Friday, March 9, 2007

Carnie: Dear Jill, Futher to your questions

From: ANDREW CARNIE
Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2007 22:59:19 -0000

As you say Jill this is a large topic, your views on issue 9 [refrence previous post at http://visualcultureandbioscience.blogspot.com/2007/03/scott-response-to-carnie.html ]- How does the public benefit from art embedded with scientifically robust knowledge?
Could psychological evaluation help art and science to communicate more clearly to the public?
would be of interest to me.

The former I think benefits from a ‘rounding’ a fuller more conversant communication of the science work, though of course one also wants to be able to ‘expose’ the science for what it is sometimes, contextualising some of the negative aspects. This might lead to a slightly difficult less embedded relationship. Certainly in my projects I want to move away from the science when I make the work. I want to stand at some distance from the science and maybe only touch on it slightly, and more concentrate on a human dimension aspect. This is also to avoid simply repeating the science and sometimes because the science is just too complex to make work about. I once had a fascinating contact with the Medical Research Council Centre for the Study of the Synapse in Bristol, UK. The work done there was amazing but chemically so complex I just couldn’t find away to engage with it artistically. The work did effect though how I made a subsequent piece, though I could not deal with the content of the research group.

The latter part of issue 9 suggests to me that you think more linkage, more embedding of artists and scientist, maybe even more training would be a good thing. I once took place in a collaboration with a dance company to make a combined work, It was not an easy relationship on route, to though, what turned out to be a positive result. A third party afterwards suggested that what would have been a good idea would have been for both parties to attend
training sessions in collaboration before undertaking the venture. I agreed with this, some instruction to see where the common ground lay and where differences in expectation were located and the provision of processes of
resolution would have been good.


Andrew Carnie
Artist and Lecturer
Winchester School of Art
Southampton UniversityPark
Website www.andrewcarnie.co.uk

Images: Things Happen 2002 Andrew Carnie, Slide dissolve 22 mins Made for the Mendel museum, Brno Czech republic, Photograph Andrew Carnie
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