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by Michael Shewmaker |
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As part of the UH Hilo Poetry Blues
Project, a demanding and
unique seminar session took place at UH-Hilo in January and February
where the Art Department offered undergraduate students from the
music, theatre and visual art disciplines an intensive experience.
Participants were instructed to drop preconceptions, establish a
team from within the group and create a collaborative work. The six
week long special session was led by Oliver Jackson, this year’s
nominee under the University’s Visiting Artist program and ran
coincident with his visit. The group graciously allowed me to sit in
and photograph their process and results as the experiment
proceeded. |
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Jackson retired as a
Professor of Art at CSU Sacramento in 2002 and is a capable speaker.
His affability and loquacious nature led to many interesting hours
wherein he encouraged, cajoled and at times badgered the
participants to step outside their comfort zones and create a new
and unique work of art while working as a team. As the weeks went by
it became apparent that the students were looking for direction from
Jackson that he consistently and intentionally withheld. |
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While art of legend is a personal and solitary pursuit, collaborative endeavor is the basis of cultural evolution. For the extent of human history, great achievement is the result of many minds intersecting either through time, or towards a common goal. Jackson’s experiment challenged the participants to examine that boundary between the self and others which makes creativity contagious. |
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There was a period of floundering and
many students simply could not connect and drifted away from the
class but those who stayed gradually accepted the paradigm under
which they were expected to operate. Challenged to create anything
at all within the artistic realm made this a challenging session,
with almost no restrictions, guidelines or limits. |
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The possibilities were
so limitless as to be daunting. Once it was clear that their
collective hands would not be held, the participants formed working
groups of two or three and their various projects started to come
together. The results were interesting combinations of performance,
visual art and music, some successful others not so much but
everyone involved stretched their boundaries. |
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