Delia Whitbread
Reconfiguring the Rose - translating a visionary medium of the Second millennium into a visionary medium of the Third
Aim
In the Womb of the Rose is a web-based project utilizing the traditional craft of stained glass as a framework to develop an international collaborative design using digital media. A rose window template creates discrete panels to celebrate culturally diverse images of femininities. The project is designed to facilitate participation by individual artists over the Internet. A pilot project will be used to test on line workshop spaces for collaboration and editing processes between artists working to the design brief. Potential advantages and difficulties of producing collaborative artworks over the Internet will be reflected on in order to benefit the wider artistic community.
Rationale
The most famous example of a Feminist collaborative art project was 'The Dinner Party' made by Judy Chicago and co-workers - an installation consisting of a triangular table of 39 ceramic plates and runners celebrating female figures from the past and the tiled floor of 999 names of significant women from history (Chicago, 1986). This project demanded considerable commitment from the participants and was never a truly democratic exercise as all the designs were created by Chicago. This research aims to use a traditional rose window template for a web based collaboration that would an artwork more applicable to a 21st Century context. By applying of principles based on the formation of modern on-line communities and allowing opportunity for democratic participation in the editing process (Preece, 2000). Sacred Art generically originates in historical and religious traditions where artwork had collective meaning and a religious purpose based. Realism is translated to make icons that represent abstract/transcendent qualities of deities. Cross-culturally geometry is used in traditional art forms as a unifying design principle and as such can be utilized to make a contemporary multi-cultural iconic artwork.
Methodology
The research will be approached from the perspective of a practitioner in architectural glass and a lecturer and teacher of 13 years experience. It will involve a substantial element of practice based research including; design in the medium of stained glass, translation of images into work suitable for digital manipulation on screen, creating interface accessibility and the creation of a substantial original artwork. In addition, web site design will involve the writing of clear design specifications to be used by participants in order to assess designs and edit in terms of the design brief. The study and evaluation of a range of methods related to the creation of a collaborative artwork will be necessary. This will aid the assessment problems of editorship and intervention in a collaborative context as well as issues of democracy and discrimination. Practice-based research on the development of the collaborative element of the project will include a relative evaluation of the aims and outcomes of other collaborative graphic projects on the Internet. A detailed reflection will be required to fully evaluate the outcomes of the project.
Original contribution
1. A reflection on strategies for managing a complex collaboration on the Internet with written material which sets it within a historical, social and technical context.
2. A teaching device that is easily adapted for other purposes as an exercise in teamwork and management
3. A collaborative design made through on line editing between by the participants and curator.
Indicative reading
- Carroll, J.M. (ed )(2002) Human Computer Interaction in the New Millennium ACM Press books: New York.
- Chicago, J. with photography by D. Woodman, (1986) The Dinner Party. New York: Penguin Books.
- Cowen, P. (1979) Rose Windows. London: Thames and Hudson.
- Gage, J. (1995) Colour and Culture: practice and meaning from antiquity to abstraction. London: Thames and Hudson.
- Preece, J. (2000) Online communities- Designing Usability, Supporting Sociability, Wiley and Sons: New York.
- Scholder, A. & Crandall, J. (eds) (2001) Interaction: Artistic practice on the net. Eyebeam Atelier DAP Inc. New York.
