My Initial Response to the University 07/12/2009

In regards to the experiential module:

As I am a mature student who has many years of actual employment experience in both the United States and in England, I feel that a work based placement would be of little benefit to me.

I would like to be able to participate in something that will challenge me creatively. As there are also financial constraints that would severely limit the geographical options of what I could participate in (re: outside the 30 mile radius of both Chester and of where I reside). I feel that the best way I can benefit or gain anything from this module is to engage with working artists in a virtual realm.

What I am proposing is to write to various artists asking them if I could have a placement with them remotely. This of course would be utilizing the internet, messenger, and e-mail. This would function in a similar manner that the artists within the Fluxus movement utilized in the 1960’s when working in collaboration remotely (re: mail art).

I would need to discuss with the various artists the exact nature of what such participation would entail. One manner in which the “placement” could function is that at the beginning of each week, the participating artists would individually set a brief/ challenge/ parameter which I would have to create a piece of work resolving and combining their briefs. Given that the artists could potentially set various very different parameters, it would challenge me to resolve these divergent parameters into a cohesive creative response.

At the conclusion of each week the creative response would be e-mailed to the participants or posted on the internet. The participants would then consider the work and then set the next weeks parameters (possibly based upon their response to the work produced).

Throughout this process, all communications would be recorded and documented which would supplement the usual documentation and journal reflection common in the production of a creative work.

This is only one solution to how such a remote interaction might occur as previously stated the exact form that the interaction would take would need to be negotiated with the participants.

While this form of placement does not require a great deal of time from the participants except for myself, this also would not impose or greatly inconvenience any of the working artists willing to participate. The participants could, however take a much more involved role in the process if they chose to.

In participating in a remote manner with the contributions of more than a singular artist, I feel I stand to benefit the most from this experience. While I am aware that I am proposing an unusual “placement”, I hope that I will be permitted to do so and in doing so may be setting a precedent for future students. This would allow for the possibility of students to have virtual placements with artists located anywhere in the world and with the artists that would be most beneficial to them and their practice.