Cornering the Collaboratory
I would describe our Art of Collaboration class as an exercise of democracy in action. While I think “democratic� is the best adjective, it would be shamefully inappropriate to assume collaboration means “voting on a means to an end�.
Folks may choose to stick the label of collaboration onto any form of art where people have agreed to some mode of creating a product, whether this be choosing someone to “be in charge� or dividing tasks, but this seems inaccurate. In such projects, there is an important distinction between those isolated moments of collective decision-making that can be described as “collaborative� or democratic, and the vast majority of time and process that models some input-output mechanic. Real collaboration is an unpredictable stream of action, where all agents attempt to participate in and consense on the next moment of action. It requires the sort of on-going, complex communication that intuitive gesture best delivers. This form of honest collaboration is difficult to observe or quantify, because the requirements of constant, informal participation and consensus are practically impossible to “measure�. The only thing approaching proof is personally feeling the honest experience, sensing your own participation as well as the collective input.
By this description, our class’s most successful project was the shadowbox showing. In the small group I participated in, there was a clear sensation that everyone’s input was valid and valuable, that there was no chosen or assumed decider, and we were really all making it from moment to moment. This theme seemed to extend to the class, evident by the amazing finished products and the universal confessions that nobody had a clue what was going on.
In comparison, our least collaborative effort was probably walking across the Washington Avenue Bridge. As the twenty or so of us made our way over, less than five people seemed to feel comfortable suggesting a course of action. As we were about to start our half-hour trek, there was a clear air of confusion and dissatisfaction in the group. Some went and did their own things, others more or less cooperated with the plan to stay slow, silent, and spread out the whole time. Since we had “decided� what to do, any deviance from this plan for the next thirty minutes felt a little uncooperative or just uncommitted, certainly not spontaneously collaborative.