Investigating The Creative Method In Work In Progress

Though it is clear that the nature of any creative method depends upon a number of complex factors, from the established practice of the individual, the nature of collaboration, type of subject area, context, medium, etc. there are underlying characteristics that connect them all. These characteristics have been demonstrated in the projects developed as part of the sixth edition of Dispatx Art Collective, Improvised Maps. It is no accident that the Improvised Maps theme itself suggests many of these exploratory, connective and reflective procedures, features which form part of the majority of creative processes. What is also made clear by this edition, and the work of Dispatx in general, is the extent to which practitioners deal with the presentation of work in progress in very different ways, revealing particular approaches to documentation and the focus of creative endeavour. Dispatx supports and encourages such variety of approach through its structure, design and by its incorporation of the tools of a socialised internet.

One aspect of Archive_gay, a project developed by Cristián Gómez Moya, was the documentation of the rhythm of an investigation. The posted material, incorporating images and text, allowed the reader to move through selected elements of the resource that formed the basis of the project. Indirectly, the reader acquired a sense of the artist's developing relationship with the material and the actions that sprang from that. A looser and perhaps more exploratory approach was demonstrated by Gonzalo Puch in Laboratorio Exterior. Colour photographs and short videos, already displaying a certain emphasis in their high level finish, documented the artist's receptive navigation through various ideas. These visual elements were accompanied by concise written reflections that helped place the reader in useful relation to the project, gaining a real sense of the artist's developing methodology and a gradual establishment of methodological language through which the artist could engage with the site and the work.

In a few cases a specific event was identified as a focus for the development process. In both Jeff Thompson's Recording Exchange and Fluence, a collaboration between Dominic Lash and David Stent, a one-off performance formed a central point around which the project revolved - in one case for public view, the other for recording purposes. It was interesting to see, perhaps with this distinction in mind, how Jeff decided to post the concert recording as part of his work in progress, whilst the Fluence audio was withheld, the recording session instead documented with photographs. Leading up to these key events, the two projects treated the documentation of ideas in much the same way - posting plans, sketches, scrapped ideas, etc., clearly showing the evolution of ideas. In the case of Fluence, though not exclusively, the artists did not restrict themselves to using the post facility, but also employed the comments function to open out sub-dialogues, expanding points of interest and establishing a collaborative dynamic where each individual contributor is both artist and audience in relation to their own project.

The fact that the main focus of the project Metron 06 was a gallery residency added another dimension to this type of approach. The work in progress pages became a kind of bulletin board for concise statements, near aphorisms, based around the core concerns of the project. The unit of a single post also served as a site where batches of imagery, evidencing various strands of a prolonged investigation, could be housed. The infrequency and relative length of each post also reflects the format of the residency - accumulation of material and subsequent distillation in a exhibited 'statement'.

Strong similarities exist between the methods explored by Lie of the Land by John Goto and Tracking Wildfire by Andrea Brady. Both projects have included a range of material, including still and moving images, and various approaches to text. Andrea Brady constructed an enormous body of research material that feeds into her writing. During the development of Tracking Wildfire, the Dispatx site was used to document where this research led to, be it through a record of psycho-geographic wanderings, links to referenced articles and political comment, posting of previous drafts or personal reflections upon Andrea's research process. John Goto's work employs anecdotal and diary-like entries in order to build up a series of commentaries based on his proposal, forming a meandering exploration of material. In one post he makes direct reference to how he views the immaterial nature of the internet as a positive part of the work, it being for him the perfect location in which to deposit works - not in the sense of anything throwaway, but as part of an attitude that is less precious, and more immediate, than it might be otherwise.

Karen O'Rourke's Eavesdroplets, in its reliance on outside submissions to provide the raw material of the project, has connections with Recording Exchange, but conducts the open collaboration purely through the interface of the Dispatx website. Using a specially designed online form, Karen was able to collect fragments of conversation that would eventually form the foundations for her final work. The unpredictable, tangential nature of such submissions, which came in English, Spanish and French, required Karen's methodology to remain fluid - able to conduct sustained, close textual readings or to change direction without resistance.

The process of generating and reworking material is common to all projects in this edition. In both (LIS) by Miguel Aquirre Vega and Verso-Recto by Lawrence Frith, a set of reference materials were systematically sourced and displayed, in one case taken from the city of Lisbon, the other from public libraries in the United Kingdom. (LIS), beyond its initial description, was developed as a completely image-based project, obviously highlighting Miguel's visual sense as a painter. Any adjustments made to the gathered material were visible only in new works posted onto the site, there being no behind-the-scenes access to some of the choices the artist made - obviously a key question when it comes to the creative method and its documentation. This is to some extent true for Verso-Recto, although an example of Lawrence worked back into a printed version of his previous posts clearly demonstrates something about his working practice and the relationship of online work to offline reality. Denis Masi's Stories utilised similar techniques of refinement and adjustment, but in this case using a set of pre-prepared images, standardised in format and adjusted in terms of combinatorial variance.

In terms of the combination of techniques and the embracing of tools available in Dispatx, perhaps the most complex of all projects developed for Improvised Maps has been Transcendence by Eli Goldstein and Kjersti Wikstrøm. An ambitious project for many reasons, Transcendence combines numerous methods mentioned above, and gives a complex account of collaborative and creative methods. The two artists, located on different continents, used the site as an active repository, a conjoined sketchbook in which they could collect all manner of thoughts, and to which they were constantly adding. A system of coded titles was quickly established in order to provides a type of index for the generated material. Posts were repeatedly revisited and edited over a long period of time. The artists moved freely between media, using text, drawings, photographic imagery, documentation (of made objects), video and sound. An enormous network of interconnection was established, linking to sites external to the project, to different content items within their own material, to comments made by the public and feedback given by the Dispatx editors in weekly reviews.

By making diverse working methods available to the viewer, Dispatx actively questions the nature of the creative method, the ultimate location of a piece of work, notions of theory and practice and the processes of collective exploration. Brought together under the aegis of a unifying theme, the site juxtaposes methodologies of what could be considered disparate or unrelated fields, emphasising their connectedness. As reflected in its basic structure, with different orders of navigation and the ability to order or isolate projects in different ways, the Dispatx Art Collective site serves to recognise and create relationships between projects and their underlying constructions, with the aim of furthering collective and collaborative creativity.

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About Dispatx Art Collective: Dispatx provides the tools of a social internet for the development and presentation of contemporary art and literature. Visitors are invited to interact with the artists via the online display of their working processes, and to create unique private collections of the finished works. Through this process we seek to establish a new curatorial discourse based on artistic working practices. Links: Dispatx - Show RSS Feed Site Tour

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