Social ARTery, 2019-2022
An interactive online exchange platform that helped facilitate remote collaboration and creative making. Conceived in response to the growth of community-centred art and the need for better digital solutions to support participatory work (as a result of Covid-19), the platform represented an alternative to mainstream social media sites, to create and present participatory art innovatively, run workshops, host peer-to-peer meetups and archive the learnings for the benefit of the wider artistic community.
Project Team: R.M. Sánchez-Camus (Lead Artist), Lucy Wright (Social Producer), Mark Smith (Axis Executive Director), Daniela Liberati (Project Coordinator) and John Whall (Digital Mentoring Support).
The Pioneers:
In 2020, the ARTery project team worked closely with a selection of artists (known as The Pioneers), to trial the platform before it become more widely accessible. The project, supported by an Arts Council Emergency Fund, explored the intersection between online and in-person participation and how exciting new ways of working with audience could be established.
‘Activation, Permission, Validation and Agony‘ was a zoom performance by ARTery Pioneers The Women’s Art Activation System (WAAS). When discussing their Pioneer commission they stated that:
‘Being part of the ARTery gave us a chance to bring our practice online in a way that we wouldn’t have been able to. There was an intimacy in our digital sessions and the fact that we can stay connected in the ARTery also creates a sense of having a longer-term relationship that is sometimes missed at live events.’
The Pioneers: Sandra Bouguerch, Cath Carver, Niki Colclough, Sarah Dixon & Shaon Bennett, Bronia Evers, Rik Fisher, Anna Francis, James Harrington & Jennifer Booth, Pete Kinisington – Preston Street Union, Shonagh Short, Lady Kitt, Gil Mualem-Doron, Kajal Nisha Patel, Anna Smith, Simon Tyszko and Jo Wheeler.
Let’s Get Phygital:
This commissioning series, for hybrid physical/digital participation, continued the learning of the programme. The project considered how we can share and use the basic resources at hand for meaningful engagement. How is creativity expressed and participation made simultaneously online and in person? Artists were encouraged to think through radical and innovative ways of integrating everyday technology into our post-pandemic lives. Their works can be viewed on the Axis website.
Patrick Furness and Eddie Parker, two of the Phygital artists, were sub-commissioned by R.M. Sánchez-Camus for the Applied Live Art Studio’s 2022 ‘Stars of Westgate’ installation. Alongside the projection of stars made by the local community, they combined a soundtrack of electronic sounds, bells and Westgate street recordings to be played in the Cathedral.
The Phygital Artists: Patrick Furness, Eddie Parker, Hull Artist Research Initiative (HARI) – Sarah Pennington & Thomas Robinson, Bolton Contemporary – Andee Collard & Rebecca Harrington, Simon Hall, Pamela Crowe, José García Oliva.
