Art and Anthropology in practice
Although I do not know what is meant by this question, "What happens when artists and anthropologists are asked to do something together rather than talk from the safety of their own practice?" by Anna Grimshaw, the CAA Workshop offers documentation on Art and Anthropology, as well as on featured objects. Artists and anthropologists connection is a fruitful entanglement, I think. Whether artists be inspired by science and anthropologists´ knowledge, like stories or other narratives, or anthropologists process their minds into artwork, the dialogues and communication, the dialectics of inputs and outputs create an area of prolific tension. So, do we speak of methods and approaches, or of results and effects? Or will we grasp the process of communication of artists and anthropologists and document what was produced? What does saftey of practice in this context mean? This essay On Art and Anthropology with a foreword by Pavel Buechler explains in Amanda Ravetz´s words, that "The challenge as I saw it was to enable participants to open up and explain their practice, while at the same time engaging as equal partners in an active process that would result not in art work or anthropology work so much as lay bare the kernels of each approach."
Long have artists adapted anthropological information in some way, see Gaugin, for instance. The artistic movements of the beginnings of the 20th century, too. Jazz musicians. As much as I remember there was Herbie Hancock playing with Burundi Black from Africa, back in the eighties. The scientists Sowah Mensah, David Fanshaw, ... Cultural fusion in music is called world music, nowadays. On the one hand one can easily find examples, namely artists referring to anthropology, on the other hand, when it comes to scientists applying or using art - ?
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Hi Sybil,
thanks for taking the time to look at thie CAA website. I think what Anna Grimshaw is picking up on when she talks about 'going beyond the saftey of practice', is the way the workshop gave participants a brief and asked them to produce a response - this was to encourage activities together other than presenting finished work and ideas ( though we did this too). The point wasn't to make finished work, but to find out the conceptual and methodological implications of doing things together (other than talking about things already known to us in our ways of working) and what it might entail.
Amanda
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