Producing with the Audience
Workshop “Help Wanted – A Workshop in Audience (Co-)Generated/(Co-)Produced
Art”
Hand-out
Dear participant,
This morning we’ve been
theoretically exploring the role of unpredictability in the creative design
process: A trajectory that offers numerous approaches, possibilities and challenges
for you as an artist/designer. For the remainder of this workshop we will
practically focus on the already discussed design methods User Generated Art,
Participatory Design, and Crowdsourcing; closely related but also slightly
different and thus more or less complementary design methods that however all involve
the audience in the creative design process.
The assignment:
Conceptualize and execute an artwork that is
(co-)generated/(co-)produced by the audience.
Whether you come up with
a user generated artwork, an idea for a crowdsourcing project or any other
participatory design plan, make sure that you seduce your audience into eagerly
wanting to play a constructive role in the process and that both you and your audience
will be surprised and intrigued by the final result. So, just to be clear,
‘only’ asking your audience to interact in an explorative way is not gonna do
it. It is not about asking the visitor to push a button to activate an already
‘programmed’ activity, it’s about asking the visitor to constructively influence
the process and as a consequence (co-)determining the content, shape and/or
esthetics of the end result. It is about co-creation, involving the audience in
the creative design process itself, about producing with the audience. The
audience does, by the way, not always has to be fully aware of the fact that he
is ‘adding’ something, for it is the artist who defines the framework and
decides on what kind of input is needed from the audience. The amount, the
esthetic and the exact content of the input are variables and as a consequence
the final result/outcome is also to a greater of lesser extent uncertain.
Some boundary conditions
/ restrictions, practicalities and other remarks:
-For the execution of
your project during the workshop your audience will consist of all the
participants (and the supervisors) of this workshop. They are the ones who will
(co-)produce/(co-)generate ‘your’ artwork.
-You can either work with
the theme: The Encounter, or start from your own fascination.
-All the concepts will be
executed on Tuesday morning May 8th in the faculty building (preferably in the
classroom).
-Every execution is
limited to thirty minutes. Preparations included, so make sure you’re set to
go!
-In this half of an hour
it is not necessary that the project is completely finished, it should however
give a clear insight in the objective and functioning of the piece.
-Feel free to use any
analogue and digital matters. Be aware that this is not a technical workshop,
so remain close to your field(s) of expertise and also keep it relatively
‘simple’ with regard to the small amount of time.
-You are responsible for arranging
the equipment that is needed.
-You can work alone but
we recommend you work in a duo.
-We want to record all
the executions so please think about a ‘camera plan’ and inform us about this
beforehand. We only have one camera, but participants can probably assist with
a mobile camera as well….
-The link to our blog-in-progress
is: http://workshophelpwanted.blogspot.com/ Feel free to contact us with tips and remarks.
-Enjoy!
Oh, and please note that
in this particular kind of design process (principles of) other design
processes can of course also play a defining role. Anyhow: Let’s Create!
Schedule (subject to
small alterations)
Day 1:
9.00-9.30
-Introduction: welcome, who is who and expectations, timeline
9.30-11.00
-Theoretical context (with short break halfway)
11.00-12.00
-Handing out the assignment, talking it through and first short brainstorm
12.00-13.00
-Lunchbreak
13.00-15.45
-Working on the concept (of course with some short breaks in between)
15.45-16.00
-Wrapping up day 1 and making a schedule for day 2
Day 2:
9.00 – 14.00
-Execution of the concepts (with breaks)
14.00 – 15.30
-Evaluation of the projects and fine-tuning for the TAF (with break halfway)
15.30 – 16.00
-Making appointments for Friday and evaluation and closing of the workshop
For questions please contact us at > workshop2hku@gmail.com
