Sunday, October 6, 2013

Workbook: William Kentridge, Jane Taylor, and Other South African Artists We Know and Care About — Learning More and Reflecting On Collaborations






It was a weekend to listen, learn, reflect, and plan.  
DOE Projekts (Deborah Adams Doering, Glenn Doering) attended "Virtues of Bastardy: Mixed Metaphors and Collaborations in the Studio" at the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society, University of Chicago. Statements we remember and value from the presentation by William Kentridge and Jane Taylor:

1. Collaboration obligates us to "exceed ourselves."
2. The purpose of a collaboration is to do something we have never done before.
3. Find the "least bad failure" when collaborating.
4. Let us think with our hands together.
5. There is always an ongoing battle between structure and spontaneity.
6. Collaborations may ignite the erotic — "eros."
7. "Absurd" is a productive way of understanding the world.
8. Invention and fabrication are causes for celebration.

After the presentation, we remembered and reflected on our collaboration, and collaborators, in Kassel 2012. We discussed the future of DOE Projekts.