I am an artist and researcher in Computer and Systems Sciences at Stockholm University, with focus on collaborative processes online and an interest in participatory methodologies. I have used the Collective Memory-Work method in several arts contexts as a collaborative and creative tool. (https://people.dsv.su.se/~khansson/)
Karin’s Contribution at the Symposium
What is a work? Collective Memory-Work and Artistic Research
There are many similarities between the Collective Memory-Work (CMW) method and a modernist artistic practice which, in my experience, often focuses on some dilemma the artist has experienced, something unresolved that therefore becomes interesting to make visible. This arts practice is based on a belief that the special and personal also contains something universal and of great importance, similar to the second wave feminist argument embedded in CMW that the personal and private also is political.
In this session I will share my experiences from the artistic research project “Work a work” at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, where a group of six artists developed art projects on the theme of work during a three year period (2017-2019). Here the Collective Memory-Work method served as a way of activating personal memories and anchoring the rather abstract concept of work in childhood memories and the experiences of young adults. We started to reflect on our own norms on work and what they meant for our artist identity, and put this in relation to theories of production conditions in the gig economy.
Using the Collective Memory-Work method meant a significant development of the theme, in that we approached the subject on an existential level more than a political one, based on our particular bodies’ experiences and personally created meanings. However, we also found problems with the method.
In several texts on Collective Memory-Work, there is an idealization of an unattainable ideal of equality; the idea that the dichotomies between objects and subjects should cease and the researcher and the informant be equal. This is a great ideal, but there is a risk that this ideal is mistakenly used as a norm, which obscures the view of the real power systems in the group. Unlike ideal norms about a collective process where everyone is equal and owns the work together, I want to emphasize the conflicts in this approach and the importance of recognizing that the individuals’ particular connection to their lived experience can never be reduced to structure.
Finally, I suggest that insights from artistic practices can be beneficial in further developing the method by taking into account ownership, trust, motivation, and norms of distance and equality.