[-empyre-] thanks to our guests Collaboration: Art Practice, Theory, Activism

[Renate Ferro]

On behalf of Tim who is traveling and Ana, I would like to thank all
of our guests and subscribers for sharing not only their projects but
also the theoretical underpinnings of the collaborative practices that
they are involved in.  To Carol-Ann Braun and Concert-Urbain, an "art
startup and stop up" based in Paris who wrote about the negotiation
process in collaboration among long-term interlocutors.  She cited the
value of "slowness...not linked to value added or prestige value, the
pragmatics of useless, and the danger of making product the goal."
Erin Manning and The Sense Lab whose "events" and soon "immediations"
are key to the process of collaboration wrote, "The term "event" is
also fluxian and adapted to intermedial work carried by a network that
gives life to event.. It highlights the link between collaboration and
interactive art.  Carol-Ann and Erin's rich and engaging responses
during the first and into the second week of our discussion prompted
this one by Carol, "Here technology is an instrument for helping art,
theory, and activism-already tied and "active" -to infiltrate
'diverging aspects of culture and society.' Erin replied, "diverging
aspects of culture and society shape technology. It is clear that the
technology and practices that emerge with it shape artistic intent as
well."

During Week 2 Ana Valdes welcomed her collaborator Cecelia Parsberg.
Ana we have come to know very well at -empyre- and we appreciate her
willingness to not only help this month's discussion but also to be a
regular contributor.  Ana is in the process of collaborating to create
women's activist networks.  Cecelia wrote, "The space between us is to
be handled in collaborations.  Handled; shrinking, moving, growing,
violated, respected. And I'm interested in the images that are created
'between us' in this space."

We also welcomed Paul Vanouse during Week 2.  He identified four
properties that were crucial to setting up an environment for
collaboration for him: shared agendas, the non-rational or working
with those you know well/hang out with, parity or working with others
with similar levels of expertise, and nomadism or the quality of being
flexible to try new roles in participation.  Paul's work inspired some
posts that discussed the role of playfulness, humor and irony in the
collaborative process.

During Week 3 Brooke Singer (of Pre-emtive Media and the Counter
Kitchen and Ricardo Miranda Zúñiga introduced their collaborative
project in Madrid and Brooklyn, EXCEDENTES/EXCESS. Covering a wide
range of topics from virtual and on-site collaboration, working across
languages and cultures, and teaching new media and collaboration, we
ended up with that of "scale."  Brooke wrote, "scale...this is one of
the reasons that brought me to collaborate in the first place and I
think one of the most powerful forces that bring people to work
together...group work as an incubator for socially engaged core issues
based projects. The work originates from conversation, debate,
struggles, mutual aid not from a single perspective. Marc Garnett also
made a post about his own work in England with Furtherfield.

During this final Week 4, alonso+craciun made a brief post about their
collaborative work.  Zach Blas, another past -empyre- moderator, wrote
about his collaborative mask-making projects.  A founder of the
anonymous collective "Queer Technologies, " Zach's newest project the
"Facial Weaponization Suite" is a workshop-driven project that
develops forms of collective and creative protest against biometrics
and facial recognition through masks.  He wrote, " the collaborative
process takes its twists, turns, bumps, diversions and embracing
those moments of failure during the collaborative process is what
pushes the work further.

Thanks not only to our guests this month but to those subscribers who
enlightened our discussion by asking provoking questions and making
thoughtful insights into our discussion.  For a link to the entire
archive subscribers can go to :

http://lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au/pipermail/empyre/2013-May/date.html
Thanks, Renate Ferro, June 2, 2013

Renate Ferro
Visiting Assistant Professor of Art
Cornell University
Department of Art, Tjaden Hall Office #420
Ithaca, NY  14853
Email:   <rtf9 at cornell.edu>
URL:  http://www.renateferro.net
      http://www.privatesecretspubliclies.net
Lab:  http://www.tinkerfactory.net

Managing Co-moderator of -empyre- soft skinned space
http://empyre.library.cornell.edu/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empyre