NYFA Blog

The Artist’s Digital Toolkit: Part 2

July 7, 2011 at 7:48 pm Michael Royce 4 comments

Collaborating and Participatory Culture

In my previous post, I examined some of the resources available online for artists to build and engage their creative communities. The growth and development within these networks is indicative of an emerging generation of artists rethinking the way they incorporate technology into their creative process.

Another rapidly evolving element of the creative process is the means by which artists collaborate on projects. Social networking has made it possible for artists all over the world to work together easily; web 2.0 has expanded the ways in which we interact with our physical world; and participatory culture has placed an increasing emphasis on the role of the audience and redefined the boundaries of collaborative art.

Increasingly, art is not only made by an artist for an audience but also as a collaboration between the artist and audience. The increasing prevalence of participatory culture has prompted new design strategies for creative organizations and propagated a new generation of arts collaboration websites.

Wreckamovie provides a platform for creating and executing collaborative projects over the internet. Artists upload tasks (e.g. writing a scene for a screen play, composing music for an opera, or designing animations for a film) that community members complete and submit for review. This Wiki inspired approach to collaboration empowers community members to engage in art projects. Though originally created as a resource for independent filmmakers, artists have used Wreckamovie to create visual art, web-comics, and even a full-scale opera production.

Kompoz, a site dedicated to collaborative music projects, allows users to upload audio files of works in progress which other users can then add to or modify. The site features musicians from around the world working in dozens of genres. Some collaborations have resulted in virtual bands that record ‘together’ regularly. Kompoz has fostered a vibrant community of musicians with songwriting contests, regular podcasts, and even an internet radio station dedicated to the music of Kompoz musicians.

Sites like Wreckamovie and Kompoz not only facilitate artists by connecting them to free professional resources, but they also permit audience members to engage in the creative process and collaborate on projects. While this model can’t replace entirely the traditional models of supporting artists through funding, crowd-sourced projects can result in an audience that is intimately invested in the artist’s work and career; that is priceless.

The Freelancers Union and Craigslist offer more traditional methods of artistic collaboration. The Freelancer’s Union “promote[s] the interests of independent workers through advocacy, education, and service,” and provides a database where anyone can search for, contact, and employ union members. This database makes it easy to access a wide range of artistic expertise and facilitates creative collaboration throughout the arts community.

While not the most sophisticated resource for collaboration, Craigslist provides a free and simple method for finding artists and craftspeople for hire. One notable advantage of Craigslist is that postings are categorized by location making it easier to establish face-to-face partnerships.

Artists have also utilized extant web platforms for collaboration and the creation of participatory art. Eric Whitacre, an American composer and conductor, used YouTube to create a virtual choir to perform his pieces. By soliciting performances from the YouTube community Whitacre was able to engage a large community in his creative process and generate a wider audience for his music.

Traditional arts organizations are also embracing the tenets of participatory culture by encouraging active participation in the artistic and curatorial processes. In 2008, Brooklyn Museum’s exhibit Click! invited the public to submit photographs on the theme “Changing Faces of Brooklyn.” The ‘crowd’ was then asked to evaluate each photograph. The project culminated in an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum and an online interactive feature.

Split Second: Indian Paintings, also at the Brooklyn Museum, asked participants to compare paintings from part of the museum’s permanent collection and make split second decisions about their preferences. The results are used to select works for exhibition scheduled to open next week.

These exhibitions not only engage communities in the artistic process and cultivate new interest in the arts.  They also force us to reconsider many of our beliefs about the art world:  art as necessarily elitist, the curator as gatekeeper, the specialist as expert, and the very essence of ownership are all called into question by these exhibits. Regardless of where we come down on these issues, the conversation itself can be an energizing force within the arts community.  Furthermore, these and other programs can serve as models for arts organizations and individual artists interested in participatory art making.

As always, I am interested to hear your reaction to the issues raised above. Are you an artist who has a lot of experience collaborating with some of these resources? Do you use other means to participate in group art projects? What do you think about the rise of participatory culture and the issues this raises?

In my next post, I will take a look at some of the digital resources available to artists for fundraising…

Additional links: Broadcastr, San Francisco Symphony: Community of Music Makers, Talent House, YouTube Symphony Orchestra

Entry filed under: Digital Culture, Events, NYC Happenings, Professional Development, Programming. Tags: Art, Artist, Film, Inspiration, Museum, New Media, New York City, Professional Development, Social Media, Technology.