ARTLOG : ARCHIVING THE ARTISTIC PROCESS ( 1 )

Currently there is little or no formal attempt to document the processes an Irish artist undergoes when producing a piece of art. With Artlog we aim to provide the artistic community at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annaghmakerring, Co. Monaghan with a forum to not only develop their profile as an artist but also to document their work practices. In this paper we describe how Artlog came about, the relationship between the aesthetics and the importance of heritage, the approach of the project team in organising the archive and finally how interdisplinary collaboration has impacted the project. INTRODUCTION ArtLog is a collaborative venture between the Library Services and the Digital Media Centre of the Dublin Institute of Technology, and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre 1 , Annaghmakerring, Co. Monaghan. The objective of this project (ArtLog) is to build an electronic archive of artistic thought, to capture, organise and preserve this data and make it accessible to future generations. The Tyrone Guthrie Centre is a residential retreat for practising artists. Jointly funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the Arts Council, it is one of the longest lasting examples of North/South cooperation on the island of Ireland. Over the last twenty seven years it has played host to the vast majority of art practitioners in Ireland (approx. 5000 in number), many of whom have made repeat visits. If this project achieves its objectives it is envisaged that it will provide a scholarly resource for research into Ireland’s artistic output and a working model for other organisations in the Arts who might find it useful to record their process. To this end, generous funding has been received from the Irish Arts Council 2 . This paper discusses the background to the project, the theory that underpins it, the central position of the art maker, the design of a system that facilitates reflective selfarchiving, the development of search and retrieval mechanisms and how the collaboration between information professionals, designers and system developers has invested this project with a focus and synergy it would otherwise have lacked. It should be noted that the designation “art” and “artist” covers all practitioners working in all media. BACKGROUND ArtLog grew out of work done to create an archival strategy for the Centre. Currently there is little or no formal attempt to record information about Irish artists and it was agreed that the Centre would be an appropriate place to start. Originally, the idea was to collect biographical data only but as the idea took hold, horizons expanded and it was decided to go beyond mere information and attempt to capture the creative thought 1 http://www.tyroneguthrie. ie/ 2 http://www.artscouncil. ie EVA 2008 London Conference ~ 22-24 July Yvonne Desmond, John McAuley, Evin McCarthy, Ciaran McDonnell, Charles Pritchard, Pat Donlon _____________________________________________________________________ 2 process of artists as they worked. In this context, a log, an art log, was seen as the most appropriate way of doing this. Furthermore by creating a section of the archive, called Profiles, it would be possible to collect information about the artist and, almost, incidentally, create a database of modern Irish Art. However, there were more questions than answers in the initial stages; the major one being was there any merit in knowing what the artist’s thoughts and methods were while they were actually creating the artwork. AESTHETICS There has always been conceptual debate about where meaning lies in Art. Is it in the work, in the audience or in the artist? While this discussion continues, there is general acceptance that a connection exists between the maker and the work [1]. Even Wimsatt and Beardsley in the Intentional Fallacy [2], while decrying inappropriate dependence on biographical interpretation, did not claim that the artist was irrelevant. Indeed it may be that context is one of the most important things to know about a creative work. Some of the more important questions to ask are (1) where and when was the work made? (2) why was it made? (3) who was the artist? (4) what influenced him/her? (5) how did it fit into the ongoing work? [3]. Two studies carried out by Mace [4] and Mace and Ward [5] demonstrated that conceptual development in visual artmaking took place over time. The reflective process was cyclical, with many loops and revisiting of earlier developmental stages. Artists were not working towards solving problems but were expanding and linking concepts to achieve new patterns and connections. Indeed, the only real problem the artist had was in knowing when to stop. The process involved many changes and required the artist to be flexible in his/her approach and follow new directions when they presented themselves. If successful, this is the process that will be documented and preserved in ArtLog.