Projects 2006

Does today’s seemingly increasing and one-sided economic perspective on cultural expressions, such as architecture, art and design require a complement? If so, what kind, and what possibilities are there for that kind of work? Does the development today point towards a tendency with an increasing professionalization, which sets constraints on professional roles in architecture, art and design? Is it good to have exchange between different professional spheres and how could these be developed? The seminar aims to shed light and discuss these questions from the perspectives of different fields.

NIFCA, Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art is the Nordic Council of Ministers' expert organ for visual culture: visual art, architecture and design. During NIFCA’s last year, before it is shut down, work has begun with a new residency program for those working in the borderland between art/design, architecture/art. Eleven applicants have been awarded residencies at six different hosts located in the five Nordic capitals. In each location, there is a collaboration partner, functioning as a link to a local context. A two-day seminar is organized at NIFCA in Helsinki 9-11 June 2006, in which awardees, collaboration partners and invitees with special knowledge will participate, to discuss the possibility for work made from a social perspective. The starting point in an art context, as well as the link to art is both interesting and highly usable, when deciding to discuss possibilities for developing these fields.

During the past years, in different parts of the Nordic countries, there has been a clear tendency in architecture, art, and design, in which art workers with a new natural ease have moved freely between each other’s professional categories. In this cross-boundary work there has often been a link to contemporary art. A possible reason for this is that art provides a context, in which there are possibilities to work with design questions from a more research oriented and social perspective. While, these areas have for a long time been intermixed, and while, it also is more usual to have multiple professional identities – it now, paradoxically, seems that a situation of professional protectionism is developing.

Reasons for this can, maybe, be understood as a reaction to the results of the post modern aims of dissolving cultural boundaries. The effect of that, for example, design could be art, lead to the fact that art simultaneously also became design – which, in turn, implies something completely different. Boundary-crossings became commonplace and the idea of everyday objects as art resulted in a marketing ploy. In other words, art has become design, in such a way that it increasingly has an instrumental role – something which also applies to culture in general. The humanistic tradition of supporting production, which focuses on a more research informed, discursive or critical content, has increasingly been undermined by a functional perspective, in which value is measured in relation to an idea of immediate commercial interest. This is something which does not have to be in opposition to the first-mentioned goals, but which, however, often seems to be so. The belief in what can lead to prosperity, growth and sustainable development is quite often summarized in the idea of the direct relation of research and invoice. It is a starting point, which often can lead to research informed, discursive and critical ambitions being eliminated in advance.

Therefore, from this point of view, it is not peculiar that the enthusiasm for the mixing of disciplines often is exchanged for skepticism and protectionism. Groups that are interested in traditionally defined economic values, simply, doubt the profit of work which is research informed, discursive or critical. Whilst, those in architecture, art and design – interested in developing specifically these kinds of works – perhaps see independence in this kind of a marginalized position more as a solution than a problem. For, the freedom from responsibility also provides a possibility to withdraw from opposition. For these groups, the mixing of disciplines can also be understood as a reason, as well as an effect for this marginalized scenario. Therefore, dissidence and dissociation can probably seem more attractive as a role than battling against odds for influence and participation.

One result of this development can be an increasing professionalization, in which each one is to stick to their field and express opinions merely about their own field of expertise. This is the opposite of an intellectual premise, which holds that knowledge from one area can be used for analyzing another. Since, interdisciplinary work suffers from insufficiencies (put in a simple self-descriptive terminology), there is now a risk that this space shrinks – as a regulating professionalization for different reasons gives way to linguistic ambivalence about what a certain practice is and should be. The aforementioned tendencies of giving way or sharpening organization through a one-sided distribution of roles can, instead of leading to a protection of professional roles or to an increased effectivization, bring about a hampered exchange of knowledge, when knowledge is padlocked in niches too difficult to open.

As mentioned above, the fields of architecture, art and design are in many ways interlinked. The development is in part parallel and that what happens in one area can influence the other. They seem to have in common the development described above with an increased professionalization, as well as a polarization between humanistic and economic values. The question remains, is it the right road and is there no longer a need for activities in which knowledge can be converted in other ways than those already agreed upon.

For now, NIFCA offers a place in which work can be made in-depth with space for experiment, discussion and contemplation. Hopefully, the possibility will receive a chance to live on.

Markus Degerman

Social Perspectives on Architecture and Design is initiated by NIFCA and developed in collaboration with artist and curator Markus Degerman.

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