Collaborate Studio Workshop

01st Oct

The Lecture of the Studio（Tutor: Raju Rage）

Miss Raju gave lectures on how to do researches in the first session of this semester.

According to her suggestion, there are three bibliographies written by Kathrin Busch , Christopher Frayling and Ben Spatz respectively. From then on, our group started to discuss how to research by ourselves. What I learned from the discussion is that we can use theoretical resources in various areas such as such as Mathematics, Psychology and Social Studies to illustrate definitions in the Art of Science.

From Ben Spatz's paper, I learned a methodology for concrete research: the first is to introduce the paper and then frame the project. Afterwards, it is sugested to work with people in any space and time. Fourth, archives and documents will be collected from our works of art. Finally, criteria for assessment will be concluded after critical thinking. I believe this method is good since practices are reflected and all the steps are covered. As a result, students can be inspired through the learning process.

In Busch's article，the first form of artistic research, understood as the conscious acceptance of contemporary theory, must be distinguished from the art of research. Second, another form of art research is to understand oneself as the art of research. This is the process or conclusion of science which becomes a tool of art, being used in art works. The most worthwhile point is that more and more art researches rely on theory, which even advocates science. This will inevitably lead to a deeper reflection and test of the production of scientific knowledge and its system. It needs to always practice the art of science with critical intent, rather than merely practicing the science of an art that forces itself to be subject to the power from universities or academia. Therefore, I argue that this is the essence of my study abroad, that is, critical thinking. The experience that I have concluded will be overthrown, which leads to new ideas. In the end, the transformation of art into science fails to cause the scientificization of art, but instead developing a middle ground that allows art and science to connect with each other.

In Frayling's paper, he proposes that the research of art should not be confined in a certain area. Also, there is no stereotype for analysing one definition. Therefore, we are advised to break the traditional bound and further art researches.

08th Oct

Visiting the Tate Britain

Miss Raju organised a tour to visit the Tate Britain. We choose to see the exhibition hall featured " Sixty Years" . Also, we are encouraged to share ideas on the exhibits. The exhibition is not arranged in chronological order, but revolves around three broad and overlapping themes, which begins a dialogue between generations: space and structure, our relationship with home, and the stereotype of society with fictional identities. In the hall, each student chooses a piece of work they are interested to illustrate. We share thoughts on reasons of our choices as well as inspirations from the work.

I chose the work from a British female artist named Inglich in the 1970s. The reason why I showed my interest is that there are many elements in her work, such as videos, photos, advertisements and sculptures. It is a comprehensive art experiment with rich expression. To be more specific, in the video, there are six ladies putting on the horseshoe and ponytail made by the artist, and then simulating the posture and the horse walking. All the dynamics were recorded in terms of the shape of the hips and legs of the horse while crossing the obstacle or even waiting for crossing. Because there are no heels for these horseshoe-shaped shoes, the actor must walk on his feet tips to simulate the posture of the horse walking. Besides, the ponytail they wore was also fully demonstrated in the mental state of the horse walking. I concluded that the artist wanted to adopt performance to highlight and break the oppressive gender roles and social class hierarchy. I believe such work is very novel and unique since wearing a ponytail first will make people stare at the hips of women, and high heels are also a symbol of women. It is true that equestrian itself is an entertainment of the upper class, and it can better reflect the products of social class. I like this metaphor because beauties are always playful things to the upper class. In the 1970s, the female artist challenged the stereotype of society in this form, and this fictional form was very novel. I can observe that the artist's critical thinking and the use of various disciplines, such as multimedia, printed advertising and fashion, which are finally presented in a performance in an art way. To sum up, the work as a whole is rich and impressive. It sheds light on my own works which will be presented in a more cross-border way, instead of only expressing works in the form of paintings.

15th Oct

Studio workshop

The teacher took us to the archives and divided us into groups, in which we were allowed to choose an artist work we were interested. There are Fiona and Charlotte in my group. We found a book and we were all very interested in it.It is a self-explanation of the artist Gilbert and George on how art responds to the artist?

I didn't know the artists at first. I just started to see this conversation, feeling specially romantic. This was my initial heart of learning Fine Art, which makes me feel the beauty of art and express the beauty in my eyes. After that, our team decided to go back to research and choose interested parts to study.

We looked through some of the backgrounds of the artists and found that this is very special for artists who see themselves as art. Also, we found that art has been integrated into their lives, and they have created new forms of art in their time. Moreover, they would make themselves prototypes in their works, whether it be photography, collage, sculpture or any other forms. This also matches their artistic concept , which is "Art for all".

25th Oct

On Friday, we gathered in our workshop, talking about the research we did over the past three days. Fiona took a set of photos of her special feelings, from which she particularly liked to study some concepts. Among them, I saw an interview with Gilbert and George, which presented on how they create artwork with more instincts rather than planned. Therefore, we considered it as an inspiration and wanted to make it work. I

Their words inspired me to link with their famous masterpiece. In their masterpiece, the Living Sculpture, applied gold powder as a bronze statue to challenge the traditional sculpture concept. They argue that art can talk directly to the audience, so they turned to the more intuitive way of creating "photography."Charlotte said she had known the artists before， and had a set of collages based on them to express her personality.

On the weekend，Fiona suggested that we can walk back and forth on a canvas to record the route we walked. I suggest that we can cover our eyes so that we can reflect our unconsciousness and draw with intuition. I said that we can choose a pigment to represent ourselves, applying it on our feet, and then cover our eyes and use our intuition to find another person. So we made a happy decision. We did the experiment on Monday. I used GoPro to record our dynamics, and I found that when I left, I wanted to touch others boldly, and I wanted to hide in the corner and not let others touch me. Fiona, however, would slowly walk to find other. By contrast, Charlotte's way of walking was a bold rush to go forward. It is like every different individual in the society who shows different states, and the footprints they left are our different life trajectories.

After we finish our work, we think about the meaning of our painting, which shows the relationship between people. Some footprints are separate and some are overlapping.

In addition, we finish the work after thinking about the meaning of the work ，because we are part of the art, with own intuition to create instead of doing it on purpose. Finally, we get inspired from the work. I think that's one of the artistic ideas from artists Gilbert and George.

FIona 's practice

Charlotte's previous research

Final

22nd Oct

Presentation

Today we made a presentation, in which Charlotte studied the artist's background and experience because she had studied the artist originally. I studied some of their paintings because I prefer to study some visual paintings. Fiona likes conceptual art, so she summed up the concept of our work. When we finished our thoughts, Raju asked if we had thought about the reason, and asked if I liked this work，but the footprints we have come out is our artificial processing, which makes me feel that we are against our initial heart,and it is not a very intuitive feeling. However, I also think this is a portrayal of real life, people will do secondary processing，like women wear makeup and beautiful clothes while men buy nice cars and expensive watches , letting people see what they want to bring to the others.

Reflection

I found the benefits of listening to other people's suggestions at a collaborative workshop, from which I can get more inspiration. Everyone can say somethings, then I can advance the progress of the work and get new ideas. In this collaborative studio workshop, I helped everyone find the theoretical support for the work and edited the video for everyone. I find that cooperation can be very effective. Everyone can do what they are good at. Therefore, our work is advancing very fast.