Collaboration is an intimate and often scary place for people to share. A few months ago, I attempted my first serious collaborative project: to create apparel for Guidance Counselor. They designed their outfits to wear onstage. They wanted the outfits to look like Kraftwerk, super-uniform and stark. I was like okay, and I asked if it was okay to involve my ideas because Kraftwerk had nothing to to do with my aesthetics, however I love the music.
I came up the the idea of doing track suits... They're called Guidance Counselor. I had the mock-up done; they were like wow, we've never worn anything like this. I spent two weeks making their putty-colored track suits with gold and black accents. They failed to inform me that they take their clothes off on stage, too. So I made these outfits and then they wore them for half of a song and then took them off and played for half of an hour, and I was like great, that was a lot of work.
I felt that neither party was interested in working with the other person's aesthetics. This resulted in compete failure of the project and left me feeling frustrated.
When the Band wants to Dress like the Army
Two Fridays ago, I released a new collaborative project, Hallway Espionage. Again, I draft the pattern: artistically design it; then technically design it (the pattern is the actual numbers) and then I sew it together. I was the creator, and the other parties, eight individuals, were my clients. This time, I approached each person separately and listened to what they wanted without making any decisions or conclusions. I waited until I had met with everyone and then recognized the underlying theme: Paramilitary.
When I realized that everyone had this extreme paramilitary and technical idea, I went to an army surplus story and bought stuff that I that matched what everyone was talking about. I showed up with this huge bag like Santa Claus and pulled it out in the bar and everyone was like wow. This moment was magical, there were ohhs and ahhhs and I knew that I had found some gold. Once I had the aesthetic approved from the group, I sat down to successfully create the pieces.
Reflecting Success in the Mirror of the Self: Why We Work Together
This project was successful because I left the decisions to the other party. The decision-making was built out of pure excitement. Presenting research was key. Everyone has the opportunity to touch the material and talk about how they felt. Feelings were absolutely free and everyone was comfortable with addressing their ideas. We created a safe environment for collaboration.
Girlfriend's Colab
A couple of weeks ago, Paige Saez (one of my only slumber-party-paint-your-nails-and-cry-girlfriends who – by some gorgeous luck – moved to San Fransisco, where I live.) Her last career-minded manifestation was as an interactive designer at the Weiden + Kennedy castle.
Her trajectory got me wondering if I felt okay to admit that some of the most exciting social-engagement projects are happening as a result of business?
Performance art has been strung along the tool belt of big advertising. Everything begets everything and then the market consumes it all. Art-born mobbing became crowdsourcing models. Business takes what's awesome, as it should if it aims to keep growing,
but what are we looking at and working on when it comes to social practice art?
Make Business Art
Why not turn this around? Take business and turn that into art. Adopt the stylings of the business world and use that as a model to create art. Remove the villainy from business and use it as a functional model of working together to achieve a goal. Skip the non-profit model and start a company. Incorporate. Marketing.
There has been error in communication with booki server. Not sure right now where is the problem.
You should refresh this page.