Master Thesis, Industrial and Strategic Design, Helsinki University of Art and Design

Play Street – Design for children in local environments

My aim for this thesis is to research the situation for children living in urban areas and to design a product concept that will improve their situation in the outdoor environment. An important motive for doing the project is to directly link theoretical and practical research with product design. This paper focuses mainly on the action research phase of the project, the methods used and how successful they were.

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Kunsthøgskolen i Bergen (Bergen National College of the Arts)

Hybrid Practice: A Craft Intervention in a Contemporary Art Arena

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Craft and the White Cube

One of the preconceptions with which craft is encumbered is that it belongs in the domestic rather than the artistic sphere. The establishment of the White Cube further emphasised the distinction between art and everyday life. It represents a sanctuary for fine art and is often referred to as the temple of art. The connotations of something elevated and solemn that follow from the temple metaphor are part of the heritage of modernism that still clings to the walls of most museums and galleries. The home, on the other hand, has been seen as a dangerous arena for art because it is a place where one does not have control over how art is presented. In the home, art is at risk of being trivialised and rendered ‘invisible’. This has led to greater ambivalence vis-à-vis craft in artistic contexts. Traditionally, craft has been produced for use and enjoyment in the private sphere. Even though it is joined nowadays by a great deal of contemporary fine art that also wishes to turn life practices – for instance the act of eating together – into art, this has not necessarily led to greater acceptance of functional craft as an artistic practice. On the other hand, this more socially focused art has influenced the understanding of art. The question ‘what is art?’ is more open today, but the answer is also further from our grasp. The paradox is that the more art tries to go beyond the limits of the institution of art, the more dependent it is on the stamp of approval conferred by exhibiting in the White Cube. Brian O’Doherty has designated the White Cube the most important context for art by far (O’Doherty, 1986). Since it is this kind of arena that makes art into art, it is important for craft artists to gain access to this arena if they are to participate in the discourse on art. It is within the context symbolised by the White Cube that craft can realise its potential as artistic expression.

Research Fellow at MIRIAD, the Manchester Institute for Research and Innovation in Art and Design at Manchester Metropolitan University

A Walk on the Wild Side:
Art Biodiversity and Climate Change in Spatial Planning

‘The teaching of art is the teaching of all things.’

JOHN RUSKIN QUOTE

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A short biography

My arts practice comes from a Fine Arts training, community arts development and European touring theatre. And my ecological direction began as General Manager of the pioneering celebratory arts company, Welfare State International and developed with the Barrow Environmental Arts Unit (BEAU) regeneration project.

As a Research Fellow at MIRIAD, the Manchester Institute for Research and Innovation in Art and Design at Manchester Metropolitan University, I contribute to SEA (Social and Environmental Arts) Research Unit, Arts for Health, Water & Well-Being and lead the MA Art As Environment programme. I also sit on the University’s Community and Cultural Industries Groups.

I sit on various Boards and Steering Groups, including; CITE: Commissions In The Environment, Manchester City Council’s Arts in Mental Health, Pathways Project and the North West Regional Assembly’s Best Practice Design Guide. I am an active member of the Public Art Observatory, eco-arts network, greenmuseum.com and regularly contribute to international journals, publications, conferences and exhibitions.

Head of Media Dept., National College of Art and Design, Dublin

The Digital Surface within Fine Art Practice
- A Research Project

‘The Digital Surface within Fine Art Practice’ was an EU, Culture 2000-funded collaborative research project between three European Art Colleges -

• The London Institute – Camberwell and Chelsea Colleges of Art and Design
• The University of Art and Design, Helsinki
• The National College of Art and Design, Dublin.

The project took place in 2002-3 and received Culture 2000 funding on the basis of its commitment to deliver three tangible outcomes. These were –

• A CD ROM which was produced by NCAD Dublin
• A website which was created and hosted by UAD Helsinki: digitalsurface.net
• A two day International Conference at Tate Britain which was organised by The London Institute and took place 27- 28th June 2003.

My presentation at the conference – Sensuous Knowledge: Creating a Tradition will be presented in two halves. In the first half I will talk about The Digital Surface within Fine Art Practice research project as a case study and I will illustrate this with a selection of art works from the CD – ROM. The range of work presented on this CDROM varies from traditional print making to virtual reality. In the second half of my presentation I will speculate about a potential research project into the value of the first research project. This could take the notion of the ‘virtual’ to a different level given that the life of the research project is only intended to be for the duration of it’s presentation and discussion with the audience in Bergen. The provisional title of this second research project is – A Virtual Research Proposal.

Part One: The Digital Surface within Fine Art Practice

The purpose of the project

To consider the issue of the digital surface within current fine art practice, through the specialism of three leading European research centres and in so doing create a European forum for the sharing and exchange of critical ideas, technology and good practice.

To enable artists/researchers to work as part of an overall European project, promoting a greater understanding of the range of cultural attitudes within Europe.

To bring to the work an enhanced sense of working within the European community, taking full advantage of the opportunities that new technology offers for both creative practice and the wide dissemination of knowledge.

The approach and methods adopted for the implementation of the project

Each institution will self select 4-5 artists who have already evidenced an engagement with the project’s concerns within their creative practice. Each will, through a dialogue with the overall project develops new artworks, which critically engage with the issue of surface within digital art.

At the start of the project, a website to be constructed to function as a forum within which the ongoing discussions of the project can be disseminated.

An initial seminar to be arranged at one of participating centres to allow for each artist to present their current practice and indicate their plans with regards to the projects aims.

Production of new artworks and research papers. A programme of exchange visits to maintain an active dialogue between the participating artists and create the potential for creative collaborations International symposium to disseminate the projects results and research.

The Objectives of the project

• To demonstrate the creative links between traditional artistic practice and digital technology.
• To develop a body of new artworks which challenge existing conventions of digital output by engaging with the issue of a personalised surface
• To build upon the individual specialisms within the participating European partners while providing the framework for the creative exchange of ideas and practice.
• To disseminate the research to a broad European audience, through an International symposium, CD-ROM, publications and preparation of exhibition.
• To provide a European forum focusing on the role of new technology within fine art practice.

This project aims to explore within a broad Fine Art context, the changing nature of surface with reference to digital technology. Traditionally, artists have worked directly with surface as one of the principle indicators of meaning. How a mark was applied to a surface, whether this was paint onto canvas via a brush, or ink onto paper via a screened stencil, added a layer of meaning and revealed both artists intention and personality. Within Fine Art Practice an artist’s work would acquire its signature as much from the surface as the imagery that it contained. Approaches to this issue were multifarious, spanning the cool, mechanical untouched surface of for example the minimalists through to the brutalised coarse surfaces of art brut.

Artistic production has therefore offered a wide range of possibilities for the artist, both in terms of surface qualities and in physical presence. Digital output has by contrast placed a greater emphasis on refining definition, continuos tone and a perfect seamless surface. This project seeks to address this conflict and explore ways that these European artists engage with surface, whether on screen, projected, printed or other, when using digital technology within the production of artworks.

The wide use of digital technology now apparent within fine art practice has created the ideal conditions for creative debate across the disciplines of painting, sculpture, installation, printmaking and video. This European project seeks to create a forum to facilitate this exchange of ideas and skills. Each participating European institution brings to the overall project a particular specialism, UIAH-drawing/theory, NCAD-virtual reality/installation and London Institute, Printmaking/installation In addition the artists from each institution, link in their discipline and approach with artists working at the partner institutions.

An example of the way each individual college regards itself as having an individual focus around the issue of digital surface as a research team within the broader research team as a whole is provided by the way that, for example, NCAD in Dublin described itself

‘The members of the NCAD staff research group although different in their individual choice of media are never the less all concerned with an examination of aspects of the relationship between the real and the virtual. The works that each artist produces whether manifested as digital video, photography, internet work, print, or performance could all be described as individual virtual realities. All of the artists have arrived at this threshold between the virtual and the real via their own personnel artistic histories through painting, sculpture, performance, printmaking, video and photography. This diversity of practice engenders the group with a shared concern for the presentation of the finished art work with a desire to make the viewer’s experience of the work as dynamic and as engaging as possible.’

The anticipated results

• Establishing creative links between the participating institutions and creating networks for continuing collaborations.
• Links established through research website.
• A body of new work which engages with the issue of surface within fine art practice.
• The dissemination of the research to the wider community via a European symposium to be staged at one of the participating institutions, providing the platform for all the participating artists to present.
• A CD-ROM published in association with the symposium, which functions to illuminate the individuals artists’ approach within the overall project question. This publication would provide valuable data about the context of this work within the artists overall concerns and share technical information and research and offer links to a range of research centres

All of the above-anticipated results were reached.

Part Two: A Virtual Research Project

This is a ‘virtual research project’, as distinct to a research project in virtual reality, and forms the second half of my presentation. My approach in this section of the presentation will be to speculate on a number of issues concerning thoughts about the experience of the The Digital Surface within Fine Art Practice research project. These thoughts in themselves could form the basis of another research project bid.

Topics for discussion with the audience, which might help in the formulation of this conceptual bid, will include:

• If the Coldstream Report (UK -1961) resulted in an increase in part time teaching for artists and designers on the basis that it was beneficial to the teaching of art and design to have those at the cutting edge of practice contributing to the teaching of it, how does this relate to practice based research and why do the roles of teacher and researcher seem at the moment to be in danger of becoming more separated?
• Are there some art and design practices that are inappropriate to practice based research?
• Can good research occur as the result of bad practice?
• Can practice based research be evaluated in a practice based way?
• Once staff have been involved in practice based research can they ever go back to just practice?

Creativity and Practice Research Group, University of Dundee

Learning is understanding in practice: exploring the interrelations between perception, creativity and skill

Abstract

Both art and anthropology may be considered as ways of exploring how the knowledge that people have of the world around them is generated, organised and transferred. Our project aims to bring both disciplines together in order to forge an integrated approach to such an exploration. The fundamental premise of this approach is that knowing, along with perceiving, learning, remembering and imagining, is a social activity that goes on within the context of people’s mutual involvement in a richly structured environment. A research team comprising of artists, art historians, anthropologists and architects have been developing this approach by way of a study of the knowledge practices of fine art.

What can be learned from the practice of making? How does art enrich pedagogy? How are artists’ skills learned or acquired? Can an artist be educated? How does knowledge gained through art practice relate to other forms of knowledge regarded by the public as more or less authorative or trustworthy? Underlying these questions is the broader question of how information transmitted through formal instruction relates to skill that learners develop through their own experiments. Skill is often understood as the mere application of knowledge. This implies however, that knowledge is transmitted in a disembodied, context-free form-that is, as information – independently and in advance of its application in specific contexts of practice. Our approach overturns this view. We take skill to consist in the embodied capacities of action and perception that people develop throughout life in the course of their practical activities. In this sense, we argue, skill is the very ground of knowledge, and not merely its application. Nevertheless the relation between skill and information remains problematic.

As a collaborative venture between researchers in art and anthropology, this project is entirely novel. Up to now, most anthropological work in the field of art has treated visual culture as an object of investigation, yielding an anthropology of art (Coote and Shelton 1992, Gell 1998). Our approach, by contrast, regards art an investigative and exploratory practice, on par with the practice of anthropology. Thus our aim is to exploit the synergy between art and anthropology as practices of exploration. The synergy, in 2 short, lies not so much in the products of art and anthropology, as in their ways of working. Though novel in art history and social anthropology, our approach resonates with that of well-established currents of research in ecological psychology and in science and technology studies (STS). Influenced by James Gibson’s (1979) pioneering work on visual perception, ecological psychologists have shown how the development of perceptual skills –or what Gibson calls ‘the education of attention’ –takes place within the contexts of perceivers’ direct, practical engagement with their surroundings. This has been paralleled, in STS, with the approach to knowledge as grounded in environmentally situated actions, developed by Lucy Suchman (1987). Building on this work, the sociologist of science David Turnbull has explored the relation between local knowledge and comparative scientific traditions, in a way that could have direct parallels for our investigation of how locally developed, skilled practices can suggest new ways of looking at environmental perception and understandings of nature (Ingold 2000), the politics of objectification (Harvey 1998), the connections between persons, technologies and places (Harvey, Green and Agar 2000), and the relation between ‘local’ and ‘global’ knowledge systems Strathern 1995).

In the context of our research we treat the fine art teaching studio, the anthropology seminar room and the architectural design teaching studio as places in which to study the interrelations, in practice, between perception, creativity, innovation and skill. Within these contexts we are examining how students, teachers and creative practitioners move between a variety of materials and technologies in the exploration of innovative practices. Through this, we aim to understand how students and teachers of fine art, architecture and anthropology perceive the relation between the mental and the material, and how this might be affected by the introduction of new technologies into situated contexts of learning.

Central to the entire project is the idea of practice-based exploration conceived as a way of enhancing collaboration between the various disciplines and knowledge traditions involved in the study. The methodologies adopted are designed to connect the research questions with the ethnographic practice of participant observation. The way to understand how knowledge is acquired, we contend, is for the researcher to participate in the processes and settings of its acquisition, and to reflect critically on these from the perspective of an insider. This is fundamental to an anthropological approach adopted by the project. It is for this reason too the project is intrinsically interdisciplinary. Moreover our experiments in teaching and learning have contributed to our project aims of testing whether learning can be a way of doing research, and practice a way of doing theory.

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Articulating a Matrixial Space.

A paper outlining a collaborative audio-visual internet art research project

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The practice-led Internet art research project outlined in this paper began with a desire to articulate a Matrixial space within which encounters between ‘subject and object, among subjects and partial-subjects, between me and the stranger’1 could occur and re-occur. Making artwork with new technologies since the early 1990s I began working with sound artist, Patrick Simons on Internet art projects at the end of 2000. The shared space of our encounters is Glorious Ninth. Our work comes about through an inter-weaving of ethics and aesthetics. Aurally, visually and conceptually our pieces ebb and flow, and the elements within the pieces co-emerge and co-fade in everchanging patterns that constantly shift focus.

Master of Engineering, with specialization in architecture and design from AAU.

Transformation of Baumgarten’s Aesthetics
into Instruments for the Description of the Design Process.

Guidelines for Designing and the Analysis of Works

The ontological approach to the projects is based on a thesis stating that the single category or types of artefacts can be characterized by a series of common characters or features.

The epistemological launch pad for the paper is based on Alexander Baumgarten. By way of analysis we can – inside the intellectual recognition – logically deduce an increasingly greater, intensive clearness. In contrast to that, we can only sense the sensitive recognition by way of several coordinated individual items. Baumgarten’s guidelines are used to throw light on the relation between individual items and theme in the analysis of works and the description of the design process.

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Knowledge in musical performance
-enlightened by sources who discuss the articulation of knowledge.

This paper is based on my Master dissertation in music education: Kunnskap i musikkutøving -lyssett av kjelder som problematiserer artikulering av kunnskap (Osa 2000b), and the article “Å sjå noko som noko” (Osa 2000a). The dissertation is about to be published as a Grieg Academy Publication at the University of Bergen.

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Introduction

We who sing and play musical instruments, the great ones and the little ones, the experts and the novices, the loving amateur and the professional artist, we all play and sing in our own way. We are able, we know and we do something when we play and sing, we have knowledge in our musical performance. It is this phenomena I want to enlighten. What are we doing? What is it those experienced ones who are good at it can do that the inexperienced cannot? How can we understand this knowledge? How do we acquire this knowledge? I want to examine the knowledge that is at work in singing and playing a musical instrument. This knowledge I call knowledge in musical performance.

My interest concerns opening up, making visible and understanding the knowledge that musical performance is. Is my perspective the perspective of the performer? Yes and no. My perspective is the performer’s in the sense that it is the performer who carries the knowledge and who through playing and singing can show the knowledge to those who understand. But the performer knows and does more than he can understand and explain. We cannot explain knowledge exhaustively and we can never understand knowledge completely. Our knowledge is baked into and constituted by the world, and should we understand knowledge completely, then we have to understand the world completely, which we do not. My perspective is not the performer’s, but the knowledge which consciously and unconsciously is our musical performance.

Digital Representation, CKK, Chalmers University of Technology

Gadamer’s concept of play

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This article discusses Gadamer’s concept of play seen from the perspective of computer game theory. My own perspective as an artist working with computer game engines is presented by elaborating the relation between play and art, a relation that Gadamer has also focused on. Gadamer links the nature of play and the nature of art, and explains how the immanent character of play stands in relation to the player and nature. Moreover, he suggests that play and art are closely connected in terms of what we perceive as essential or even true in terms of how our representations of art through imitation extracts the essential qualities of the object we investigate. However, Gadamer’s views are far from straightforward since the relations between play, art and truth are both layered and intertwined with each other. I will attempt to clarify Gadamer’s theories on play through the exemplification of computer games. How can his concept of play be relevant to our understanding of computer games?

In order to discuss the relation between computer games and Gadamer’s concept of play, the first thing we need to do is look beyond the “play” character of computer games as “just for fun”. Gadamer appears to have much more serious intentions in mind, namely the seemingly paradoxical notion of the “seriousness of play”, which I will come to later in the article. His purpose seems to be to link play with understanding the essence of things. The paradox lies in that to fulfill the seriousness of play, the player has to treat play without being serious.

First of all, and in order to understand what Gadamer means by play, we need to know about the double meaning of the German word Spiel, which can be translated into both play and game, in the same way as the word Jeu in French. Although play and game have different meanings, it does not mean that Spiel can smoothly be translated into either game or play. We need to look further into what distinguishes the terms. Gadamer refers to “the game” [das Spiel] in the definite form or in plural form “games” [Spiele] to signify a differentiation from “play”, even though the difference between the two terms is not easily defined. Computer game theory, for instance through the work of Gonzalo Frasca2, has separated the two terms through looking at their difference in rule structures.

Frasca points out that even though a game has a more developed set of rules; play also has rules, even though they are often subtle. Frasca’s reading of Piaget suggests that game rules could successfully be connected to rules that determine victory or defeat. This is not the case for rules in play. These are referred to by Piaget as “regularities” and by Frasca as paidea rules. Rules in play do not determine whether someone has won or lost, but instead regulate the activity from within. The way to move a chess piece on the board is governed by rules that do not determine victory or defeat, and is thereby considered paidea rules. Using the same argument, we can say that the rules that state when the King is in chess mate are game rules.

Frasca like Gadamer considers game as a more specific form of play: Qualities from play are inherited by game. Game seems to be treated as a special case of play, a case where victory is determined and the game space is confined by for example a board or a football field. Time is usually either limited or a determinant for victory. In play, on the other hand, there is less focus on temporal and spatial properties, even though they might exist, just as in Frasca’s argument. To extend this argument slightly, we could say that play and game is distinguished by the extent of order. Together they make up a unity of order and disorder, which accounts for their importance, but also for their complexity.

Divided Crucifix – An Artistic Exploration of Cross and Crucifix Form in Relation to Contemporary Theological Knowledge

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This paper looks retrospectively at an art development project on cross/crucifix form as an example of how theoretical studies and art practice may be combined to yield new insights.

Between 1986 and 1995, I explored the theme of the cross/crucifix theoretically and artistically. To this day, I am uncertain how to categorize this work: was it research, a development project, or merely my normal way of artistic working? This conference offers an occasion for rethinking the question. The initial phase of the project was accepted as a hovedfag degree in 1991. The second phase, 1992-1995, was intended to be a post hovedfag that might result in a doctoral degree. It did not, an amputated version, however, ended in an appendix of my doctoral thesis “proper” that was purely theoretical (Refsum 2000).

An art development project is defined as a project that produces art works and a documentation of the process.1 It is expected to have some component of exploration that is documented, which has relevance for the artistic practice. In my case, I systematically sought knowledge about the cross/crucifix topic from different fields and perspectives. My aim was to obtain a deepened understanding of the theme that I believed would be reflected in the art works to be made. The information was compiled through literary studies from known sources. From the documentation of the process, it becomes evident how the knowledge gained was incorporated in my thinking throughout the art producing process. Without the theoretical studies undertaken, the result undoubtedly would have become another. When I review my own artistic processes, it has nothing to do with evaluating the artistic quality of the outcome. It is a matter of heightening my awareness of the methods applied and the choices taken, both of which may be expressed and evaluated by the person who is responsible for them. In the case of working on the cross/crucifix theme, it was important to point out how knowledge and artistic outcome are interlinked, especially so, because my art works deviate from traditional solutions. Most artworks embody and express new understanding. Sometimes, art or design results may even be regarded as original contribution to new knowledge, given that the process is accounted for by rational means, in words and images, so that it becomes transparent to others, can be criticized and discussed. If so, it may be considered research and count in a scientific context.

First, the paper locates the problem of interpreting the cross/crucifix symbol that initiated my interest and art development project.2 Second, it accounts for the historical evidence concerning crucifixion. Third, my cross/crucifix project is presented with a few references to previous cross/crucifix formal interpretations. And fourth, the project is discussed at a general level as an example of how theoretical study and art practice may be combined to yield new knowledge.