Process Design 2018
In Phase 3 of the project we redesigned the process of artist/physicist collaborations for a second production period that started in Spring 2018 with a new set of streams, relays and transfers. We aimed to develop and assess further models of collaboration to engage with the diverse languages employed by artists and physicists. The core team along with the scientists considered the results of phase 2 including the successes of the original Process Design, the delivery of the science concept, the January 2018 exhibition at Emily Carr University and the accompanying Translation Hub.
Diagram
Experimental Teams
The process design for this phase involved collaborative groups as a way to activate co-thought and associative thinking for comprehending complex phenomena. We speculated that new ways of thinking would arise from this process of co-thought. The teams were comprised of one or two physicists, a scholar (from areas such as philosophy of science, art history, environmental science, behavioural neuroscience, cultural theory), and two to three artists working in diverse media such as visual art, media art, dance, text, or sound. Each group worked collectively to respond to the predetermined science topic of “Emergence” and produced a singular or shared artwork over a period of 8-10 months between fall 2018 and summer 2019. The process was very much emergent and dependent on the individual team members and what they brought to the discussion. There were 11 groups in total.
Each group met approximately every six weeks. Specific group members presented their ideas which were followed by a robust discussion sharing their distinct approaches, strategies, methodologies and thoughts, improvising on the challenge of communicating through discipline-specific language (e.g. employing associative thinking in the form of metaphors and analogies, diagrammatic explication, etc.)
Throughout the year’s meetings participants had an opportunity to dialogue with their group colleagues, first to decide together on their sub topic in relation to the umbrella topic of Emergence, and then to learn more about the topic, exchange and discuss methodologies from the perspective of the diverse disciplines in the group.
PHASE ONE: Speculative Unfolding
Launch of LOoW project at TRIUMF on September 28, 2018
Meetings: October and November
PHASE TWO: Expansion
Meetings: January, February and March
PHASE THREE: Distillation + New Thought
Meetings: April and May
The project will conclude with an exhibition in the Spring 2020 as well as a Translation Hub event among all participants.
The art generated in this experiment should be neither illustrative nor concerned with readability. The artwork is understood here as a continuation of the science topic and its challenges and not a solution to it. Artists might consider their contribution as an experimental trajectory within the process design.
Working with the metaphor “leaning out of windows” we are interested in how a participant resides within their field of expertise while simultaneously inhabiting an expanded space of experimentation, risk and not knowing. In this way, scientists, scholars and artists might consider engaging in the process by responding through analogy or in ways that are only loosely connected to their own research practice. We anticipate that some information will be lost and new information gained in the process. The project is not about getting the science topic right but rather it focuses on an exchange of ideas from various perspectives and knowledge practices.
The Process Design has been developed in collaboration between the SSHRC team Ingrid Koenig, Randy Lee Cutler, Elvira Hufschmid and Margit Schild, along with physicists Carla Babcock, Jess Brewer, Ewan Hill, David Morrissey, Art Olin, Marcello Pavan, Des Ramsey and staff at TRIUMF.
TEAM 1 | Finding Common Ground via Metaphor
Luca Egoriti – TRIUMF physicist
Oliver Stelzer-Chilton – TRIUMF physicist
Shelly Rosenblum – cultural studies, UBC, Curator of Academic Programs, Belkin Art Gallery
Henry Daniel – dance, choreography, SFU, Professor, School of Contemporary Art
Carlyn Yandle – textile, sculpture, ECU MFA student (Research Assistant/facilitator)
TEAM 2 | Based on…What?, etc.
Carla Babcock – TRIUMF physicist
James Charbonneau – physics/astronomy/interdisciplinary studies, UBC, Associate Director – Science Gateway Programs
Erin Siddall – film, installation
Keith Spencer – drawing, painting, ECU MFA student (Research Assistant/facilitator)
TEAM 3 | Entropic Recompositions
Sarah Dunsiger – TRIUMF physicist
Steven Barnes – psychologist, learning technologies, UBC, Associate Head of Undergraduate Affairs, Department of Psychology
Karen Kazmer – sculpture, public art, ECU faculty
Ben Bogart – computational art, ECU faculty
Robin Gleason – drawing, collage, ECU MFA student (Research Assistant/facilitator)
TEAM 4 | Everything Not Forbidden is Compulsory
Dave McKeen – TRIUMF physicist
Pietro Giampa – TRIUMF physicist
Tara Ivanochko – earth sciences, UBC, Director – Environmental Science, Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
Deborah Edmeades – video, sculpture, installation
Christine D’Onofrio – photography, UBC faculty
Jacqueline Turner – writer, ECU faculty, (facilitator)
TEAM 5 | Decay
Doug Bryman – TRIUMF physicist
Denise Ferreira da Silva – writing, film, UBC, Professor, Director – Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice
Mark Igloliorte – painting, ECU faculty
Sara-Jeanne Bourget – drawing, ECU MFA student (Research Assistant/facilitator)
TEAM 6 | Thinking like an Octopus
David Morrissey – TRIUMF physicist
Sanem Güvenç-Salgırlı – philosophy of science, ECU faculty
Holly Schmidt – social practice
Emma Soares – installation, ECU MFA student (Research Assistant/facilitator)
TEAM 7 | Visuality
Patrick De Perio – TRIUMF physicist
Gwenessa Lam – drawing, painting, Alberta University of the Arts, faculty
Marian Penner Bancroft – photography, ECU emeritus faculty
Alice Wang – art history, UBC MA student (Research Assistant/facilitator)
TEAM 8 | Knowing/Not Knowing/Unknowing
Jess Brewer – TRIUMF physicist
Randy Lee Cutler – cultural studies, ECU faculty (facilitator)
Deanna Peters – dance artist
Lindsay McIntyre – film, storytelling, ECU faculty
TEAM 9 | Hidden Sector
Djuna Croon – TRIUMF physicist
Katherine Gillieson – communication design, ECU faculty
Leo Stefansson – new media, data visualization
prOphecy sun – sound art
Teo Monsalve – painting, ECU MFA student (Research Assistant/facilitator)
TEAM 10 | Coming into View
Ewan Hill – UBC physicist
Sadira Rodrigues – cultural studies, ECU faculty
Scott Billings – sculpture, media
Roxanne Nesbitt – sound art
Russna Somal – painting, ECU MFA student (Research Assistant/facilitator)
TEAM 11 | Sounds and Sonification
Art Olin – TRIUMF physicist
Des Ramsey – TRIUMF physicist
Giorgio Magnanensi – composer, musician, sound art, Artistic Director – Vancouver New Music
Brady Marks – sound art
