I have returned from the
first residency of the MFAIA program at Goddard College. For those of you
who may be curious what do those above letters mean, it is a Masters of Fine
Arts--Interdisciplinary Arts degree. Now you may be wondering what does
"Interdisciplinary Arts" mean--first I will promise you that you are
not alone in your inquiry, in fact many of the students enrolled in the program
are still grappling with how to define it. It is a new word, in fact
describing a new discipline, a discipline that takes various disciplines and
integrates them in to something new. This is different then simply
working in a multidisciplinary fashion or one discipline being inspired by
another. It is literally taking the knowledge and making learned in more
than one discipline and applying them to another, in order to create a new methodology, or potentially a new aesthetic form--even if it is still created in a
discipline. As I think and lean in to interdisciplinary
as a term for defining artwork and artists, I am also aware of the word transdisciplinary, which is maybe even
more interesting and relevant to me then interdisciplinary.
I think of transdisciplinary as
"post-discipline" or "no-discipline". This starts
with the conversation of what is an artistic discipline, which is the first
identifying question you are asked as an artist--"What type of artist are
you?" referring to a "painter, sculptor, actor, etc” all of
which are discipline categories. This quickly then brings you to your
craft, which may be where the word "discipline" originated from, as
in that you would demonstrate discipline in learning a craft. But what
about artists that have no discipline to craft, are self-taught, intuitive,
process oriented, and or outsider artists who make work that they may not even
consider "art" who have no references to historical categories of
artistic disciplines? What about those who identify as scientists,
inventors, gardeners, mothers, and healers who make art, art that is a
hybridization of everything they know mixed with inspiration?
I
think institutions attempt to help us to understand art, through learning about
it categorically in disciplines, which historically was also the way in which
art was thought about and created in. However, knowledge grows and
language changes to accommodate new ways of understanding. We are at the
threshold of new understanding of art, as defined by the artists themselves and
experienced by others. As we move forward with our understanding of
interdisciplinary art and trans-disciplinary art, language may be clunky, but
one must move out of the language that no longer fits the concept, the artist
must be free to create new work, new methods and new language to identify it
properly.
As
I begin my venture in to this program at Goddard, I begin with a few questions,
one of which is "How do I identify art and my art?" I will be
sharing my findings and process of investigation on a new and specific
blog. It is titled Quiddity
is Not a Discipline. (I still am working on my first post) This blog will be specific to my studies at
Goddard. Occasionally I will probably share posts or reference one of my
posts over there, here. I decided to create a separate blog for Goddard
because while it is part of my whole experience as an artist, it feels like a specific chapter in my creative life. I am excited to delve in to rigorous inquiry!
For short and easy reading about the concept of transdisciplinary, I found the definition of transdisciplinary interesting on Wikipedia. In some ways this may be the most accurate definition, as Wikipedia allows for collaborative and collective engagement in its definition.
Additionally, I have added a slideshow of my images from Instagram here on this blog. I encourage you to follow me on Instagram @dawnbreezeart. There are so many platforms now for sharing experiences, and Instagram has become a daily opportunity for me to see life as art and share it--it has become part of my daily art practice. In many ways it has become what this blog started out as 7 years ago.
Alas...hmmm, what do you think about interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary art??
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