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Collaboration, Site & Performance

Often using the interplay between digital and physical materials to reframe experiences of site, La Tua Vita Per Me (video installation, 2014) saw projections hide within the video frame amongst the physical world. Miwon Kwon’s research into the site-specific artistic canon offers a context in which to understand this area of interest. Kwon charts how the notion of site has evolved from a tangible location, to include conceptual spaces. This can be seen in works like Hands Up Don’t Shoot (FLAC Group, V&A 2015), a Morse Code inspired ringtone that crosses through public, private and virtual space. It inhabits what Manuel Castells names as real virtualities, our current, digitally engaged reality where site can now exist through the interdependency of physical and virtual worlds.

 

Working collaboratively and responding to site have become useful tools for my research. Collectives such as LuckyPDF and Bernadette Corporation are intriguing examples of collective art making, distorting the boundaries between identity and institution. I am part of two collectives, Marion Phillini and FLAC Group, who similarly play with identity and have grown out of shared research interests: the interaction between the digital and physical, public and private spaces and systems of influence. Going from Umberto Ecco’s belief that an ‘open work’ encourages ‘fields of meaning’ rather than an individual Truth, through collaboration possibilities for meaning are multiplied.

 

 

 

 

The relational work of Rirkrit Tiravanija, with fully functioning art-installation eateries also creates an openness; Or the collaborative aspect of Jeremy Deller’s Venice Biennale contribution ( English Magic 2013) where he showcased untrained drawings from imprisoned ex-servicemen, creating an affecting critique of war.  In an altogether different way, Lindsay Seers succeeds at this through large scale video installations that appear like fictionalised research projects, with low-lit narratives layered one on top of the other. Experimenting with ‘open’ forms and live elements such as performance-lectures (Chelsea Eaves, 2015), walking tours (Intervals, 2014) and pop-up events (Hometown, 2014) has sometimes blurred authorship and become a useful way to create discussion around choice making.

 

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