I really like this idea from DavidTMiller’s Art Classes blog for a collaborative exploration of the Formal Elements and Principles of design. I really appreciate the way in which Miller ties a material and formal exploration to a conceptual discussion about collaboration, authorship, and curation.

The following text is from the DavidTMiller’s Art Classes blog:

We began with a discussion about politics and the effects on art education. We questioned how certain decisions are made and implemented as laws affecting the mass population. I asked you to consider legal decisions as collaborative endeavors aimed at benefiting the general population. We began our own collaborative adventure in the Room BO5 studio.

Some guiding questions:

- How do various processes affect authorship in politics and art?

- How might a group begin a series of collaborative pieces of work in such a way as to insure equal collaboration?

- How do we determine when a work of art is complete/finished?

- How might the language of Formalism be used to critique non-objective abstraction?

- How might the concepts of Formalism be used to curate an exhibit of work?

Some goals/objectives:

- Recognize how collaborative decisions impact the individual, politics and art.

- Recodify notions about the artistic process of one person starting and completing a piece of work.

- Render new works by working on each others’ works anonymously and intuitively in a call and response method to the point where all pieces have transitioned from the process pool to the complete pool.

- Reconnect the language and concepts of Formalism to critique individual work and to curate an exhibition.

- Reflect on how collaborative decisions and processes impact the individual, politics and art. Contemplate the many participants in a collaboration who do not get their names considered as authors.

Our process:

- Cut or tear paper into 10 approximately 9″ x 12″ pieces and sign one side.

- Begin a non-objective painting/drawing on each piece.

- Place pieces into a common location – the “process” pool.

- Embellish at least 10 pieces from the process pool.

- When pieces from the process pool appear complete/finished sign the back and place into the “finished” pool. NOTE: The artist cannot determine a piece to be finished if they were the last person to embellish it.

- Mr. Miller curated a one panel exhibit of 20 pieces to use as a basis for a discussion of Formal Elements and Principles of Design as a way to have a dialogue with the work and each other.

- Students each curate an exhibit of at least 20 pieces on a panel in the room and photograph the installation.

- Students post their photograph on their WordPress sites along with a typed rationale of approximately 250 words.