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.