The Experience and Value of Live Art: Multiple Perspectives and Iterative Revisiting Seminar

12th May 2014

Emily Pringle, Tate Learning and Pat Thomson, The University of Nottingham

A research project funded by the AHRC cultural value programme

When looking at the film

• what can you see happening?• what does the film tell you about the young

people’s experience?

What was of ‘value’ about/in the dance workshop?

• the young people wanted to come. They had expectations of what the workshop would be and do. Their reasons for coming were not all the same. They were open to new experiences

• the workshop appeared to meet their expectations – one dropped out due to illness and another because of a competing (accredited) project

• we noticed high levels of focus and engagement. There was no apparent lack of willingness to do what was asked. This included doing things with which they were not familiar and where they were visibly ‘learning’

Workshop ‘work’ - the quality of the teaching

• encouragement, lots of scaffolding, lots of permission to get it wrong

• calm, with humour, responsive, generous, conversational• highly structured, strict framing, but flexible in pacing and

negotiated activities• high expectations, yet relaxed about a ‘product at the end’• modest and showed expertise without talking about it• took the activity very seriously and respectful of the teaching

and the young people• established disciplinary norms of the art form without being

‘dancy’

Workshop ‘work’ – the seriousness of the project

• Tate • canonical artist and art work (Trio

A lineage)• a research project, being filmed,

lots of attention from skilled professionals

• the quality of the artist – international, highly experienced, with public profile, with a direct connection to Yvonne Rainer

• the quality of the filmmakers – experienced professionals

Workshop ‘work’ - Affordances of the workshop processes

• learning of skills, new language, art form knowledge, key concepts• freedom within structure, structured exploration of a movement ‘palette’,

repetition and rhythm • annotation – complexity of notation, communication and archiving• manifesto – Trio A as parameter, translation of ‘learning’ into a set of

instructions• ideas – have them, but also interpret others’ ideas• invention - sometimes imagine then do, other times just play with doing• warm-up and an embodied focusing in• structured reflective moments• opportunities to create memories

Workshop ‘work’ – the process• warm-up game – bonding • alone together, unity and

individuality, individual acts of creativity within a community of movement

• more structured collaborative moments

• lunch – time away from project leaders, hospitality – room of their own

• from the congenial company of strangers to a tight knit group with an temporary ‘identity’

Workshop ‘work’ – the learning context

• not their everyday spaces• a cultural space, but not

dance • being observed - “this is

where they do weird shit”• Access to behind the scenes

at Tate – the view

film editing workshop

• Eight people took up the offer

• It was time consuming and on Sunday

Value for the Young People

– Another skill – More time with skilful

professionals– Another opportunity to be

together– Another opportunity to

reflect and create memory– Creating an art work of their

own– Group exhibition in Tate –

recognition beyond the individual

Workshop ‘work’ - Affordances of the film editing processes

• learning of skills, new language, art form knowledge, key concepts

• freedom within structure, working experimentally within given constraints

• Individual ideas development• manifesto – return to translation

of ‘learning’ into a set of instructions

• Collaborative decision making over the form of the final film

Researchers and editing• at first we thought it was just another opportunity to reflect

• we anticipated that the films might show what the participants valued about the activity. This was hard to gauge conclusively. Some things - like sociability - are obvious

• however, we eventually asked ‘What do these films show us?’ Then we saw that what we were looking at was learning made visible

• we can see the movement palette translated into visual form. We think that this shows mastery of the concepts being ‘taught’ in the dance workshops and explored in the film editing sessions.

Researchers and editing

• we are interested that these two art forms – dance and film – allow this translation of concepts relatively easily as they both have a strong temporal dimension.

• film doesn’t baby the viewers. The audience need to bring an interpretive practice to watching – just like art.

• what support/resources do viewers need to ‘make sense’ of it?

Interesting other bits related to ‘outcomes’

• the young people made a facebook page during the workshop and met outside of Tate

• two of the young people report that the workshop was important in them making decisions about what they might do next

• we wonder how much the workshop might contribute to the formation of other ‘possible selves’. We can go back!

Interesting other bits related to ‘outcomes’

• the workshop team was more than the participants, artists and researchers. Other Tate team members and colleagues have become involved. There was a porosity about the project that is of interest to us

• the artists have also reported that the workshop has influenced them too. More to say here in future

We invite you to discuss• We’d like help in thinking about:

– learning and cultural value– reframing ‘impact’ ‘effect’

‘value’. Moving the conversation on from the intrinsic v instrumental binary

– film. What is the value of a method that resists performing its function?