What is ‘Connecting’ as a form of co-creation?

In the research report, ‘Considering Co-Creation’, commissioned by Arts Council England and undertaken by Heart of Glass & Battersea Art Centre in April 2021, co-creation is noted as having several key features:

• To interrogate what notions of power-formation, and delivery of projects and structures, are required to support cultural practices.

• To ensure artists and communities work together towards shared meaning.

• To adopt a process and methodology where creative responsibility, authority, and agency are shared.

• To implement an approach of shared creation: devising, planning, negotiating, dissemination and evaluation of process and outcomes.

• To initiate a process of exploring a collective creative response to a situation-can be initiated by an individual-but has the views and ideas of others represented and incorporated throughout all stages.

• To facilitate shared authorship, ensuring equal roles in co-creation projects that are non-tokenistic.

Using these recommendations as a staring point for approaching co-creation, re:imagine set out to prioritise a collaborative approach for deciding how each phase of the project unfolded.

A key aim was to ensure power relationships throughout the project were as equal as possible-adopting a flat hierarchy where the project facilitator (not just leader) and creative associates (not just participants) were able to share skills and tools but overall, decisions would be taken democratically and openly.

The re:imagine project was keen to steer away from areas of problematic co-creation practice, often arising from a misunderstanding of co-creation, where the traditional artist can be seen to ‘mine’ communities/individuals for information, expecting emotional labour (in creative output) to support their own work.

(Heart of Glass & Battersea Art Centre, April 2021)

The ‘Connecting’ process..

‘Connecting’ is the Phase 1 online exhibition that showcases re:imagine’s collaborative co-creation process. This exhibition, the output from the first year of re:imagine, is a culmination of an approach to co-creation that sought to create a safe and nurturing space that both recognised, and respected, everyone’s contributions when deciding what could be the final outcome of Phase 1, but more pertinently, how the re:imagine creative associates could support each other in achieving it.

The final process for approaching ‘Connecting’ was determined by the re:imagine creative associates during a period of individual and collective Phase 1 reflection, often in response to the creative partner workshops that front-loaded the first year.

The re:imagine creative associates decided to initiate an individual response piece to Phase 1. However, by adopting the tenets of co-creation, they collectively chose to develop individual initial ideas through a process of collaboration; carouselling work with each-other as a way of ensuring individual personal outcomes demonstrated empathy towards others’ creative ideas, but also providing an opportunity for enhancing their working relationships.

In doing so, the re:imagine creative associates sought to achieve a sense of empowerment during the making process both collectively, but also individually.

The ‘Connecting’ outcomes...

The re:imagine project’s creative associates worked across a wide-range of media to examine themes that emerged from their individual and collective reflective practice.

Each response is available to see by clicking on the photos in the ‘Connecting’ Gallery Portal below.

The stages of co-creation can be seen on each of the artist’s individual pages. Accompanying the images are video/audio reflections that the artist’s created when receiving their peers’ work.

These vital recordings highlight some of the thoughts, feelings, and concerns each creative associate experienced when navigating unfamiliar and challenging co-creation territories.