Here is a short piece to explain how myself and BRISTOL DIVING SCHOOL feel towards collectives.
Collaborations are the way forward – they are the future.
Many artists have become more and more interested in creating something for the majority rather than the individual, in that there is a desire to create not just a single piece of work but rather a larger project based art form.
In many respects moving away from the making of art objects and moving towards exploring the relationship between ‘real’ life and ‘art’ life.
Space. Project. Art. Collective.
Artist led spaces, independent art schools, collectives – more and more are appearing – could this be the future of art?
Now is the time to send out our collective response. We, artists have always been innovative, proven by our advantageous use of technology. The internet, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, blogs – these are our new art platforms.
Recognising this new long-standing relationship we have as humans, to technology, forcing technological boundaries to merge and create a new art form. One that is not simply to make art but to live as art, to write as art, to communicate becomes art. We live in a technological utopia that serves to remind us of who we are and what we want to achieve in this world.
No longer needing a space, or an individual piece of art, collectives have become rather nomadic in their practice, assuming that it will not be possible to stay in one space for a specific length of time; they decide that in fact they don’t want to anyway.
Collectives gather our ideas, our inspiration, our hopes and dreams and even our fears and let us share them, let us create something even bigger, even better than what it could have been if it were just one solitary mind. We are one. We become one entity of creativity. Hence there is no need for a specific space or home, we can make anywhere home. As an artist and an individual, you are full of questions, full of ideas and wanting to be heard, yet sometimes, just haven’t quite found your voice, or the right platform to do this. Being part of a collective means you can have that chance, it becomes a collection of like minded individuals all striving towards a similar goal, all willing to help each other get there. For, without contacts, without each other, without other creative minds there is no art scene, there is no way of networking.
A collective becomes less about the ego or the individual art making and more about the experience and what can be offered.
In this time of recession and general lack of knowledge or care for the arts outside of the art world, we, artists and creatives need to stick together. We need to send out a collective response, become unified in our creativity and help each other.
This is not the time for selfishness or arrogance. No one cares anymore; no one is going to progress if that attitude exists. Now is the time for a collective consciousness, to develop as one.
