A Case for the Embedded yet Autonomous Artist: Lessons Learned on The Pallasboy Project
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 09/07/2019

The Pallasboy Project, launched in 2014, set out to explore the creative process involved in the crafting of prehistoric wooden artefacts. The recording strategy (in the hands of an artist/archaeologist) would serve to reveal and document a contemporary experience of craft and in doing so provide a new perspective on an ancient creative process. Initially it was intended that any additional artistic lines of enquiry would run in tandem with archaeological experimentation, but also directly influence the record itself. However, this resulted in a tension born out of dual roles, between the responsibility to record and the expectation to create. Although materials and methodologies inspired and informed artistic research and process along the way this mostly happened outside of the main thread of the project and over a longer period of time. Artistic influence on the record was slight, at times playful, but never quite finding its own moment. Perhaps it is yet to come.

Brian Mac Domhnaill (Artist/Archaeologist The Pallasboy Project)

Tag Deva 2018
Session: Practising Creativity: Experimentation, Mistakes and Successes in Art-Archaeology