DIWO (do-it-with-others) refers to the practice of having a joint project, where like minded people collaborate together. In the case of Furtherfield, they aim to connects people to new ideas, critical thinking and imaginative possibilities for art, technology and the world around us. Through DIWO, we have striped art making from the contrails of time, space and even drastically changed the role of the artist and the viewers.
TIME AND SPACE:
In the case of the time and space, the internet has allowed artworks to transcend into the third space. A imaginary space which bridges two different parties in different physical or first spaces. A very good example that we have studied is Grand Thief Avatar by second front. through the virtual reality game they manage to collaborate and create a performance piece, despite all five artist being based in different parts of the word.
Similarly in Furtherfeild, the work DIWO Email Art, strips the work and the artist of their physical space. instead of staging and creating the work through the third space, the email art, makes use of the quality of the world wide web to eliminate the physical space. After completing their work, the artist would send an email to the a inbox with all the other email art compiled. together they form a real time art creating process. through these examples we can see how art making has transcended time and space through the third space.
ROLE OF THE ARTIST
The role of the artist has been greatly challenged by the notion of DIWO. The traditional context is the artist as a creator and the viewer on the receiving end. however through DIWO the boundary of such notions have been greatly blurred. Artist are now able to engage the audiences in the process of art making. Now the artist do not play a major role in determining the outcome of their works but the audience do. For example, both Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece and Marina Abramović rhythm 0, greatly relies on the audience interactions to determine the outcome of the work. Without the participation of the audiences, their works would have been unable to come through.
At the end of the talk, Mark Garret also pointed out that the role of the artist is ever-changing, and urges the students to explore and combine different aspect and medium of the art. Later Packer also urges the students to refrain from secluded in their studio creating solo bodies of art. But instead explore and question these concept in a freshly through collaboration, directly engaging and connecting with the issue.
Very good connections between the performance work of Marina Abramović’s Rythem 0 and Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece. You are absolutely right that both of these pieces blur the boundaries between the artist and viewer, transforming the viewer into an active participant. This is essentially the idea of DIWO, to include the viewer as a collaborator, and to introduce interaction between viewers who become in many instances makers of the work. Whereas Grand Theft Avatar is indeed a collaborative work, I think you could have better emphasized this idea, rather than concentrating on the virtual space where the work takes place. In fact, the players in Second Front are a great example of DIWO and it would have improved your essay had you pointed this out. I’m not sure what you mean by mail art stripping the work and the artist of their physical space. This needs more explanation. Also, I would try and develop a stronger conclusion, remembering, that the focus of the essay is on collaboration and participation through the process of DIWO. Yes, it’s true that this has the potential of bringing the artist out of solitary studio work, but it is important to be explicit in your final statement about collaboration, and how it directly engages and connects the issues. I agree, but how exactly does it do this? How is DIWO more connected to the issues than the lone artist at work? This is a very interesting question you raise!