Art, Collectively Defined

Art, Collectively Defined

Two NY Times stories (3/5/06) presented interesting themes of art being defined through a collaborative experience.

The first article, Military Maneuvers With Computer and Color, is about a duo-artist team, now husband and wife, who have been working together for years. They've taken their collaboration a step further with input from the community.

Detail from PTG.32 APUS, the subject of 'Miliary Maneuvers...'

They invited input from "...friends, artists, students, local merchants and, most recently, members of the American military based in Iraq, to choose from colors, text phrases and forms culled from the artists' vast drawing archive."

Sort of a paint-by-voting approach that drives a collectively produced, somewhat modular, and yet unique piece. (The article includes a link to the online survey and a short multimedia file for more background.)

The second article, The Collective Conscious, takes this theme of collaborative art even further. It describes artist collectives, where artists work together often operating under a single name. These collectives tap into group creation, the power and pervasivenss of the Internet to publish and share their work, and performance-based elements to reach into the public's consciousness.

These collectives operate "... on the principle that information is power and that it is most effectively made available through a combination of science and aesthetics. " They make their art, and their statements, reaching the public through marketing campaigns for non-existent movies and through scientific research and laboratory demonstrations.

These are a far cry from the image of the solitary painter at his easel. These are dynamic, complex organizations and collaborations, some with purposeful confusion, some with a rejection of the traditional gallery tradition.