You know you have enjoyed something because when it has finished you feel the void left behind. That is the case with this collaboration, we might have been over 5,000 miles apart and be speaking x2 completely different languages but the work that was created and connections made are really something to be proud of.
It hasn't been easy. There was no brief in relation to what you might like to create, in fact that wasn't even part of the remit, it was more of a case of collaborating and putting together a show. We were all split up into groups of five or six and after a slightly painful migration from Zoom to Teams we found ourselves together and getting to know our virtual selves. My Korean is non-existent but I did try to see how the language worked, apparently it is simple... I suppose if you have that sort of brain it is. Fortunately the students in Kaywon's University of Art & Design understanding of English was very good, even if they didn't think it was. There are also some very good translation websites and the other English student in our group not only has a Korean flatmate but also wants to go to Korea to teach English at some point after graduating.
Hangul is how the language works and the symbols indicate sounds and it is the combinations of these sounds that make the words. Sounds simple but I'm not so sure it is. However I was keen to understand some of it and appreciate the subtlety of the shapes, which to me formed a type of code and became images in themselves. Interestingly we have subsequently had a lecture on Art & Text and one of the many items discussed as part of the lecture was XuBing's Book from the Sky, ca. 1987–91 and Book from the Ground, 2001-7 these are superb examples of image and text. Are the symbols images or are they text? (Chinese characters, also called Hanzi, are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. They have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as kanji). - Wikipedia
The Chinese characters in Xu Bing's work appear to tell a long story but every single character is made up by the artist, they say nothing, it can’t be read but our brains still try to decipher the code.
Book from the Sky - Xu Bing (born 1955) - 1987–1991 https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/77468
Brief: Collaborative project with advertising and branding students from the Kaywon University of Art and Design (near Seoul, Republic of Korea)
Staff leading the activity: Craig Barber (NUA), Yoon Suok Won (Kaywon)
Group size to balance with 15 students at Kaywon University of Art and Design
Show to open mid-May
Working in small groups (6-8 students) the students from both institutions will work together, with each group producing a virtual room, including artworks and assets and relevant promotional material. The format and content of the rooms will be decided by the discussions of the group members. We will hold a celebratory event and seminar through Zoom for the opening of the show.
This was a staff led collaboration but the actual work, decisions, direction was left entirely up to the individual groups. The first meet was purely to get to know each other, exchange contact details, hence we're all now contacts on Instagram, which really helps to get to see what everyone is up to. It was also to find out what we liked and what we thought of the whole experience. We then met every week after that and set ourselves deadlines for all the various stages and create some sort of structure for the duration of the experience.
The first thing we needed to discuss and agree on was the theme and name of the exhibition. There were several suggestions and discussions on Teams and the need to let the discussion develop was important yet try and give it some steer was at times a challenge. Some of the suggestions I proposed was looking at the distance between us and it is 8,704 km. It would take 22hours and 55minutes to fly and 6 days, 18hours and 25minutes by road... I was thinking about using these random numbers??? Something I would return to for the the stones. Maybe '1375minutes'. (The time in minutes to fly). Or '162 hours' (the hours it would take by road). We also discussed using Luggage, Baggage, Borders or Voyage, and the possibility of 여기요 (yuh-gi-yo) — Over here. We also looked a suggestion of 'Fernweh' - a longing for a place you've never been but feels like home, which was a popular choice. We finally choose the theme as TRAVEL. As it was something that none of us could do but we all wanted to do, in our own countries and beyond and also between England and Korea. The actual name for the show we decided on was WILL. This was suggested by one of the Korean students and it was interesting to see their understanding of the dual meaning of the word, as detailed here taken from the chat.
· Will as a ‘wish’ & ‘auxiliary verb’
· We wish for the normal life (traveling places)
· and It WILL be alright soon
Now we had a theme we all started to look at what we could create. Although this wasn't part of the brief we all were keen to create something relevant and new. The Korean students are mainly studying Graphic Communication as opposed to Fine Art that we are studying. However it bring an interesting balance to the group as there was a lot of issues that complimented each other, not least the work but also the broader range of art that we could bring together.
My initial idea was to make a short film that sent words across the sea from Norfolk to Korea. I had the idea but wasn't sure what to say and how keep the idea simple but effective. I did consider just shouting single words I had been playing with as part of my conceptual thinking but wasn't sure how obscure this would be, would it be too removed, too abstract. So I decided to write and speak a short piece performing it at Runton beach (my nearest beach), which I turned into this short film. I originally intended for it to have Korean speaking on it but felt a translation might not have the same emphasis so I decided to subtitle it in Korean. This I called ‘Travelling Words’.
The words left my mouth and mind and travelled, how far they travelled who knows? What was there to stop them once they had been uttered, surely they will just continue to float on the wind finding their destination and stopping off in many other places at the same time. Where do all the words and sounds uttered and made go? Do they ever end?
With everything being virtual I felt the need to do something physical so I used our group’s selected theme of ‘TRAVEL’. I wanted to create something that supported the film and the idea of travel and the connection between us as individuals as well as universities. One of my original ideas was to paint on some stones from the beach and skim them out to sea to let the ocean take them on a journey, again I would have probably filmed. Then I wondered abut the idea of actually sending something from the UK to Korea, even though we couldn't travel in person we could still send something else on a journey.
I started to play with phrases and words that worked with our theme of TRAVEL and show title of WILL. I also wanted to make sure that whatever I did was in both languages. On one of my visits to the beach I sourced some suitable stones that I felt could be not only engraved but also packaged and sent via the normal postal system, I was looking for ones that were quite flat and relatively smooth. I decided on using x4 words that each of them could carry: CONNECTING, JOINING, EXCHANGING & LINKING. I put the concept to the group and they were very supportive of the idea and also confirmed the translations I had were correct. I wasn't sure if I should paint on them or and engrave them but felt to engrave them would be a more permanent way to display the message. I discussed the idea with 3D at NUA and booked space. It was only when I turned up with the actual stones that a potential issue was highlighted and that was that some of the stones would be too hard to engrave... we selected the ones we knew were more likely - sedimentary ones rather than the granite ones and I transferred the messages and got cracking. The process was a lot easier than I thought once I had got used to the tools, a few practice versions and then decided on this set of four.
I then packaged them up with a further message and image of a map to indicate the journey they have made and sent them out to everyone in our group. I called this piece (5403), as it is the distance in miles as the crow flies from Runton beach to Kaywon.
It was then a case of trusting not only our postal service but also the international travel aspect, customs and then the final part of delivery in Korea. I asked permission from all the students for their addresses, which they were more than happy to offer and very excited at the prospect. Understanding an address from another country is another form of code and it was important to get it correct on the envelope for both ends of the journey.
However, this image supplied by the first recipient made me very happy indeed!
Here is the message accompanying the above image... 'Let's keep in touch in instagram haha Love all of your works! and Carl! I will keep your stone until I become granny hahaha I will give it to my grandchildren ' -
Stone number two arrives! Will number three?
This one came with the message: Hi Carl, I got that wonderful piece. I'll put it on my desk and be together every day. I love it.
So glad to see them in the hands of the recipients. It really does complete the loop.
While we were all creating and developing our work we were also discussing how the exhibition should look, the promotional posters and how to use social media to get the show seen by as many people as possible. All groups were initially to share a space that had been divided up but this proved problematical so each group set up their own account and space. I made up a new email and account so we could access it if required rather than it being linked to just a personal email. By this time we all had a pretty good idea of what we were creating so we could create a layout to suit the work rather than the usual way of having to work within an already established space in the physical world.
I was more than happy to take up the responsibility of creating the space but Mia was very keen to lead on this. This is something I have made a conscious effort within this whole unit and that is to try and take a step back, not assume responsibility because I am the Mature Student and with my background in running a Design Business it is very easy to do the things you are comfortable with or assume you know best when others are very keen to learn and try things. I want to be more of a mentor, to assist and guide.
We went through a few layout options in order to make it work for everyone, especially as there were x2 pieces with sound. My video and one of the Korean students had written a piece of music to be played in the background, which unfortunately ArtSteps didn't allow so we had to have that as a clickable installation.
As a group we continued to meet on a weekly basis to keep things moving along. We discussed the ideas of posters and agreed that the Korean students would put forward some ideas as it not only suited them best it would also supplement their coursework really well. Initial ideas were presented, discussed and then we combined a couple of ideas, which I suggested and felt I could do from and Art Direction point of view. Again, trying not to take over but to guide.
The end result is very clinical, clean and used the global symbols to indicate the idea of travel. A QR code and dates were added to emphasis the show being live and how best to view it.
For the actual exhibition Mia played around with the layout and created different areas to separate the pieces but also allow flow. A lot of work went into the layout and hanging, which was much appreciated by us all as we all thought it really worked well for everyone's pieces. Below is a set of screen-grabs and a link to the show.
If this had of been an actual exhibition rather than a virtual one I would have displayed the stones in a different way, either on a set of plinths or in a vitrine that you could actually see them in the round. Obviously with the limits of ArtSteps I decided it would be best to have them as images and a record of them prior to being sent. I have also not shown the journey they have travelled on, this would also be a consideration to show in a real exhibition. I could look at the journey, the transport, the distance and the locations more, or even had other stones from the beach as more of an installation.
We agreed between us that to promote the show we would use our own social media accounts as that would give us a lot more exposure than starting a new one and trying to get a set of followers, we each exchanged and shared images and stories to promote it to as many people as possible. Posters were also emailed out via the different Universities.
Everyone gathered (virtually of course) for a final session where each group went through their show and work, explaining briefly the thinking behind the concept and the actual show itself. What was really impressive about this was not only the amount of work put in to make this whole project work but also the varied and creative approaches to the spaces and how they took the opportunity to create something really unique. There really has been some truly inspiring work created (screen-grabs of each show below). It was a pleasure to be just a small part of it and to make the contacts we have and to hopefully continue these friendships for future collaborations or just connections.
The whole of the session where we discussed each other's work was also downloaded and shared by the Yoon, the course leader from Kaywon. A link to it is here. Something to revisit soon.