I am very new to collaborative art, but I believe now that this will be something that I will probably do for the rest of my life. I am just so fascinated with the concept of collaboration in the creation of anything.
My background is computer science and recently business – my day job is research and development. I have been studying the Open Source (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source) community for years and it is amazing what people have been able to create. So to my question:
Why collaboration, especially in art?
In my opinion, the creation of art by definition is a ‘selfish’ representation. What I mean by ‘selfish’ is that the act is completely focused on conveying and creating something alone – in a sense for yourself OR for yourself to show off others and say “look what I did.” Granted this desire to show off what you have created might be for the greater good to compel people to think, however, it does originate just from you - sort of like my post here
Anyway, I believe you can have similar motivations in collaborative art, however the difference is that you share the reward.
Personally, I am moving toward doing collaborative art just because I feel this innate desire to work with others for the greater good and understanding. So, am I alone in this perspective? I am crazy?
My background is computer science and recently business – my day job is research and development. I have been studying the Open Source (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source) community for years and it is amazing what people have been able to create. So to my question:
Why collaboration, especially in art?
In my opinion, the creation of art by definition is a ‘selfish’ representation. What I mean by ‘selfish’ is that the act is completely focused on conveying and creating something alone – in a sense for yourself OR for yourself to show off others and say “look what I did.” Granted this desire to show off what you have created might be for the greater good to compel people to think, however, it does originate just from you - sort of like my post here
Anyway, I believe you can have similar motivations in collaborative art, however the difference is that you share the reward.
Personally, I am moving toward doing collaborative art just because I feel this innate desire to work with others for the greater good and understanding. So, am I alone in this perspective? I am crazy?
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Re: Question: Why collaboration?
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 6:50 AMyes the source for art and probably a heck of a lot of motivation in life is ego vanity but nobody exists in a vacuum and art and language is in an organic free association albeit weighted by certain socio-eco power balances in terms of media and cultural politics etc...
it is a worthwhile aim to want to work with others and open source is the real world in a way except it gets packaged politically so empowered people can empower themselves more and play with money and influence so the process of inclusion/exclusion is always going on one way or another etc...
in the real world what would constitute a collaberative arts community with a shared vision...? -
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Re: Question: Why collaboration?
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 7:44 PMFirst of all, thanks for the response and willingness to discuss. To your question:
“in the real world what would constitute a collaberative arts community with a shared vision...?”
I can’t cite any present examples in the real world – maybe none exists.
However, you bring up a great point about any collaborative art project (or any collaboration) – the shared vision. It is absolutely critical for any collaboration to be successful. I do project management work during the day (software primarily) and without the vision – no one has any clue where to go and/or why. In a sense, for the collaborative art project where most of the work is volunteer the idea/vision has to be the every-present leader showing they way. Why? The goal stays the same because it is typically abstract enough to handle high variability in the outcome. Agree/disagree/confused?
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