Real collaboration, real time
Alicia Sometimes, 2023 ANAT Synapse resident, Dark Energy, image courtesy of the artist.“Collaboration is in ANAT’s DNA. We forge relationships across industry, academia, the community and government to create unique opportunities for artists.” – Website
It’s precisely because collaboration is in its DNA that I wanted to talk to Melissa Delaney, the CEO of the Australian Network for Art & Technology (ANAT), for my project about arts and creative skills, capabilities, and mindsets as a transversal practice.
On its website, ANAT describes itself as:
“… a global leader in brokering opportunities for artists to work with science and technology partners. We do this because we believe artists are essential to how we imagine and shape the future.”
ANAT carries out this work through organizing residencies, events such as conferences, symposia, or workshops dedicated to knowledge sharing, building networks, and showcasing work, and otherwise opening up professional pathways for artists.
Melissa and I had an in depth conversation about interdisciplinary practice, whether that be through collaboration or in the work of an individual – I noted that Melissa, herself, is an interdisciplinary practitioner who frames her work across various disciplines as “social sculpture.” We talked about the importance of deep listening, of defining your work according to values and philosophies, of work during the lockdowns, and, of course, of interdisciplinary work between artists and scientists or technologists.
One terrific insight that Melissa shared was about time. Everyone I have talked to for this project has spoken about the absolute necessity of allowing time for collaborative relationships to develop. And it was at the ANAT SPECTRA: Multiplicity 2022 conference that I heard artist Baden Pailthorpe describe an interdisciplinary collaboration he was working in as proceeding at the pace of trust. But during our conversation Melissa underlined why time is so critical to collaboration:
“… real collaboration happens in real time. It's not something that can be preconceived. So, in a collaboration, you're actually opening up a space for that to occur more than saying this is what's going to happen from the collaboration, that's going to be the outcome.”
Just prior to this we had been talking about how undermining it is within collaborations if one participant arrives with preconceived ideas that they then try to impose. The collaboration then shifts to becoming ‘their’ project and that possible co-creation of something that uniquely belongs to a collective process never gets a chance to emerge.
So how do you nurture the conditions that empower people to bring the right kind of energy to working within interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary collaborations? And if the arts is a transversal presence in those collaborations – either embodied as an artist or a process – then how does that affect co-creation?
I look forward to unpacking this in more detail in my Near and Far e-zine that I will release towards the end of October.
Curious? The come along to the free online event I am facilitating to talk about what I heard during my research. It’s on at 6pm, 28 February 2024 AEDT. I’d love to see you there.
And, of course, I would also love it if you bought the book! You can do so HERE!
