Making Stuff

Project B is a Birmingham-based trans-national collaborative public art community project referencing the functionality of ornament and its transformative quality on architectural space. It is a collaboration between artists Françoise Dupré and Dr Myfanwy Johns in partnership with architect Sabina Fazlic and participants from the charity organisation the Bosnian Cultural Centre-Midlands (BCCM) [1]. Following the successful introductory project Avlija and its exhibition (New Generation Arts (NGA) Festival and Architecture Week, Birmingham, 2007), Project B launched in November 2007, its main stage Sebilj (2007 to 2010). It's research and development work for 'sebilj' was exhibited at Digital Utopia?' (NGA Festival, Birmingham, 2008. Project B's aim is the fabrication of 'sebilj' a large portable flat-pack public structure influenced by traditional Bosnian design and inspired by the famous public fountain and landmark Sebilj in Sarajevo [2].

Project B has a unique and exciting hybrid approach that combines two distinct artistic practices. Mine is a collaborative-participatory [3] and community based trans-national textile practice that explores the art of making in the everyday [4] and celebrates invisible creative skills; Myfanwy Johns' research practice focuses on the cutting edge applications of new technologies used to develop ornamentation in architecture [5]. What makes Project B different, from any of my previous projects is this use of digital technology as a making tool. Through digital technology Project B transforms and combines traditional craft techniques and Bosnian design to propose new designs for a Birmingham Sebilj. In contemporary art the use of digital technology is often associated with web-based art, film/video, photography and temporary large projections/ installations. But contemporary makers and designers are also at the forefront of using digital technology; it is applied to the design and fabrication of objects, architectural ornamentation and textiles [6]. Project B follows this latter practice and its concern with materiality.

The use of technology as a means through which to engage participants and audiences with art activities is not new. The day event On the Margin of Technology (SPACE gallery, London, 2008) provided an insight and thoughtful context for anyone concerned with the social implications of technology when working in the public domain. The event coincided with the exhibition The Not Quite Yet (Space gallery, London, 2008) which included artist Loraine Leeson's project: 'Geezer Power' [7]. With a group of senior East Londoners, known as The Geezers, Leeson worked on a project that explores technological innovation tapping into the group's collective and extensive life experience. This event prompted me to think further about the role of technology as a meaningful tool for BCCM participants. The concern for Project B was the nature and degree of participants' involvement with technology as there are logistical issues around access to computers and fabrication machines. For Project B, participants' access to digital technology was possible because of the use of the teaching media suite at Birmingham City University (BCU), School of Art. It meant that everyone was able to use Photoshop as a tool in the process of developing designs for 'sebilj'. However, laser cut and etched designs based on participants' samples and 'sebilj' architectural models had to be done elsewhere by model makers Dragonfly Models. Samples were brought back to the workshops and discussed and Dragonfly's involvement with the project through model making workshops and follow up visits allowed continuity between process and fabrication.

In the 1980s, Copyart Collective used to push around large and heavy photocopying machines into the Brixton Art Gallery (Atlantic Road) to lead community workshops: brixton50.co.uk

The transformation, through digital process, of a hand made crochet sample into a machine etched pattern displaces the intimate and tactile relation that one has with the original object. There is a sense of loss as one's original seems to be disregarded in favour of the slick machine finished hard edge product. Within the context of a diasporic community, this sense of loss cannot be dismissed. Ownership of the “new” object can however be claimed by involving participants in the digital process. Tactile experience can also be restored by inserting, for example, hand made elements, thus bringing together the hand made and the digital. The question, therefore, is not one about choice of tools (technology versus the hand-made) but one about the nature and depth of participants' engagement from process to artwork and public viewing. The “new” object has to become part of the larger and more complex narrative of tightly interwoven relationships between process, artwork and a context of social, cultural and creative network [8].

The invisibility and marginalisation of the stitched and the hand made object, traditionally associated with women, are concerns that I have explored through previous collaborative-participatory projects [9]. These projects have engaged with traditional textile-based practices and women's creativity. Beside the idea of reclaiming and celebrating undervalued art forms, there is, however, my aim to develop a significant engagement with participants. I have therefore used textile activities because they are easily accessible and highly social activities. Known for their restorative value [10], they can be practised in many different kind of contexts and survive migration [11]. Often time consuming, these activities encourage long-term commitment and the end product always brings a sense of self worth and pride. It is this process of identity formation and the performativity of making activities that I wish to further discuss in relation to participatory and relational art practices.

Relational Aesthetics are "a set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context, rather than an independent and private space." Nicolas Bourriaud