Hello everyone, welcome to the Art of the MOOC. We're here in the conversation with Claire Doherty. Thanks so much, Claire, for taking the time to speak with us. We- >> Pleasure, hi everyone. >> Well, I think it's really hard to talk in terms of periods of time. I'm always slightly aware of trying to, when you're very close to it, but sort of like to dedicate. Trying to identify particular emergence trends in the field. But I think, having done the research for [INAUDIBLE] 40 projects, international projects, over the last decade. I think one of the things that emerged very strong with me would be these common strategic approaches between different kinds of things. What you find is that quite a lot of the artists that we covered are moving across those strategic approaches, so they can't be necessarily [INAUDIBLE] approach. What we found was that, talked to the artists that were working in the public sphere, often those who are working with producers like ourselves, situations of creating time or looking for agencies so you can get picked up. User strategies are disorientation, the displacement, what I call critical agitations. The kind of [INAUDIBLE]. Now, you could say that those particular approaches are very different to, say, 20, 30 years ago. But most surprising thing is the way in which those strategies go hand in hand with useful communication situations. So what you tend to find is that, for example, the strategy of intervention will be used by an artist, knowing [INAUDIBLE] social media to distribute that [INAUDIBLE]. So it tends to then have a greater power and impact as hard work, beyond the specifics of location. So whereas before, 20 years ago, that worked, conventionally brought in some way to the [INAUDIBLE]. It's only very pretty. It's a [INAUDIBLE] beyond specific location. The other thing that happens is, say, it's an emergence of this idea of disorientation. Because it's kind of speaking the expectations of [INAUDIBLE]. There's an uptick in expectations in the last five years. That's due to the audience for this kind of work have become far more connected. >> The museums have these habits of only partnering with very specific. Like, for example, they meet with collectors. They sit on their boards with some kinds of politicians, and with some community organizations. But when you do social practice boards, or this type of public art, every product comes with its own partners. With your many years of experience, have you discovered that there are very specific type of partnering institutions who are much better at it than others? >> That's the best question. That's such a good question. Today I was only talking to one of [INAUDIBLE] producers about it yesterday. And you can survey the [INAUDIBLE] for potential problems for a project. And I said, do my [INAUDIBLE] first time. But obviously, that's things that show you that you shouldn't be partnering with that person. And that should be, I think, what I would say is, okay, so the first thing we would do is do a sort of mapping of potential partnerships. [INAUDIBLE] To do something viable that's expected that is the best thing. And secondly, then, after the fact that those books identify where we get [INAUDIBLE]. So one of the things that we as performers have cast, that we've probably done three times when we started to stop doing it. It's to chase the part that you expected to travel forward. But it's resisting, or there's a kind of [INAUDIBLE] way of working on it. It's just not working. And basically what you do is hold your hands up and kind of go, let's [INAUDIBLE]. We can't help this. What that probably means is that in some ways you've got a different set of objectives. And you should stop trying to do it. And so it's the generosity of that. It's how [INAUDIBLE] respect and trust. To the point where then it's about the right combinations of [INAUDIBLE]. I think what needs, we've just produced a tool kit. I don't know if this is helpful. >> Mm-hm, yeah, definitely. >> Which was, it's like a compass that you use when you're moving through these kinds of projects, to use with a stakeholder group. And basically it's based on the kind of theory that it's not too quirky. It's like you're going on a journey, essentially, and asking you and the group questions as you move through different stages. And what can happen in partnerships is you lose sight of ways of [INAUDIBLE]. And I think particularly when [INAUDIBLE] options. [INAUDIBLE] They might have a completely different understanding of what [INAUDIBLE] to them. So it's kind of a way of checking in. A set of questions to take the balance at this point. And also to do that again, to do that we'll probably need a next strategy to [INAUDIBLE]. So I do think it's partly about understanding and respecting where the [INAUDIBLE]. >> Well, thanks so much for taking the time to talk to us. I know you're always very busy. But students have a lot today. [LAUGH] >> Thanks a lot.
