Lecturers ESAM: Tanya Rodgers and Juliet Bates. 

Students ESAM: Master Design/ Edition. 

 

Aims

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This workshop gives the students an opportunity to experience the complexities of long distance team work in order to produce a collaborative art or design work. At the end of the workshop the projects will be exhibited — virtually or physically. The exhibitions in Plymouth and Caen could take place simultaneously if two copies of each project were produced, and/or the students could design an exhibition which is easily transportable between the two cities.   

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Objectives 

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Completion of a collaborative project of the students choosing (book, image/text, sound work, video, etc.) which explores the theme of the workshop.

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Project title: From Sea to Sea

 

The only thing that separates us physically is a strip of sea approximately 189 miles/ 304 Kms wide*                           . With this in mind, we would like you to begin your research for this workshop by visiting your respective shorelines and looking out to sea in order to consider the space that both separates us and connects us.  

 

The scope of this workshop is wide and there are many ways you could develop your project conceptually. You could observe natural phenomena on both sides of the sea —weather, tides, stars; remembering also that the shoreline is a                       caught between water and earth. You could look at historical and cultural links and differences (bearing in mind we were once connected by                     ). You could think about the space in a political or economic context (migration/ brexit/ fishing/                ). Or you could choose to explore the space on a personal level, through performance or narrative. What ever direction you chose to take, it is important that the final project is a real exchange in terms of ideas and realisation between French and British artists/designers.   

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* distance between Plymouth and Ouistreham )

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Programme

 

In order to facilitate communication, before the workshop you will be asked to produce a short statement about your work, this could simply consist of keywords describing the media, themes, artists/designers that interest you, images of key works and, where relevant, addresses to personal websites, blogs, instagram, etc. Before the workshop begins the ESAM students’ statements will be sent to the Plymouth students and vice versa. 

 

During the first day of the workshop each student will briefly present their work to the French/English group, via Skype. You will discuss the themes and techniques that interest you, showing a few examples of your work. You will need to carefully prepare for this presentation, the short statement should help you. We encourage you to show relevant projects and make reference to artists and designers who inform your work.   

 

You will be working in pairs or in small groups and communicating mostly via social media. Because of the obvious constraints of this project, you will need to be organised. We suggest that once your team has formed you should begin to draw up a timetable/planning, so that everyone agrees to the various tasks ahead and the timing of them —obviously this plan may change as the work progresses.                                   , in tutorials and interim presentations, we will ask you to keep us regularly informed of the various stages of your project,  

 

For those of you who are less confident in talking/writing in English or in French you will need to find strategies to communicate simply and clearly. Often the best way to communicate with other artists and designers is visually, so be prepared to produce as many working drawings, rough edits etc as possible.