It was our first meeting with the art group when many surprising artworks were created. The art workshop Touch and sound focused on three-dimensional forms, exploring new approaches in deriving sounds from well-known objects. The inspirational video was focusing on home surroundings by drawing attention to familiar sounds and surfaces. The element of playfulness in creating sound sculptures provoked participants to experiment with unusual objects, food. One of the installations was similar to the play ‘home alone’. Pebbles were arranged on the floor with pieces of colored paper. The fantastic sound was derived from throwing stones over the installation. One of the sculptures was a complicated musical instrument, cylinders of cardboard paper wrapped in kitchen foil, filled with beans, placed over the round takeaway tray, and sealed with the tape. A basket was full of buttons, tissue paper mobile sculpture produced profound silence similar to the negative space. Playing on the rib of the 20th-century crystal glasses was an elegant add-on to the final discussion.
My response reflects colors of natural materials and food, bright strokes of colorful audio experience. The workshop brought to the surface a few understanding, especially, how many elements of the ‘in-person’ workshop are missing. There is no eye-to-eye interaction, no tactile experience of other participants’ material and work, no assurance from the teacher. On the other side, the individual creative space at home is free for new explorations. Thinking about missing elements, my response echos physical presence, painting from my memory sculptures seen on my screen, cutting with scissors, rearranging, using glue, drawing on top. Art process which materializing virtual connections. However, the escape from virtuality is impossible, the project outcome will be an online show. Due to lockdowns and new restriction of COVID pandemic, my artist’s response changed its form, for time being clay replaced by other forms, painting, drawing, two and three-dimensional collage, and lots of digitalisation. Below are two images of a mixed media painting 1m x 1m and a small cut 7cm x 5 cm from an abstract artwork created as an artist’s response after two art workshops at CPFT.
Now, the timeline of processes has repetition in physical and digital activities. Each physicality follows by ineviatble digitalisation of colours, forms, and shapes. The artwork from both sides (mine and participants) became the collection of digits, signs, spaces, and the file formats. In addition, nobody knows, when the physical show will happen. The following collage represents the prototype of digital screen of zoom meeting. The cuts represent participants’ screens.
I had found a way how to connect efficiently with my colleagues for discussions on inspirational and educational tools for virtual interaction with a diverse group of participants. I had started a weekly zoom group for professional artists, my colleagues, and students from Anglia Ruskin University. The purpose was to develop a set of tools that will help art beginners to create artworks without the pressure of being perfect. Bering in mind the complexity and novelty of the online art classes, the group discussed inspirational and unusual ways of engaging in the creative processes. After presenting the draft of the inspirational video, the narration was commented, and inline with suggestions, it was edited into the final version.
