Beginning, middle, end︎︎︎
Once a group has a chance to do smaller studies around elements of time and space, it’s good to start to think about a sense of form, to create studies that have an overall structure. This can be thought of as an architecture or sequence that the content lives in.
One interesting way of thinking about form is what makes a beginning, a middle or an ending. One project is having participants create one of the three in isolation (make a small work that feels like only an ending...). This is a good way of talking about what qualities we expect in these three parts of a work and how we might re-think them.
**The witer John Irving. always knows his endings before he starts to write (not how it begins). This has become part of his practice- to forsee where he is going helps him know how to start.
Assigning material using forms from music, nature or other structures is a good way to start.
Elements of nature can also be a good starting place: seasons, cycles of plants, human life cycles from a single day and night to birth, life, death, a volcano, planet rotation, etc.
Musical forms: AB, ABA, Rondo, Fugue, Suite, Sonata, Chance... Using musical structures as a basis for a composition is always a simple way to create a new work and make a connection between form and content. For ABA for example, you can start with a simple motif (musical, movement or image), then develop a second part for B, then repeat the original motif. The last part can shift slightly, based on the B part, but the repetition creates a sense of wholeness or beginning, middle and end.
One interesting way of thinking about form is what makes a beginning, a middle or an ending. One project is having participants create one of the three in isolation (make a small work that feels like only an ending...). This is a good way of talking about what qualities we expect in these three parts of a work and how we might re-think them.
**The witer John Irving. always knows his endings before he starts to write (not how it begins). This has become part of his practice- to forsee where he is going helps him know how to start.
Assigning material using forms from music, nature or other structures is a good way to start.
Elements of nature can also be a good starting place: seasons, cycles of plants, human life cycles from a single day and night to birth, life, death, a volcano, planet rotation, etc.
Musical forms: AB, ABA, Rondo, Fugue, Suite, Sonata, Chance... Using musical structures as a basis for a composition is always a simple way to create a new work and make a connection between form and content. For ABA for example, you can start with a simple motif (musical, movement or image), then develop a second part for B, then repeat the original motif. The last part can shift slightly, based on the B part, but the repetition creates a sense of wholeness or beginning, middle and end.
︎︎︎from Rob Kitsos
Welcome to mapping collaboration, a toolbox for workshopping and creating across disciplines...
In spite of a long history of interdisciplinary creation, from our earliest recorded arts to our present moment, artistic pedagogy has created divisions between disciplines. This has left artists in a "post-Babel" condition where we don't share the same language and definitions. It’s also encouraged artists to develop practices for devising, creating and composing work that are distinct to their disciplines.
In spite of a long history of interdisciplinary creation, from our earliest recorded arts to our present moment, artistic pedagogy has created divisions between disciplines. This has left artists in a "post-Babel" condition where we don't share the same language and definitions. It’s also encouraged artists to develop practices for devising, creating and composing work that are distinct to their disciplines.
The inspiration for this project came from faculty and students at Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts where BFA, MFA and PhD programs in Dance, Theatre Production and Design, Visual Art, Film, and Music and Sound all work together in studio settings and playfully experiment with processes of art-making.
We wanted to create a database of projects, assignments and theory that we collect inside the studio and from research happening in other places. We are curious about how we collaborate and how structures reoccur, translate and deviate from one discipline to another.
Composition is central to these processes and offers a base for our approaches and experiments. We are excited about what our students are doing and inspired by the new languages in contemporary art and performance we continue to see develop.
︎︎︎select a category above to build assignments, learn more about how artists process ideas across disciplines and to create a collaborative process of your own
︎︎︎these tools are collected and used in workshops and classes; some are resources from artists; some are quotes about art-making and how bodies think and listen; others are ideas to expand and disrupt your own training and processes.
︎︎︎Each idea is intentially short- and not meant to be executed as written, but to be adapted to your own practice and specific project/context. Some may be taken in parts or combined with others to spark new ways of training and making together.
︎︎︎submit your own ideas and tools so we can keep building this site!
︎︎︎select a category above to build assignments, learn more about how artists process ideas across disciplines and to create a collaborative process of your own
︎︎︎these tools are collected and used in workshops and classes; some are resources from artists; some are quotes about art-making and how bodies think and listen; others are ideas to expand and disrupt your own training and processes.
︎︎︎Each idea is intentially short- and not meant to be executed as written, but to be adapted to your own practice and specific project/context. Some may be taken in parts or combined with others to spark new ways of training and making together.
︎︎︎submit your own ideas and tools so we can keep building this site!
