INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION METHODOLOGIES IN ART, DESIGN AND MEDIA

R. A. Earnshaw1, S. Liggett2, K. Heald3 1Centre for Applied Internet Research, Glyndŵr University, Wrexham, Wales, UK

r.earnshaw@glyndwr.ac.uk 2North Wales School of Art and Design, Glyndŵr University, Wrexham, Wales, UK

s.liggett@glyndwr.ac.uk 3School of Social Sciences, Bangor University, Wales, UK

info@karenheald.co.uk

ABSTRACT Collaboration in art, design and media has traditionally taken place in the studio. Recent experiments in collaboration and interaction have sought to identify the factors that promote productive and creative collaboration and those that do not. It is clear that virtual collaboration mediated by computer networks can include many of the elements that characterise face to face collaboration. This also facilitates international collaboration just as easily as national and local ones. At the same time, digital convergence is producing environments and artefacts that blur the traditional distinctions between art and technology, and which give rise to new creative opportunities and new kinds of creative works. These are described in this paper and their significance is explored. These also cause further reflections on the contributions that science can make to art and vice-versa.

KEYWORDS Virtual collaboration, creative artworks, in-between-ness and digital convergence, psychological resonance, creative play

1. COLLABORATION ACROSS TRADITIONAL ACADEMIC BOUNDARIES Innovation and creativity are complex concepts particularly when applied to new disciplines and new areas of research. From a historical perspective, many exciting innovations have come about because creative people with different perspectives and skills have combined to produce something entirely new. For example it can be argued that the fields of oceanography and cognitive science emerged from multidisciplinary collaborations [1].

Kuhn [2] advocated the concept of the paradigm shift, which is a step change brought about by a fuller appreciation of the deficiencies or anomalies in current understanding or practice. Normal routine progress may tend to ignore such anomalies because of their varying significance to theorists and practitioners in the field. However, when new approaches are tried and demonstrated to lead to greater understanding, then it can be argued that a tipping point has been reached.

Some would argue that as existing disciplines have become well established, then it is more likely that new disciplines will tend to emerge along the boundaries of existing ones, rather than within them. Thus working at the boundary, or across the boundaries, is likely to be more fruitful in terms of research and developing new knowledge. However, this is not without its risks as noted by Blackwell et al [3] because of the silo effect of current disciplines, as well as other factors. It is also well-known that interdisciplinary research tends to be less well understood by reviewers from the established disciplines because it is not regarded as

sufficiently pure or traditional, or it may cut across the norms and conventions that have been established within a particular discipline.

A further challenge has been noted by Snow [4] which is the antipathy between the arts and the sciences brought about by a long history of different understandings and modes of discourse about the world, and also the changes brought about by the Scientific Revolution. These different modes of discourse, and understanding of what is regarded as significant, can make it difficult to do interdisciplinary collaborative research. Yet it may be precisely this research that yields the new insights and the new forms of understanding that open up the future.

When interdisciplinary research is carried out in universities or research laboratories this can also involve working across organisational and resource boundaries. Structures are set in place to support existing disciplines. Structures and budgets which support the status quo within organised units are generally not flexible enough to support working across different units. This suggests that structures need to be designed to be more open so that collaboration and innovation can be supported and promoted.

The existing structures of knowledge and information may be inadequate to cope with their future expansion. Knowledge is increasingly interdisciplinary and the traditional barriers between existing disciplines are being broken down in order to make progress. One way to begin to understand this transition, and start to address this challenge, has been set out by Wilson [5].

One effect of modern technology such as the Internet and the world wide web has been to break down traditional barriers. Formerly, collaborators were co-located within the same physical unit or structure in order to facilitate inter-working. Virtual working now allows researchers to collaborate across time and space, sharing ideas theories, experiments, simulations and results. In theory, academic boundaries know no boundaries.

3. COLLABORATION IN ARTS AND MEDIA 3.1 Background

This section explores how contemporary artists use technology in their work and how new technologies have enabled new ways of collaborating to be developed.

“The final avant-garde, if one should call it that, of the twentieth century is that art which engages the most enduring revolution in a century of revolutions: the technological revolution. Initiated by inventions outside the world of art, technology-based art (encompassing and range of practices from photography to film to video to virtual reality, and much else in between) has directed art into areas once dominated by engineers and technicians.” Rush [8]

New technologies have introduced new media to fine art practice and challenged the traditional hierarchies of painting and sculpture to create new paradigms of practice. The work of Artist Karen Heald and Susan Liggett explores the relationship between traditional and new media and collaborative opportunities. Their work challenges theories and methodologies within fine art practice creating innovative concepts and artworks. Their collaborative practice stimulates exciting discourses, with interactions that have resulted in creative research.

There are two main aspects to their research interests which originate from the practice of filmmaking and painting respectively. The first aspect investigates politics, ethics and the role of play and the imagination in the interaction between art, media and science, and what art and science can offer each other within the wider cultural environment. This work explores narrative, sensory intelligences and kinaesthetic learning and is empathic to the theory and

painting practice implicit in the second aspect. The former mediates between the physical act of filmmaking, painting and the subconscious realm of knowledge and research. It has developed upon experiencing the videos and writings of Bill Viola [9]. Filming is a process of writing as much as recording and therefore relates to the automatic writings of André Breton and the surrealist circle. There is a decisive act of picking up the pen, switching on the computer, pressing the shutter or record button, but then release into the unknown. An important part of the process has been to create opportunities such as filming in unfamiliar locations or conditions, part planning but always allowing for serendipitous situations to occur. ‘Staged’ performances are sited within a particular time frame and location. The performances can take place at designated performance spaces, such as in Art Galleries or Contemporary Dance Theatres, however more frequently they occur in non-conventional spaces, such as on public transport, in someone’s home or in hospitals.

In the second aspect, photographs act an aide memoire and the actual process of painting gives life back to those moments frozen by the camera, enabling a re-experiencing of them at a time when they can be more fully emotionally processed. The work explores the analogous concept of psychological resonance which is the metaphoric vibration resulting from an inner dialogue between ‘subject’ and ‘object’. Liggett’s psychological resonance is akin to Heald’s concept In-between-ness in that it relates to the stage in the creative process where one cannot articulate in words exactly what one intends to create. The process of pushing, rubbing, pouring and scraping paint involves direct interaction with the media. This evokes the sense of ‘skills with’ rather than ‘mastery over’ paint, in the same way that the use of a computer develops computer skills. Working collaboratively has enabled artists to ‘play’ with new technologies in a new way that is different to more traditional approaches.

3.2 Collaboration

This collaborative work explores the fields of science, media and contemporary fine art and recognizes the complexity of cultural knowledge, as it is informed, by scientific testing, interpretative science, intuition and myth. There are a wide range of organisations that have collaborated with artists usually to provide ‘artist residencies’ including schools, public organisations, private businesses and public services. These collaborations are usually based on strategies and opportunities that lead to mutually beneficial projects that enable artists to broaden their profiles, expand their audiences and generate income. Artists create and welcome opportunities to experience this sharing of specialized knowledge that facilitates entrances into ‘other’ worlds. The partnership between arts and media within organizations enables greater access to resources and new dimensions of research.

This research has allowed non-hierarchical collaborations to evolve with the ownership of the material being mutually possessed by the collaborators. Theoretical ideas across the partnership are closely aligned which led to collaborative painting and film artworks. Examples of such pieces of artwork are Fragmentary Chronicles II (2012) (Figure 1) and Poesy II (2012) (Figure 2). Thus technology has opened up new possibilities for collaboration and enabled them to bridge the gap between their work and the public.

Figure 1. Fragmentary Chronicles II (Chris Bird-Jones, Heald & Liggett 2012)

Figure 2. Poesy II (Daisy Farris, Heald & Liggett, 2012)

Interactions with the digital world has facilitated collaborative practice and led to the growth of collaborative opportunities. Through a variety of media, primarily video, installation and photography, a poetic visual language has evolved that engages with the differences and similarities between painting and film. This creates a language of “painterly video” that communicates difficult social issues with subtle, oblique visual stanzas. This non-verbal

communication translates through the performative use of time-based media, with the films and photographic installations endeavouring to create unique lyrical dialects. The visual architecture upon which the images hang is like the phrasing, meter, rhyming of words in a poem. This forms a process of meditative synthesis where time, slot length, layering, interplay of edits and cuts are the ‘grammatical’ structuring of the edited work. The titles of the films allow stories to interplay and give the viewer access to the artworks. Directing through improvisation, the process often involves conversations with collaborators developed over many weeks or months prior to filming. The work uses new media and engages with a variety of collaborations with diverse practitioners such as artists, scientists/medical doctors and a number of other academics.

Technology has also led to opportunities to exhibit artworks and reach new audiences. Films have interacted with spectators via live web-streaming during Videoformes, an annual festival of video and moving image, in France (2012). Showcasing of live arts performance and film screenings between the University of Salford and the Maison du Peuple, in Clermont-Ferrand, was achieved. A live video link was set up so that the audience in Clermont-Ferrand could watch the performance live in Salford and visa-versa. Also the use of technology, with the ease of data access and storage, generated a means of challenging the uniqueness of the problems that individuals encountered when creating artworks. An artist’s understanding and use of technology is intuitive - so engaging in ‘play’ with technology has a therapeutic effect. According to Winnicott [10], ‘play’ relates to an individual’s capacity to live creatively.

Figure 3. White (Heald & Liggett Liggett, 2009)

The artists’ films are developing an intuitive way to think through the lens. This entails not just film exploring, although this can be equally valid when considering the graphics of colour, line and form, but an intensity, a sense of ‘digging deeper’ to unravel or to form some sense of time,

reverie or unknown reality. One example is in the artists film White (2009) (Figure 3) where the layering and continuity of time is essential to the work.

3.3 In-between-ness

In North Wales, the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCU HB) has successfully established ‘artist in residence’ programmes within its hospitals, which have acted as springboards for other important collaborations. These included the Arts and Science project titled In-between-ness: using art to capture changes to the self during antidepressant treatment. This is a collaborative research project between artists Karen Heald and Dr Susan Liggett and scientists, Dr Richard Tranter and Professor Rob Poole. Specifically focused exhibitions and a website of artwork generated from this collaboration of arts and science researchers gives both parties a means of disseminating their work and engaging with public thought. The In-between-ness collaboration is an example of how technology has enabled mental health patients in North Wales to engage in the creative process. This project involves the artists working creatively with patients who use video to create artworks for exhibition. Using a video camera with mental health patients meant that they did not have to overcome the mindset that ‘mastery over’ a medium like paint would require. ‘Skills with’ seems more spontaneous, immediate and achievable to the novice.

Five primary care patients about to commence antidepressant treatment for moderate severity depression were recruited through purposive sampling to take part in the project. Following initial screening by a psychiatrist, participants consenting to take part meet with the artists to be shown how to use a video camera and discuss the boundaries for filming. The artists created objects or prompts, imbued with exploratory text, to help focus participants to act on their creative impulses with the video camera to produce artworks. Participants began filming for 24 hours before commencing antidepressant medication, and continued throughout the first six weeks of treatment. Each week the participants met with the artists to review and discuss their films. These discussions were audiotaped and transcribed. Subjects were encouraged to reflect on: how their emotional perception of their environment changed; their sense of self and personal authenticity; and their sense of agency and affirmation in relation to their recovery. Qualitative exploration of the interview transcripts is ongoing and uses a framework analysis approach[11]. At the end of six weeks participants were invited to take part in the ongoing development of their films working towards staging a touring exhibition.

So far four participants have completed the project. The findings from the transcript analysis of one participant found that during the 6 weeks she experienced a significant recovery from her depression. The following key themes emerged from the framework analysis:

1. Responsiveness to sensations At the beginning of treatment the participant was preoccupied by internal ruminations, but over time became more aware of external stimuli.

2. Appreciation of external environment Initially the participant focused on negative aspects of her environment, but this changed into an appreciation of the beauty of the landscapes and details around her, with engagement of all her senses.

3. Quality of feelings The participant describes a lack of feelings towards things around her, but over time the emotional response intensifies, with greater reference to both positive and negative emotions.

4. Value of production The participant devalues and is critical of the film she has produced. Following repeated feedback from the artists highlighting the aesthetic quality of her filming, she begins to value and self-praises the work she has produced.

5. Shame Descriptions of the self are dominated by a sense of shame of being depressed and taking medication. This gives way to more openness, self-acceptance and greater interaction with others.

6. Stories and narratives The increased awareness of things around her also promotes the recollection of stories from her life and of people she has known. Recovery stimulates the reconstruction of a personal narrative.

The researchers on the In-between-ness project have found that engaging patients in the creative process has a beneficial effect. Clear synergies have arisen from the work in these two areas. The research aims are to help develop relationships that have been established between the Arts in Health initiative in North Wales and Glyndwr and Bangor Universities, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCU HB), Arts Council Wales and the Department of Heritage. As these organisations are remote from each other, the artists will use technology to enable a meeting of minds through mediation, such as by webcam, email and teleconferencing.

A web site for the In-between-ness project will showcase the artwork of the patients and artists, and collaborative arts and science papers. It will also incorporate a nurse led service delivery model. Research conducted into online Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) “revealed a strong working alliance for both online and clinic CBT, with no significant difference in working alliance between conditions for adolescents” [11]. This interactive model will integrate initial one to one participation with online engagement in creative activities, be a portal for professional ideas, and incorporate a general forum. The exchange of information within this socially interactive hub would be securely moderated by providing feedback from the professional artists. A smartphone application titled Artist Video Feedback Therapy (AVFT) will be developed to enable downloads onto mobile devices such as the IPhone, IPad and Android phones and notebooks.

4. CONCLUSIONS Technology has led to new collaboration opportunities between artists locally and at a distance. Time and space are no longer constraints on the creative process. Technology has also led to new opportunities to exhibit artworks and reach new audiences, and also facilitate interaction with art works. In addition, the artist’s relationship to the technology almost as a partner has encouraged new uses and new perspectives, just as playing a musical instrument can encourage the playing of new tunes and the creation of new compositions. Creative play is crucial to the creative process and it is relatively easy to develop new works from the real-time data, so technology can help to harness the process of intuition more readily.

The graphics of colour, line and form can be explored through the lens in film. The creative works can also be explored at a deeper level – to uncover a new perspective, or to form a new sense of time, a new reverie, or an unknown reality.

These opportunities would not have been possible without advancing technologies and artists’ interventions. Through utilising technology, artists are now able to reach out effectively to cultural partners and engage in professional settings to provide a professional, local and regional context in which to develop their work and contribute to an evolving arts and cultural economy.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Dr Richard Tranter is a consultant psychiatrist working in Nelson, New Zealand. From 2009 - 2012 he was a senior clinical lecturer with the Department of Medical Sciences, Bangor

University, in North Wales and from 2011 - 2012 Assistant Director in Research and Development at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. Professor Rob Poole is a social psychiatrist who was a NHS consultant for 28 years before taking an academic post in 2009. He is Professor of Social Psychiatry at Bangor University, and Co-Director of the Centre for Mental Health and Society within Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.

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