Try asking Nature︎︎︎
The extraordinary challenges thrown at plants and animals
by predators and climate elicit amazing examples of adaptation of shape, form
and behavior to aid survival. Let the outstanding creativity found in nature
inspire new ideas.
The incredible ways in which plants and animals have learnt to fly, swim, walk, dive, navigate, communicate, build homes, take shelter, retain heat, keep cool, attract, repel, attack, defend and protect themselves, devour food, store food, raise young, absorb water, repel water, store water, camouflage themselves, and survive fire, frost and flood offer man innumerable readymade blueprints and prototypes for further development.
Got a problem [developing or working on an idea]? Ask how nature would solve it. Look at engineering, structures, aesthetics and group organization present in nature; its efficiency and the systems whereby the waste from one thing nourishes others, and its symbiotic behavior, in which entirely different species team up for mutual benefit.
Ask yourself: “How would nature do it?”
The incredible ways in which plants and animals have learnt to fly, swim, walk, dive, navigate, communicate, build homes, take shelter, retain heat, keep cool, attract, repel, attack, defend and protect themselves, devour food, store food, raise young, absorb water, repel water, store water, camouflage themselves, and survive fire, frost and flood offer man innumerable readymade blueprints and prototypes for further development.
Got a problem [developing or working on an idea]? Ask how nature would solve it. Look at engineering, structures, aesthetics and group organization present in nature; its efficiency and the systems whereby the waste from one thing nourishes others, and its symbiotic behavior, in which entirely different species team up for mutual benefit.
Ask yourself: “How would nature do it?”
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!
