Monday, May 31, 2010

[Yasmin_discussions] Doing and Studying International Collaboration in the Sciences, Arts and the Humanities

Hello all,

I have been a bit slow to post as I had to do some admin updates on my
subscription, but all working now - (I hope).

ANAT has been involved in art/science research collaboration for over ten
years, five of which as a part of the Synapse initiative between ANAT and
the Australia Council for the Arts.

Recently ANAT and the Australia Council for the Arts got together those who
have been involved in the residencies to initiate, what we hope, will be a
research process that will tell us much more about these collaborations and
also initiate the building of a strong art/science community. The discussion
we had was wide ranging, but one point that really struck me was the concept
that we need to redefine what is an artistic career and for that matter what
is a science career. The inherent interdisciplinary nature of successful art
science collaboration creates a different discipline and it seems worth, as
we enter this dialogue, to suspend what we expect from these separate areas
and envision what the new practice might be. This will mean both the arts
and science each being willing to give some of their turf.

To pick on robotics research as an example where the technology has gone
beyond the technical basics to where deeper questions of what it is to be
human need to be answered if the technology is to advance. The research is
no longer pure technology research, it is about interfaces with people -
where engineering, psychology, aesthetics and art meet. From an arts
perspective robotics is a broad and responsive creative dialogue involving
what it means to be human now and into the future. This is an artistic
practice not destined for the gallery, but rather destined to have a much
broader impact on how we live.

So we may have students who want to have a career in robotics so they study
art and students interested in art studying robotics - the point being the
interdisciplinary nature that will be needed for successful creative,
cultural and research out comes, will become the same. In the arts we still
suffer under the weighty concept of the heroic individual as artist, when at
the same time, we are moving into an era that relies increasingly on
interdisciplinary collaboration where the results will be more diffuse and
more difficult to attribute to a single creator.

Gavin Artz | CEO

Australian Network for Art and Technology [ANAT]
e: ceo@anat.org.au | ph: 61 8 8231 9037
www.anat.org.au | www.filter.org.au | www.synapse.net.au
Twitter: __ANAT | Facebook: http://bit.ly/bF9fXl

The Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT) is supported by the
Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and
Territory Governments; the Australian Government through the Australia
Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and the South Australian
Government through Arts SA.


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