Two points of view... They are both right!

In reflecting on the work we collaborated upon, which was an experience for the first time for many of the students, I was very keen to not take charge nor try to control the group's objectives, aims and working structure.   This would have been very easy for me to do, having been in management and in particular Project management roles for most of my working life.

I thought it best therefore for the students in our team to go through this collaborative learning excercise for themselves, whilst for me, to give them full encouraging support, but not to take over, nor run the project which I would naturally do.  Had I done so, I think the learning experience of the students would almost certainly have suffered, as it's possible, in fact highly probable, that the aims, objectives, formats and other project start-up criteria would have been formally established early (as would be usual, even in a small, but fully managed project of this type). It was very hard for me to keep very quiet and not automatically produce a work break-down structure, product and sub-product lists, bill of materials, task assessment plans, task & event timescales, milestone and go-no-go gates, even at a minimum, a gannt chart / task assessment etc.

Whilst it has been hard for me not take control,  I am glad that I was able to justifiably remove myself from (what I would consider as the mid-stage assement phase at prototype completion) during the last week (Week 3 from a total of 4). as I was simply uncontactable during that week's pre-booked vacation.

This meant that, in my opinion when I returned, the students have had a chance to of learned so much more by finding out the pitfalls for themselves, what worked, what doesn't / didn't work, who or what is reliable, who/ what is not, (i.e. group dynamics, general collaboration rules) and so on.

This may all sound a little patronising or 'smart' from me, but as I say, having been a project manager in many different sorts of business over the last 25 years, it was important (and even though it was hard for me to bite my tongue, see some failures looming and allow them to materialize), to let the team experience the reality of what it`s like to collaborate, see what would be needed to be done, (to individually take responsibility in a collaborative way etc), rather than simply providing them with a pre-defined formal operating framework and hence provide all the answers without learning from the experience.

So, from a more practical point of view, there have been many lessons learned by the group which as an observer in a sense,  I will suggest a few here to summarize conclude;

1. Set the goals and aims of the project in a start up or kick off meeting,  when it is essential that all the stakeholders, which means the person (or persons) providing the breif; the people responsible for the design, production and technical capabilities, together with someone who can represent the end user (or customer, or viewer or reader etc. It doesn't need to be an actual customer or reader or user, but someone who is as well informed about that group at least). * This didnt really happen.  
2. Agree all of the requirements and record any representations or special requests. Consider and agree collaboratively if they are achievable within the resources (cost, time, quality) constraints.
     Try to come out of that first meeting with as much agreement as possible, over the format, tasks needed, people responsibilities for what and when and so on.
3.  Try and establish very basic risk management and contingencies. i.e. ask 'what if this or that, goes wrong / isnt done or whatever, to cover the immidiate possibilities.   
4. A rough plan with timescales and milestones should be able to be created from all of this and it's important to make sure it is in writing as soon as possible and distributed to the whole team.
   
   All this might sound like overkill, but if you adopt these simple first steps, there is less likely-hood for things to go wrong later. It also means people know what is expected from them, and by when, and this stops (or at least reduces)  people from going off and doing their own thing.
5. If necessary, appoint a suitable project manager (someone from the team who will document the above), and who'll be the central point of contact for control.
6. if the project is big enough, write a project charter document!  What the aims are, how you will work together, when you will regularly meet at compulsory breifing meetings, how you will communicate, (i.e by what means). This should be the backbone document to further planning as it stops the team from loosing site of the goals and objectives.
7. Make sure a prototype can be completed well in advance of production.  It is vital that when this is agreed, and the final prototype should be formally accepted by the whole group, (obviously, it can change, but again this must be managed in good time), then a total CHANGE FREEZE is put into place to stop any further development.  Production can then start properly, with less likelyhood of wastage, failure or late delivery.

Like I suggested earlier, these might seem like overkill steps, but should, in the very least, be considered. - You don`t have to implement every suggestion or step, but in reality, in a real project for production, especially in a commercial setting, or when arranging an exhibition (or any other event which is going to cost money) there can in fact be a whole lot more steps, depending on the aims, size and effects (or repercussion)  of the project, and this is often a full time job for a project manager.  

Anyway, I hope this post is useful for my peer students. I also really do hope that one massive lesson learned, (and it always is in a collaborative project), is that everyone has very unique skills, we all work differently to one another, its really fun and interesting to find out 'who' is suited to doing 'what' specific roles; where they excel and where they prefer not to do certain tasks.  It's always important to make sure people don't try to take on too much too, as whilst they mean well, and want to be heros, it can be extremely stressful for them at times and can even lead to fallings out, if timescale deadlines are missed and so on.

Co - labor -ation...  We are all (working) in it together and we must look after each other (share the load equally).

---------------

On a lighter note, I also found whilst doing some other research for the Contemporary Art in Context - theoretical  studies, this interesting snippet from around 2007 (I think, judging by Mr Paxman's hair colour and style, it was of this period).
It is a classical situation when two people have very specific beliefs (in reality, these could be almost anything, like football teams or favourite restaurants etc), and poopr Jeremy was trying to arbitrate between two contemporary artists.

Jeremy Paxman with two contemporary artists

Dialogue Project progress

Finished my sketches for the dialogue project today, and just working out the text to add to the images that will establish or provoke some kind of dialoge or questions or other actions from the reader.  I've thought hard about he types of sentences to use to 'hook' the reader or view into looking a little longer at the background images...  I have had a number of options that spring to mind, such as;

• simple titles
• some dream related text
• some explanatory text of the image
• some unconnected references that might make the reader question relationships
• some kind of riddle buried in the text
• and last (but not least as I know there are many other variants), perhaps I can combine some sort of (what appears to be non sensical if viewed superficially) plays with words...

So I need to choose some form of text from the options above... I need to be mindful that as the theme of the publication has been decided by the group to consider 'dreams' then the relevent choice ought to be connected to that.

My best option I believe will be to make some kind of playful statement, using word play that is both relevent to the image on a deeper level, and which will entertain the viewer to help them more likely to engage with the rest of the booklet.  So with this combination coupled with a sence of playfulness, I am considering using some of the wonderful quotes left to us from comedy.  As the audience is likely to be unlimited nor age restrficted, these quotes must be suitable for delicate sensibilities, yet provide conundrums, paradoxes or riddles that are appealing to a wide audience, both mature and young. 

In our Art in Context and theoretical studies,  we have also been spending a fair bit of focus on Carl Marx and the hypothesis he developed with Engels in 1850... So in playful acknowledgement of this, I have decided to use some quotes from Marx...  That is Groucho Marx And his brothers Harpo and Loui from the 1940s and 1950s comedy films... (I hope this is taken by the viewers in good light, it is not meant to mock the academic importance of our research, but just make a playful connection for the purpose of entertaining and thought provocation).

So my final 6 pieces, based on 5 text and image sketches and on of pure text is as follows;

Back in the saddle again after a week's vacation...

Back in to the swing of University life again today, after taking a pre-booked week out with my wife for her to have a really well deserved holiday.  (I also used the sojourn to take some study photos that I can add to my Project 1 Identities portfolio too).

The team that I am attached to have started some really creative work to include in our assignment for a text and image publication.  It's been agreed that there will be around 30 pages consisting of 5 drawings and one page of text from each of the five team members.  We still have some production to do and the deadline is moving ever nearer.  I'm a bit concerned that there will be a really heavy day on Friday this week to get two assignments completed and finished off.  However I'm really grateful for some skilled footwork by team member Daisy, during our evaluation of work so far by our course tutor, in her deft negotiation to get an extension over the weekend, ready for a proposed mini-exhibition on Monday.  (Nice one Daisy)!

So, whilst I think my illustrations relating to dreams are a useful addition to the publication, I'm also blown away by the creativity of some of the other work the team has done.  I'm keen to try some new but simple and elegant methods that they have come up with, not of course to plagiarise anything, but to add and adapt, which I am learning is a kind of post-modern mantra...

Inspiration sought from Brains Exhibition at MOSI

The opportunity to attend a display at Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry was intended to  provide our team with some inspiration, particularly around our theme chosen for the Dialogue project and Dreams.  The stimuli for this inspiration was a new exibition by MOSI on the brain. It was an exhibition created by both scientists and artists working together, and the resulting combination provided a worthwhile trip.  I was a little dissapointed that only two others from our team of five decided to show up at the agreed time outside university, for me to drive over and collect them, take them to Manchester and then return them back again. Nevertheless, the two students who accompanied me were clearly grateful and I hope inspired in some way by what they saw.

I am still working on what to prepare and present within the Dreams / Dialogue project as I have struggled to successfully remember the dreams I've experienced over the last few nights.  My task was to research the scientific theories around why we dream, and I have started to gather sufficient material for that to be evaluated by the team to chose what we include in our intended publication.

Meanwhile, my artistic output has been a little slow overt recent days as I have perhaps been thinking rather than doing a little too much. I must keep in mind the latin phrase that I found earlier, which tranlates to 'never a day without a line'

An open mind...

It's been a strange week.  I've been very anxious for the other students a little too much this week, and this has had a bearing on my own concentration and output.  Unfortunately, it's something I have to accept that sometime my empathy is a little too strong, I just automatically start worrying for others.  It's a habit that locks me down so often, which caused me to ruminate and hence loose time and some creative enthusiasm. It's a schema that I would benefit from changing.

Anyway, to summarize where I am... The contemporary practice in context (i.e. the theory part) seems to be raising a lot of concern and fears in the group this week, as to what needs to be done, and what is right, and what is wrong.  It has meant that there has developed a conversation and notion of rightness and wrongness, which when thought about deeply, doesn't actually exist.  What has been set for us to do, is really quite open and whilst there is guidance, there are no hard boundaries that might hold us in.  We are free to explore where-ever and whatever we want to.  The only output (or products) at this stage is for each of us to create a mind-map of a philosopher / theorist, or a favoured artist's or even an art movement's Manifesto.  Once this mind map has been created, we then should be able to create an image (in what-ever format we want, so it can be a drawing, painting, piece of sculpture, electronic representation or whatever), that captures some key identifying component(or components) of the chosen theorist or manifesto...

To repeat the phrase that I keep coming back to, which Shakespeare wrote in Hamlett act 2...
  "Nothing is either right nor wrong, but thinking makes it so"...

(I shall keep coming back to this wonderful phrase again and again, I am sure of it...:-) )...

This notion of "nothing is right or wrong but thinking makes it so" is really part of the essence of post-modernism I suppose.  Almost anything goes... This is reflected very much not just in our contemporary culture but also in our art too.

So, onto a more focused reflection my thinking...

Having decided to consider the artist Jean Tinguely, for my choice of theorist for study in Contemporary Art Practice in Context project, I've been gathering references to his material.

The choice of using Jean Tinguely as both a theorist, practitioner and artist (someone whom I had never come across before), has given me a greater challenge to gather research, simply because records of him and his work seem a little harder to obtain, if compared with a more generally known artist or celebrated movement...  I see this as a positive thing.  It has meant that I have to research in a much more focused way, but in so doing, has caused me to touch and review very many unconnected sources of inspiration and resources of study.

Tunguely, perhaps a lesser known artist within the UK but much more celebrated in Europe (especially in Switzerland, his birthplace), created the Manifesto "of Static" and from it grew the movement itself and corresponding manifesto;  he has probably become most famous for the creation of the theme and idea of "Meta-matics".

Project 2: Collaborative text & publication on the theme of "Dialogue"

We are now into week 5 of our degree studies; the first project on the theme of Identities is now beginning to crystallise into a proposal for a final piece.

Our next four week assignment will be to conduct an in-depth and disciplined approach to help us develop a collaborative product.  This will be a publication of some sort which explores the theme of dialogue in some way.

The brief given is that it must be cheap to produce, we should aim to create between 25 to 50 copies, more if successful.  (2 copies will be required for assessment and additional copies will be required for an end of term exhibition).  We have a free range on materials / media / size etc.  We were told to work in collaborative groups of 4 people, preferrably with two students who we didn't know and had not worked with before, so we quite quickly formed into a group of two males and two female students.

My initial instinct, (after many years of conditioning from being a Project Manager), was to think of an approach, just like any other project or task... That is, to create a plan.  My thoughts were almost automatic in Establishing an "OST"  (Objective(s),  Strategy, and Tactics....  Collaborative - delegation of duties, i.e. What needs doing, by whom and by when.  Creating a timeline of sub-products to bla bla bla.....
-  I immediately stopped myself from taking charge and putting my views forward, and I allowed  the group to evolve it's own ideas before committing any of my own rather regimented preconceptions.  This was a good thing to do, as it allowed for a better cohesiveness between the team members.

We adjourned to the relaxed atmosphere of the SU bar;  discussed potential topics for the publication (not), and then after generally chatting and getting to know one another briefly, coming up almost spontaneously that a good topic, which we had just been chatting about for a while, might be "DREAMS"...

We returned to the studio.  Three different exercises were presented by Bob, Jill and Christian, our degree tutors to help us with our dialogues project.  These exercises were all focused on achieving the act of dialogue.  Each provided a concept or vehicle to start a conversation, or to exchange images, or movements or an ongoing process of creative meaning, through sharing.  i.e. "A dialogue".