Basking in Sunshine
The idea of collaborating in creative industries is important, as it allows artists, designers and thinkers to work together, learning from experience and different perspectives. The idea of reappropriating this knowledge can often be seen in the form of inspired application, re-mix and in some cases by reworking an existing piece of art or design completely. Simply copying an artwork or idea can often be seen as plagiarism and in a commercial context this is sometimes questionable. However, in the world of art, music and conceptual thinking, often existing work is included, revisited or addressed within a new piece of work with the aim of creating a new narrative.
Sun’s from Sunsets from Flickr by Penelope Umbrico, literally uses found imagery from the social platform to create a collection of imagery that conveys the theme of sunsets to create a mega montage that allows the viewer to compare, contrast and ultimately relate to what they are seeing. It expresses the idea of shared experience, despite the fact that we often feel like our personal moments are unique to us alone.
http://penelopeumbrico.net/index.php/project/sunset-portraits/
Delving into the Unknown
Collaboration can be intended or unintended; it does not necessarily mean that everyone or everything involved in the creative process is aware that they are contributing. The extract from Camera obscura (Photography Consists of Collaboration: Susan Meiselas, Wendy Ewald, and Ariella Azoulay. (2016) 31 (1 (91)): 187–201) demonstrate this notion:
“Collaboration always already lies at the basis of the event of photography; collaboration is its degree zero, as photography always involves an encounter between several protagonists in which the photographer cannot claim an a priori monopoly on knowledge, authorship, ownership, and rights.”
This is the case for every image taken, as everything within the frame contributes towards the photograph’s meaning. In practical mediums, collaboration can be seen in the form of historical images, criminal evidence and documented collateral. In these instances, collaboration is used to form a record and create an archive of ‘factual’ imagery that can be looked back on. It is only when an image is reappropriated that the meaning can potentially change altogether. In a creative space archived imagery can be used to create new bodies of work that were never intended to be made, often with great effect.
Karl Ohiri demonstrates this within his own work and often reappropriates imagery to convey ideas about truth and Identity. By simply mixing words with imagery, the meaning of his featured photographs change entirely.
https://www.karlohiri.com/how-to-mend-a-broken-heart
Coastal Recognition
In an attempt to explore methods of collaboration, our team studying MA Photography at Falmouth University investigated the use of our own archived imagery to create a photographic series inspired by the poem ‘Nation’s Ode to the Coast’ by Dr John Cooper Clarke. The poem itself is made up from ideas that various contributors supplied and our body of work aims to depict these, using our individual interpretations to further collaborate.
Our series is a celebration of layered collaboration using work from our personal archives of the British coast and can be seen below:
A big fat sky and a thousand shrieks
The tide arrives and the timber creaks
A world away from the working week
Où est la vie nautique?
That’s where the sea comes in…
Dishevelled shells and shovelled sands,
Architecture all unplanned
A spade ‘n’ bucket wonderland
A golden space, a Frisbee and
The kids and dogs can run and run
And not run in to anyone
Way out! Real gone!
That’s where the sea comes in…
Impervious to human speech, idle time and tidal reach
Some memories you can’t impeach
That’s where the sea comes in
A nice cuppa splosh and a round of toast
A cursory glance at the morning post
A pointless walk along the coast
That’s what floats my boat the most
That’s where the sea comes in…
Now, voyager – once resigned
Go forth to seek and find
The hazy days you left behind
Right there in the back of your mind
Where lucid dreams begin
With rolling dunes and rattling shale
The shoreline then a swollen sail
Picked out by a shimmering halo
That’s where the sea comes in…
Could this be luck by chance?
Eternity in a second glance
A universe beyond romance
That’s where the sea comes in…
Yeah, that’s where the sea comes in…
The original poem can be heard here:
capsule-blog.com 