I am gradually returning to the world as hints of Autumn invade the air. I have been in the lingering aftermath of a digital summer invested in collaboration with Korean artists creating new works for a multimedia event. The focus of the collaborative activity was on the process of extending creative range through digital technology. The artists were students from Ewha Woman’s University in Korea: visual artists, dancers, composers, and musicians with a conservatory background and no training in technology.
This was an exhilarating and cataclysmic experience, intensive exposure and exchange, crossing vast differences in cultural sensibility, infused with energy. But it was also a debilitating experience, one that tapped the imagination while sucking out the succulent textures of creative ideas, draining me of a creative force as I gave myself totally to the experience of overseeing the final production. To be sure, it was in a context of highly gifted collaborators as colleagues and students, but I clearly miscalculated the energy I would have to give to the experience, an intensive three-week workshop based on Einstein’s Dreams for a collaborative theme.
The reality of content surrendered to the process of generating materials and ideas. Content was disassembled, distanced, and disintegrated through the digital looking glass. We turned ourselves and our minds inside out. What emerged was much more than the sum of our experiences. Ideas, spun on gossamer, were visual, sensual, sonic confections of kinetic creations, shimmering on the edge of virtual parallel universes. They were delicate, fragile— of the moment.
Coming back to my senses, I understand that something very powerful and important took place in the dis-content of this summer. Creative breakthroughs often erupt in the discomfort of an unfamiliar energy seeking equilibrium. Digital technology has opened up new worlds of creative possibilities and interactions. Now in the debris of the crystallization of these energies I find my self discovering—uncovering new worlds of cross cultural understanding and expression. We are at the beginning of new worlds and new discoveries as we share the joy and pain of creative collaboration.
Posted by wyzardmuze 