COLLABORATION

by Lizette van Staden

Collaboration – concord – unity – oneness – singularity – peculiarity – eccentricity – originality – creativeness – imagination – dream – believe

Consider the above words. If synonyms are traced from the word collaboration and on, this is where it could lead.

There is a barely perceptible terror in one the first time you enter into a passionate group. Anxious moments are spent hunting for a foothold, a place, somewhere to hang the proverbial hat. First meetings are spent by outsiders weighing the possible benefits of the group against the singularity without it. Can membership be beneficial?

I felt completely and utterly out of my depth the first time I was invited and met the group. They were philosophically and intellectually planets away from my frame of reference. Their ideas and the direction they were heading seemed daunting, thrilling, exciting and the pace too fast and mercurial for me, habitual corporate executive, to be able to keep up. I spent most of the first meeting looking for exit signs, the rest of the time I lit smokes and tried to untangle some of the interesting bits of info that sneaked past feigned indifference. There was a turning point of course, otherwise none of this would have been. If it was not for the fact that this particular group based its functioning on collaborative methods, more first timers would have walked, which would have been a loss for the group since some of these once first timers have become beneficial contributors to the group.

Art is a thankless job. It is not a marketable necessity. It does not clothe, feed; it does not stroke egos. It is sustained by the belief, and sometimes, the sheer willpower of the participants. It is sold by trickery, the ability to convince a few that it must be owned. This makes artist an outsider, his work a job for the ungrateful. Artists rarely experience the support that membership to a creatively functioning group offers.

The collaborative process is here more than just the contributions expected from the participants, it is a network of support and the nurturing of the creative processes within the group. The benefits of constant feedback and validation in the life cycle of any creative process cannot be stressed enough. Ideas come into being and grow to workable formats with less time wasted due to the contributions of individuals with unique skills and perceptions.

It is hard to find support for a world which exists by the insistence of its uniqueness. Collaborative projects seem to be part of the solution.

Posted 17 June 2005, www.face.org.za, author: Lizette van Staden.