Art, and its link with Society.

‘Art is one of the ways people communicate.’ (Dick Higgins) Within the time that we live the emergence of new technologies has affected what we perceive. Interactivity within art mediums is important as it makes artworks relevant and engaging. The Fluxus artist Robert Watts, believes that contemporary artists are are ‘utilizing discoveries’ from any discipline and adapting them for their own purpose. He believes that ‘this new movement of artists into new forms is directly parallel to the discovery of new forms in science. Ideas are cross-fertilized therefore many disciplines may be drawn into one work.’ As with the changing nature of the world artists are beginning to incorporate ideas that are not traditionally art based ideas as a response to these occurrences. It is thought that specialization does not allow for new ideas, where as through the collaboration of ideas through an inter-disciplinary practice, new solutions to problems are addressed. Intermedia or Interdisciplinary is encouraged within more Art Schools throughout the world as a way to discover and invent new ways of working.

Meg Cranston is one artist that works in an Interdisciplinary way. In the reading of ‘Running on light feet’ Cranston states, “ I don’t discredit artists that go deep, but I go broad. I prefer to go from flower to flower.” (Page 7) Cranston shows she is interested in a wide range of ideas and topics. She states that she goes broad, we can interpret this as an investigation into a wide range of information. In the reading ‘Dispersion’ by Seth Price, it is suggestive of how wide ranging scattered ideas are incorporated into one piece of writing. The ideas of Price are relevant to many art practitioners. Cranston works in a similar way, she is one person, yet works in many different style of art making. Most artists are trademarked to a style she is different. Working in a way that is cumulative. The ideas she forms influences what develops next. She comments, ‘someone told me that you should take the worst comment about your work and base your next show on that idea, so I took a playwright course and wrote a few plays.’ (Page 17) Many contemporary artists work within a similar way, incorporating and sifting through a ‘Wikipedia’ of knowledge to form new styles and ideas.

In the 1970s Joseph Beuys stated ‘everyone is an artist,’ I was not meant to suggest that everyone could be creators of art. Rather, he meant that anyone should use creative thinking in their own area of specialization. Edward de Bono, a Scholar in conceptual and creative thinking encourages this. He teaches lateral thinking through his the use of six thinking hats. The outcome causes people to view information differently, to break it down into sub areas of investigation. (Page 20) Interactivity is important within contemporary art as it creates linkages for the viewer and makes art relevant in today’s society.

Bourriaud, N. (2002). Relational Aesthetics. Dijon, Les Presses du Réel.

Higgins, Dick. "Statement on Intermedia." Web. 21 Sept. 2009. Published in: Wolf Vostell (ed.): Dé-coll/age (décollage) * 6, Typos Verlag, Frankfurt - Something Else Press, New York, July 1967

Hendricks, Geffory, ed. Critical mass : happenings, Fluxus, performance, Intermedia, and Rutgers University. London: Rutgers University Press, 2003. pp. 25-30

Israel Nico, Cranston Meg, Running on Light Feet in Hot pants in a Cold Cold World: Works 1987-2007, Artspace and Clouds, Auckland, 2008,

Seth Price, “Dispersion” (2001-2002), a document designed for the catalogue of the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Art 2003 curated by Christopher Cherix, printed as a book with Green Naftali 2003, available as a PDF (Dispersion2008.pdf) via the artist’s own website: http: //www.distributedhistory.com

Josephy Beuys : Rothfuss, Joan. "Walker Art Center/ Beuys Hyperessay/ Creativity." Web. 21 Sept. 2009.

De Bono, Edward. Serious Creativity. London: HarperCollins, 1995 pp.20