Dan Robinson + Cheryl Huntbatch- GIDE papers

Traversing the Axis – an Interdisciplinary toolkit
Cheryl Huntbach, Dan Robinson, Jen Ohlson and Tara Atkinson

In current art and design projects with urban landscape, diverse and roving roles and positions are adopted. It could be argued that separate disciplines are of less contemporary relevance than working at the interstices of these: offering a greater scope for new ideas and methods.

Such an important and far-reaching theme, Hospitable Cities, demands rigorous cross-disciplinary attention in relation to: urban landscape; community and social engagement; design education; cross-disciplinary research and practice; and to engaging a diverse audience in major themes of import to all our futures.

With these concerns in mind we hope to shed some light on the process by which students and staff have researched and addressed these notions. The following account records a discussion (June 2008) between two tutors and two students on the BA [Hons] Art & Design Interdisciplinary course around responses to Hospitable Cities. The discussion includes specific examples of these students’ projects, thoughts on urban landscape, community and social engagement, interdisciplinarity and the role of the art and design pedagogy and practice in contemporary society.

In 2007, the Art & Design Interdisciplinary course developed responses to the title, Hospitable Cities. Students explored and questioned disciplinary boundaries with reference to reading and re-imaging the city. Some projects were realised as proposals with images and models. Others were developed and realised in public; with users, participants and audiences in the City of Leeds.

Jennifer Ohlson, a student on BA [Hons] Art & Design Interdisciplinary, was awarded the 2007 GIDE First Prize across all GIDE partner colleges for her project Morethanroughandlonely: 7 Nights in Leeds. It is significant that Jen won, and her project provoked exciting debate around its position between art and design and its innovative combination of methodologies (photography, curating, socially engaged practice, publishing) as an ‘interdisciplinary toolkit’ in response to realities of homelessness in Leeds. Jen’s project was commended for its active role within the city, fully embracing the opportunity of the art and design course to engage beyond the confines of the institution.

Jen Ohlson:
The outcomes of applying the interdisciplinary approach are manifold; hence the breadth of responses to the Hospitable City brief. I wanted to look beyond the traditional realms of hospitality with regards to a visitor in the city. Surpassing tradition with regards to design is also mirrored within the interdisciplinary element of this project.

Morethanroughandlonely is essentially a travel guide to homeless accommodation in Leeds. It is the outcome of collaboration between one student and several members of the homeless community in Leeds. By building a relationship with the participants (through volunteering at St George’s Crypt Homeless Shelter) Jen asked the shelters’ visitors and their companions to participate in a project that investigated hospitality within Leeds. Jen distributed disposable cameras to those who were willing to partake and simply asked them to document areas of Leeds that they found hospitable, with specific attention to nocturnal accommodation. The response was overwhelming. Once cameras were returned and photos developed, Jen and the participants met over coffee to discuss the locations. They talked and talked.

Jen Ohlson:
There are approximately 3000 homeless people in Leeds today, the same as ten years ago. My aim was to balance a sensitive yet satirical take on consumerist travelling culture through the eyes of those who sleep rough within a city. Although the raw content of the project stems entirely from the photographic references and narratives accumulated by those who experience this situation first hand, none of it would have happened if I didn’t instigate the direction. Interdisciplinarity instils confidence: Confidence to seek out collaborative partnerships, to project-manage but also to technically unite outcomes through creative processes.

The narratives that surround the images have consequently played a significant role in the development of the travel guide. Likewise with the other tips and clues that are hidden amongst the pages. The overall outcome is diverse: The images alone pose as powerful and inquisitive scenarios, as you look through them a real sense of snooping through somebody’s private photo album occurs. In conjunction, the narratives personalise these situations. The travel guide tries to appeal to all of its viewers: It relays the specifics of the environments somewhat factually, but also engages with those who may not be referring to its pages in search of a spot to sleep but rather as a documentary, art book, journal

Morethanroughandlonely: 7 Nights in Leeds. Photo: anonymous homeless person

Cheryl Huntbach (Course Leader):
Artists and designers may make objects and artefacts, or facilitate encounters between themselves and others (or both). The artist and designer may position themselves as protagonist, catalyst, collaborator, facilitator and/or maker. There is a liberating potential, in the lack of fixity in the position of the artist and designer.

Throughout the 21st century, the siting of works of art and artefacts has increasingly shifted, stimulating very different perspectives on the reading, assimilation and response to the works displayed. In many ways this shift has moved art out of the gallery and more readily brought ideas into the realm of the general public. It is commonplace to experience dialogues between members of art institutions, communities and a wider public. Course tutor Dan Robinson’s art practice PhD critically develops site-specific art projects as complex dialogues.

Charles Esche:
Now, the term 'art' might be starting to describe that space in society for experimentation, questioning and discovery that religion, science and philosophy have occupied sporadically in former times. Therefore the institutions to foster it have to be part community centre, part laboratory and part academy...



Third year Tara Atkinson, participated in the 2007 GIDE workshop following her short experimental video, The 12 Distractions, made in 12 hours across the city in collaboration with fellow course student Jeri Perrin. This was screened publicly at the Hyde Park Picture House, an independent art house cinema.

The Hype (film review):
“…the film forced the audience in Hyde Park Cinema to question just how well they knew their own city, how they managed to miss so much – a view from an alleyway just off Briggate gave a creepy, Peeping Tom feel to the film for a few moments – reminding us just how hidden and secretive the city can be… The soundtrack ranges from sombre music, to a radio tuning in a taxi, to the shrieking, clanging racket of a train passing over the arches… …The film set out to show a ‘glimpse of the city not seen before’, and boy did it. Across twelve hours, and twelve locations, Jeri Perrin and Tara Atkinson created a view of Leeds only possible through film, sound, reality...”

Tara followed this with a final project, In Transition to further research and develop notions of dereliction and regeneration within the city of Leeds. This was a collaboration with Lucy Tucker, a student at Leeds Metropolitan University. In Transition established links with a cross-disciplinary network of academics, activists, urban explorers and developers in the production of a three screen experimental video installation. The project has further resulted in a series of symposia beginning in September 2008 to critically examine the question: ‘Is Leeds Going in the Right Direction?” This question is a continuation of the dialogue that Hospitable Cities generated.
Tara Atkinson:
The project had a main focus in terms of challenging how abandoned and derelict buildings are seen; uncovering the hidden sublime and uncanny beauty that city inhabitants rarely see. By working with a multidisciplinary ethos that focuses on research and networking I develop collaborative projects that can adapt to different contexts and environments. As both an artist and city inhabitant I am interested in how interventions through the arts can help develop, shape, and cultivate urban landscapes. For me the idea took the dialogue of the GIDE project to a new level. Through the collaboration I realised how essential contextualising of the work became.

The In Transition triptych is a high definition experimental video portrayal of abandoned and derelict buildings. This collaborative project uncovers the sublime and uncanny beauty hidden within these spaces before they are lost to a city that is continually rebuilding its image. How are derelict and ruined spaces seen? As French Landscape architect Christophe Girot (2004), describes, they are ‘Landscapes of contempt’ seen as ugly and unpleasant by a city that is growing and changing.

The In Transition event was developed through addressing themes of redevelopment and gentrification, and was proposed to bring together several artists’ work. Included in this was the installation of the In Transition triptych incorporating documentary, site-specific sonic art, graphic work and photography. Not only did this event unite three established art institutions showcasing work from recent graduates and social groups, but also facilitated a cross fermentation of disciplines to discuss the topic of abandonment, transition and regeneration within the city of Leeds.

Lucy Tucker and Tara Atkinson:
As contemporary artists we should not be content in just creating work, but analysing and continually questioning how and where it should be shown. We must therefore allow the work to develop, progress and organically cross boundaries not only of an interdisciplinary nature but between the contemporary and social contexts in which work exists.

Jen and Tara comment that their projects share the desire to ‘make things happen’, to act as catalysts, starting conversations, respecting the participants involved, giving a space for others’ voices. They both share an ambition to set something up in the world, and to an extent to stand back to see what develops.

Tara Atkinson:
For me, its about a DIY approach, working with video/media requires an audience: we weren’t going to wait for someone to ‘discover’ our work, we wanted to cut out the middle-man. My role involves being a promoter, producer, as well as maker.

Jen Ohlson:
I want to establish a dialogue around interdisciplinarity: Encouraging audience participation, socially-engaging, asking, answer generating, applying strategies, creating connections and cultivating dialogue. Interdisciplinarity encourages multi-tasking.

Both Jen and Tara’s projects demonstrate that final year students working with global themes set by GIDE students have serious potential not only to respond creatively in terms of their own art and design education, but significantly, to contribute sensitively and intelligently to the broader debate within the public realm. These projects demonstrate a reflexive testing of the hybrid possibilities of the artist – designer and their potential contribution to society.