Part of the principles of BAPP are networks and collaboration. (These are ideas that carry across the whole course.)
In this course part of the idea of networks involves collaboration. But this is also a larger shift in thinking in terms of how we construct what interaction in society should look like or how we construct our Western history.
Darwin offered a world of survival of the fittestwhich mirrored the Regency and Victorian period of empire building of his lifetime. What if we let go of the *metaphor of fighting that we use in so many descriptions of ideas and replaced it with collaboration.
Below Howard Rheingold explores how we can readjust to see history (and present day) from a metaphor of 'working together'rather than 'survival of the fittest'. I think this is really important because art is often involved in activism that brings people together through making together.
Working in a show or part of a cast also rely on cooperation, so as artists we are very familiar with the idea in our professional work but how can we learn from those professional situations of collaboration? How is collaboration a part of your practice? What ethical considerations does the principle of collaboration raise in a creative process?
To push this idea further: The idea of cooperation is explored in many artists’ processes. Art activism often uses the idea of making something together as a way to value and highlight community. I feel collaboration has a part in the map of an artists practice. Where is collaboration in your practice, in your inquiry, in your field of work?
Does your experience in the network of the BAPP learning community mirror experiences in your professional practice? Are you bringing assumptions about working togetherfrom BAPP to your Practice or the other way around?
Here is a video talk about collaboration and the work of a poet who uses collaboration as part of process. If you asked yourself how to collaborate each time you started a creative process or entered a teaching situation, what interesting ethical considerations does it raise - different for each situation I would think. In this way collaboration could be seen as a principle for learning not just an organising tool.
What do you feel? Comment below...
*An interesting book to look at on metaphor is LAKOFF, G. & JOHNSON, M. 1980. Metaphors we live by, Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
Here is my blog on the power of collaboration that I wrote back in October, ever as relevant. The more research I do, the more I realise how interconnected our practice is with the professional world around us.
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This post really allowed me to relate to my own experiences and inspired to write a short bit about collaboration on my blog.
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