Turning Space into Place︎︎︎
Introduction:
In 1989 the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston published a booklet by Fred Sandback entitled Children’s Guide to Seeing. In it, Sandback writes about his process of using knitting yarn to “take space and make it into a place—a place that people will move around in and be in.” The space that Sandback used for his yarn sculptures was the space of the museum or gallery, but we can take his idea and use it to activate our own spaces.
Before you begin, think about what it means to take “space” and make it into a “place.” What is the difference between space and place? There’s no right answer to this question, but the way I imagine it, a space is something big and open and without a specific purpose, and a place is something that has been designed to be used or inhabited in a certain way.
Outdoors
For this exercise, you will need several rolls of colorful, trail-marking ribbon, yarn, or string and a space where there are sturdy trees and bushes.
Begin unrolling your colorful material choice and use it to draw lines in space, tying it to tree branches and stretching it to connect to other branches or letting it drape and hang.
Experiment with what kinds of lines you can make with the material. Can you wrap it around the tree branches to make an enclosure or fort? Can you make a frame through which to look at the sky? You can weave, wrap, drape, or tie your material. You can make stripes or curtains or walls.
When you are finished, you can invite other people to explore your place or you can keep it all to yourself. If you are working outside, make sure to leave the space exactly how you found it.
Indoors
For this exercise, you don’t need any special materials, but you will have to be resourceful and use what you have around your house.
Think of spaces in your house that are open and undefined and that can be turned into places. The area under a kitchen or dining room table is a common space. An unused corner of a room might be another good space. How about under your bed? Explore your house and identify any spaces that look like they could be turned into places.
Once you’ve found a good space, you’ll need to think about what kind of place you want to create. Will it be simple or will it have lots of decorations? Will it be a place where you can be alone or with others? Will it be well lit for reading a book, or should it be dark for napping? Make a list of all the qualities that your place should have.
Next, find the objects around your house that will enable you to turn your space into a place. Some good building materials are books, sheets, blankets, sofa cushions, chairs, yarn, string, cardboard, tape, paper, clothespins, and binder clips.
Stack, lean, attach, tie, and clip your materials to define the edges of your place. It can have walls or not. It can have a ceiling or canopy or not. It can have a door or not. The design is entirely up to you.
In 1989 the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston published a booklet by Fred Sandback entitled Children’s Guide to Seeing. In it, Sandback writes about his process of using knitting yarn to “take space and make it into a place—a place that people will move around in and be in.” The space that Sandback used for his yarn sculptures was the space of the museum or gallery, but we can take his idea and use it to activate our own spaces.
Before you begin, think about what it means to take “space” and make it into a “place.” What is the difference between space and place? There’s no right answer to this question, but the way I imagine it, a space is something big and open and without a specific purpose, and a place is something that has been designed to be used or inhabited in a certain way.
Outdoors
For this exercise, you will need several rolls of colorful, trail-marking ribbon, yarn, or string and a space where there are sturdy trees and bushes.
Begin unrolling your colorful material choice and use it to draw lines in space, tying it to tree branches and stretching it to connect to other branches or letting it drape and hang.
Experiment with what kinds of lines you can make with the material. Can you wrap it around the tree branches to make an enclosure or fort? Can you make a frame through which to look at the sky? You can weave, wrap, drape, or tie your material. You can make stripes or curtains or walls.
When you are finished, you can invite other people to explore your place or you can keep it all to yourself. If you are working outside, make sure to leave the space exactly how you found it.
Indoors
For this exercise, you don’t need any special materials, but you will have to be resourceful and use what you have around your house.
Think of spaces in your house that are open and undefined and that can be turned into places. The area under a kitchen or dining room table is a common space. An unused corner of a room might be another good space. How about under your bed? Explore your house and identify any spaces that look like they could be turned into places.
Once you’ve found a good space, you’ll need to think about what kind of place you want to create. Will it be simple or will it have lots of decorations? Will it be a place where you can be alone or with others? Will it be well lit for reading a book, or should it be dark for napping? Make a list of all the qualities that your place should have.
Next, find the objects around your house that will enable you to turn your space into a place. Some good building materials are books, sheets, blankets, sofa cushions, chairs, yarn, string, cardboard, tape, paper, clothespins, and binder clips.
Stack, lean, attach, tie, and clip your materials to define the edges of your place. It can have walls or not. It can have a ceiling or canopy or not. It can have a door or not. The design is entirely up to you.
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!
