The residency so far- reflections on working in collaboration

Barbara, Hilary and I have spent five days at the residency. So how has it been so far? Well, its been quite a challenge to gain a rhythm and emmerse myself in the process, as I am not in consistently. However, the other side of the coin is that when i'm not at MoDA I have reflecting and thinking time, so there pros and cons to the set up.

I am trying to balance the need to develop ideas for the tea parties and two events in the diary, versus developing my own work. In future I will negotiate clear blue sky during the initial stages of a project, I think this enables space allow ones process to grow without the weight of organisational outcomes, as it has an impact on reflection and research time. So for the future I would organise events later in the project, but its good to rise to the challenge and I am sure that something will develop from the unknown space of beginnings.

All the artists on the residency have been reflecting on the nature of collaboration in their own different ways. It's made me seriously reflect on this and I have decided to write about my own experiences on the blog and perhaps add something to the ongoing debate in this area of practice.

There seems to be a great deal written on the collaborative process of artists and organisations, but little on artists and artists in collaboration. I have worked on a number of collaborative projects, including community arts projects, workshops, event management and arts projects. Some collaborations have worked better than others, for example the concentration on the outcome of the project without addressing the working relationship has been less successful. This might work to some degree when its a short relationship and project, or when the artist is less experienced and one of the artists is happy to stay in the driving seat whilst others sit back. However, if all have energy and investment and want to work together equally with all voices needing to work together things can get sticky and need to be worked through.

I don't believe there is a right way to collaborate and its difficult for anyone else to tell the artist how to work in collaboration, its something the collaborators have to work out together and feel their way through. So how do you measure what works and what doesn't? Is not like collaboration is made that visible. When I observe other groups and couples who collaborate, I have tended to think; oh they just get on well, they work better as two than as one, and from the outside it just looks like it works. But what makes it work?

It seems that each collaborator respects the other, and allows and enables the other to grow, giving space to take risks, in an open way, in which the artists can dare to disagree, negotiate and a let go of each their authorial voice.

All artists bring something different to the mix, acknowledging differences is essential. Its almost like acknowledging the other and allowing them in, sharing information and perhaps losing ones own sense of ownership. Its also about going to places that are not part of ones individual vocabulary and not knowing what the outcomes of this might be.

In the collaborative process; the relationship is as important as the objectives and outcomes of the work. Therefore building structures in the working relationships can provide the framework to build and grow.

Whilst collaboration tends to be shaped by a community decision making process, co-operative processes can also be useful in offering each artist space and an opportunity to develop their interest areas. In this process activities are shared out and individuals in the group take responsibility for a particular activity in order to problem solve or develop the work. Its important to share outomes and not hold onto information in this process. If areas of project are divided into different parts, this is more of a co-operating structure than collaboration.

In my opinion both structures are valid, and both models could be used during a project. For example during the Kitchen Antics funding application process, I took on more of the responsibility for the application as Barbara was working in Ireland and Hilary was away. We then reflected together on what had been written and developed the application from there in collaboration.

Since being in residency we have tried to reflect together on the development of process; at times this has worked and at times we have struggled, its an ongoing process of building trust with a belief in the goodness of each others contributions. Collaboration involves attempting to maintain shared problem solving, providing mutual support and engaging together in activities which build and maintain a collaborative approach. In my opinion I think the following areas might enable a collaboration to develop.

* An initial agreement to collaborate, so you know you are all working towards the same goal.
* Do things together such as meetings, discussions, e-mail exchanges, share applications in order to involve everyone and build a shared understanding and vision of the project and a sense of community.
* Tap into each others skills, varying and different abilities, knowledge and experiences.
* Make time to meet and reflect on progress, share/exchange information, give feedback, listen to feedback, air concerns and celebrate achievments.
*don't give up when it gets difficult, its a part of the process and if you all want to work together in collaboration you will get there.

I will keep you informed on further reflection on collaboration