MACAP 707 PROJECT PROPOSAL

Written Proposal for MACAP 707 module: Aldous George

Aims

Enter upon extensive research regarding Socially Engaged Art/Practice and embark on an in-depth journey into the relationship between art and communities and develop my already existing Claybus project (a mobile art studio).

Answer the question: “How deeply is Covid-19 affecting community art projects, how (if it needs to) can this be fixed and what is required to bring the community back together through art.

Expand on my own practice/process/materials.

Objectives

Socially Engaged Practice

Progress Claybus and offer more socially engaged workshops. View the works of socially engaged artists and where possible engage with them personally with the exchange of ideologies/theories and discuss possible collaborations. Immerse myself with research material investigating and exploring the history and current practice of socially engaged art with dialogue between all collaboratives as the basis of art practice.

My own practice/projects

Consider my current work with an in-depth investigation into rationale but also an inquiry into material choice with emphasis on using alternatives. I would like to represent photographs in an unusual way and investigate using molten metal to paint with. Alongside these inquiries will be an analogy of other artists work that share a resemblance to my work but also artists that are dissimilar or contradictory.

As part of my practice I would like to engage with as many people as possible: the public/shop owners/community as a whole, entering into a conversation/debate/dialogue (for possible narration) on how Covid-19 has affected them and asking for their participation in a socially engaged art project.

Project outline and methods

Socially Engaged Practice

Register Claybus as a business (possibly a Community Interest Company) and apply for funding from social enterprise groups and Councils such as Cultivator and the Arts Council to pursue and develop Claybus. Concentrate on the Claybus business structure within a Socially Engaged Practice framework. Map out which communities I wish to involve for example, Forest Schools, Care Homes, Schools etc. Pose questions around the ethics and what is involved around the participation of community art within a social enterprise environment. Discover workshops that I can attend that will benefit running my own workshops, eg. Covid 19 specific Risk assessing and Government guidance.

My own practice/projects

Seek the participation of individuals from communities to engage in a conversation to discuss possible community art projects that they would like to do and why they want to do it. One idea/project I would like to explore would be to take photographs of people asking them to do the same with as many other (ideally new) people as they desire. At least one ‘passport’ style photograph and a few random acts (laughing, dancing etc.). The passport style photos would be digitally layered into one face (at least 100 faces) and a large pixelated image would be produced using the gestured photos with participants being invited to apply photos to create a large final piece of socially engaged art.

The molten metal work investigation will explore the process and logistics of melting metal, experimenting with ways to colour metals and produce a palette of different metals to paint with. This work would potentially be using images from a socially engaged art project.

Rationale

Since July 2019 I have delivered creative workshops out of the back of a large van which I promote as a mobile art studio. I have called it Claybus.com as the main workshops are investigating clay with an emphasis on teaching people how to throw a pot on a kick-wheel which is also in the van. As part of ongoing professional development, I would like to investigate the relationship between art and people. One of my long-term ambitions/professional goals is to inspire a creative hub which will bring artists, teachers and people together to offer a collaborative and therapeutic community-based centre allowing the opportunity for individuals or groups to be able to immerse themselves in a combined creative consciousness and to discover and progress their own internal inquiry into where their ingenuity lies. In depth research into the history and current practice of socially engaged art is key to my initial rationale for module 707 and will become a major attribute to the critical and evaluative process that will be required to formulate a more informed and researched “creative hub” plan.

Timeline

By the end of the first year I would like to have progressed Claybus to a more socially engaged Art/practice business and hopefully have produced art within communities as well as my own for exhibiting.

Mapping the field and sources – framing the work

For my Socially engaged practice I shall be researching and investigating the following:

Grant Kessler – Socially Engaged Writer

Susan Lacy – Socially Engaged Artist

Tom Finklpearl – Socially Engaged Theorist

Miwon Kwon – Problematic Theorist, Site specific and Installation Artist

Joseph Beuys -German Artist

Claire Bishop – Socially Engaged Theorist

Francis Materosso – Socially Engaged Theorist

Beth from Maker – Community Interest Company, also involved in community art project at The Barbican

20 famous street photographers

https://expertphotography.com/famous-street-photographers/#:~:text=%2020%20Most%20Famous%20Street%20Photographers%20You%20Should,1994%29%20images%20showing%20the%20streets%20of...%20More%20

Brandon Stratton – In the Summer of 2010, photographer Brandon Stanton set out an ambitious project to single handedly create a photographic census of New York City. Armed with his camera, he began criss-crossing the city, covering thousands of miles on foot, all in an attempt to capture New Yorkers and their stories.

For my molten metal investigations, I have already approached metal fabrication companies for advice on low melting point alloys and have begun a conversation with all metal enthusiasts on my travels. Artists work that I shall be making inquiries to will include:

Richard Serra and Gerhard Richter (https://www.wikiart.org/en/gerhard-richter)

Initial bibliography

Finkelpearl, Tom (2013) What We Made, Durham: Duke University Press

Helguera, Pablo (2011) Educationj for Socially Engaged Art, New York, Jorge Pinto Books Inc.

Howarth, S (2012) Street Photography Now. New York: Thames and Hudson

Kwon, Miwon (2004) One Place After Another, Massachusetts: The MIT Press

McCreight, Tim (1991) The Complete Metal Smith, Maine, Brynmorgen Press

Stratton, Brandon (2013) Humans of New York, New York: St Martin’s Press