Collaboration︎︎︎
All of these people are
useful in a group:
• Those who initiate
• Those who affirm ("yes good idea let’s do that")
• Those who provide caution ("should we consider this? What about that?")
• Those who say "I’m uncomfortable with that" or "No"
• Those who say “yes, and”
• Those who offer a counter idea
• Those who just goes along with it
• The mediator
• The practical one (ie. Stage Manager)
Questions:
Which can you identify as your default? Can you explore the roles you don't naturally fall into? If you see a role in the group that is needed, can you try that role?
Collaboration (from Jonathan Burrows):
When you allow yourself to make a discovery—then there is something there for your audience to discover. When you try to agree too much with your collaborators, then there’s nothing new to discover- for you or the audience.
Talking is only one way to collaborate—talking shouldn’t become an easy escape from the frustrations which might eventually lead you somewhere
From Viewpoints:
1. Create a question to investigate that matters to everyone in the group.
2. Find an anchor that will be used to investigate the question—this could be a method or approach.
3. Determine a structure that best holds your ideas together.
“Hold on tightly, let go lightly," Work in the spirit of trial and error. Be open to taking conceptual leaps of faith in order to allow for poetry and metaphor. Be open to new influences and points of view from other people. At the same time, try to stay in touch with the central question, the itch, your interest.”
• Those who initiate
• Those who affirm ("yes good idea let’s do that")
• Those who provide caution ("should we consider this? What about that?")
• Those who say "I’m uncomfortable with that" or "No"
• Those who say “yes, and”
• Those who offer a counter idea
• Those who just goes along with it
• The mediator
• The practical one (ie. Stage Manager)
Questions:
Which can you identify as your default? Can you explore the roles you don't naturally fall into? If you see a role in the group that is needed, can you try that role?
Collaboration (from Jonathan Burrows):
When you allow yourself to make a discovery—then there is something there for your audience to discover. When you try to agree too much with your collaborators, then there’s nothing new to discover- for you or the audience.
Talking is only one way to collaborate—talking shouldn’t become an easy escape from the frustrations which might eventually lead you somewhere
From Viewpoints:
1. Create a question to investigate that matters to everyone in the group.
2. Find an anchor that will be used to investigate the question—this could be a method or approach.
3. Determine a structure that best holds your ideas together.
“Hold on tightly, let go lightly," Work in the spirit of trial and error. Be open to taking conceptual leaps of faith in order to allow for poetry and metaphor. Be open to new influences and points of view from other people. At the same time, try to stay in touch with the central question, the itch, your interest.”
︎︎︎from
Robert Leveroos, introduced to him by Peter Balkwill at the Old Trout’s
Banff Puppet Intensive, Johnathan Burrows and Viewpoints
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!
