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Blog 22: Where do our notions of visual art as a solitary activity come from?

What are the benefits and limitations of engaging in collaborative works of art?

I would suspect that some people would consider visual are to be a solitary activity because there is much emphasis on self-expression through the arts. Some people would assume that it is impossible to express yourself, if the piece was being made by a team of people.

A second suspicion of mine is that the way in which we are taught art introduces the solitary aspect. From a very early age we are expected to make art individually. Young children are very often told to respect each other’s space and property, and not to interfere with one another. This is never more clearly exemplified when kids are given ‘art time’ and each child has their own 8”X11” sheet of paper to draw on. Sure the kids may share ideas and look at their peer’s work, but when are they encouraged to collaborate on a single drawing? How uncomfortable are we as adults when someone else works on our projects?

In school art assignments are usually skill acquisition based and therefore solitary art best facilitates the assessment of the individual.

The benefits to collaborative works of art are infinite. There is no way to calculate the possible benefits to human interaction. Collaborating on art is the same as collaborating on anything else, it is human interaction, and that has benefits on spiritual, intellectual, creative, moral, physical and just about every level. The greatest theme to collaborative works of art is the negotiation. Simply representing human interaction visually is its own benefit.

23! "the number 23 is everywhere in my life.."

Blog 23: What has this experience of working collaboratively added to your understanding of what one learns through art?

One aspect of art that is understated also happens to be one aspect that relates it more closely to the other educational disciplines. Works of art are packed with meaning. Metaphors and symbols, and statements and choices and questions that need to be addressed, dissected and answered. In that process, collaboration is essential to artwork, after all, a conversation needs multiple participants. Whether collaboratively critiquing or creating an artwork, a discourse is formulated in which profound intellectual and moral conflicts are (hopefully) resolved through negotiation and compromise. In that respect collaboration in art is a microcosm of society as a whole. Understanding art is very much akin to understanding culture. I really believe that to study and know the artwork of one culture is to understand that culture.

“Individual” art, if there is such a thing, has no negotiated understanding of an iconology, motif or technical choice. This lack of negotiation truly leads to a detached and delusional interpretation of everything, as there is no outside ‘corrective’ influence. By corrective influence I refer to those modest and constructive criticism that helps an artist refine their ideas, whether by defending the ideological basis, introducing new handling techniques, or simply having a ‘fresh pair of eyes’ to look at it.