created in the past. From your previous body of work, pick one piece you're really fond of and one you aren’t so fond of. Share your selection with your partner without explanation. Spend a day or two with the selection your partner gave you and write down five words that come to mind in reference to each of the two works. Then, get together again (in a format that allows immediate conversation) and do a word association for each of the four total works. To do the word association, one of you will say a word that comes to mind when looking at the created work and the other responds with a word relating to both the word before it and the created work, you’ll keep going from there (you can follow it as long as you like, but at least a minute will help get an idea of what it can produce). Use the five words to get you started or move you on if you get stuck.
After this exchange, each artist should create two new responsive pieces inspired by the work their partner initially shared. These pieces should reflect the artist’s interpretation, emotional response, or conceptual engagement with their partner's original selections. The responsive works can explore themes uncovered through word association or take an entirely unexpected direction, driven by newfound insights and perspectives. Once complete, both artists will present their responsive pieces to their partner, fostering further dialogue on artistic interpretation and collaboration. You will both put the photos/videos of the work in the drive.
In 2021, April Fitzpatrick & Robyn Gibson would often do word association to help get ideas flowing and to uncover a wider range of thoughts/emotions relating to the ideas and past artwork. They would also practice storytelling for the same purpose, and to better get to know each other. Ally Zlatar and Ayesha M. Ali both created work based on collective research into each other’s cultural backgrounds (Serbian and Pakistani culture, respectively) and their personal connections/interpretations with it. They imagined each other into their partner’s background, cultural influences, and work through their own art forms.
In completing this exercise you’ll become more familiar with your partner by better understanding their perspective on their own work and yours. We also hope to initiate a dialogue between you and your partner that will inspire you both to be aware of subconscious perspectives and assumptions. This call and response of both words can bring out concepts and perspectives on your own work and your partner's work that may not be at the forefront of your conscious awareness when approaching the work.
Collaboration 4
EXCHANGING PROCESS/ROUTINE
Duration: 1 Week
You will be exchanging artistic practices/ routines with your partner. First, write out the process for how you approach your art. This can be on a specific scale of a certain style or art form (if you are specific, make sure it is attainable for your partner to follow), on a general scale of how you move throuah the process or creating, or somewhere between the two. If you have a hard time speaking generally about your process (or maybe lack thereof), speak specifically about how you approached creating a work in the past. Take this written guide and trade with your partner. You can explain your process face to face and ask questions or your partner it you like or some may choose to simply trade process documents and allow the other to interoret where there are gaps in the explanation. Once you've received your partners process explanation, follow it the best you can In creating our own art during the given time. Apply It to an existing project or create something specific following the guide. Aim to be able to finish the work within the week so that you can see the full process through. At the next meeting we will debrief the experience
In 2021, Sarah Nguyen, Mami Takahashi, & Eden Radfarr guided each other in their own processes trading off every few weeks. This helped with their experimentation and discover of new processes. In completing this exercise, you can become familiar with the way your partner works and maybe realize new aspects of the way you work. You'll get to do something different from what you usually do in adopting another process.
Collaboration 5
Musical Expressions and Artistic Responses
Duration: 1 Week
For our final exercise, you will explore personal influences through music and artistic expression by sharing daily songs and creating art based on those songs. Each day from Tuesday to Friday, send your partner a song that represents how your day went. This could be a song that was on your mind all day or one that encapsulates the mood of your day. Share the song with minimal explanation to let the music speak for itself. Over the weekend, create a piece of artwork inspired by the songs your partner sent you. This could be a drawing, painting, sculpture, dance, poem, or any other form of artistic expression. Consider the mood, themes, and emotions conveyed by the music when creating your response piece. Upload your artwork to the shared Google Drive before the next week's huddle. During the huddle, present and discuss your artwork, explaining how the songs influenced your creative process.
In 2024, Morgan McCullin and Taryn Davidson combined two previous collaborative assignments to make this one. Morgan and Taryn discovered that they had similar music tastes, enjoying high-energy, happy songs. By completing this project, Morgan and Taryn were able to connect on a deeper level, understand each other's influences, and express their own. They found unexpected commonalities and had a dialogue through music and art.
Through this exercise, you can become familiar with the way your partner works and maybe realize new aspects of the way you work. You’ll get to do something different from what you usually do in adopting another process.