Grant program: Teaching and Learning Development Grant (TLDG)

Grant recipients: Robert Kitsos, School for the Contemporary Arts

Project team: Emmalena Fredriksson and Remy Siu, research assistants

Timeframe: September 2014 to April 2015

Funding: $3,579

Course addressed: FPA 285 – Interdisciplinary Studio (Composition/Collaboration)

Final report: View Rob Kitsos' final project report (PDF)

Description: In FPA 285 Interdisciplinary Studio - Composition/Collaboration we have been experimenting with new and old methodologies on how to collaborate across dance, music, film, visual art and theatre. These courses often generate many ideas, questions and new ways of looking at composition that suggest certain approaches, languages and systems. Compositional elements within these systems include approaches to the use of space, time, motion, shape, gesture, topography, narrative, content, form and more. In this project, I want to record this information in a way that allows us to make connections between principals, categories and approaches. In essence, the project aims to make sense of a large collage of data and make it useful for teachers in the SCA to use this data for interdisciplinary courses. The final goal will be to publish this collection as a new methodology for fine-art collaboration.

Questions addressed:

• How do we build a shared language for approaching collaboration through composition that allows us to innovate and discover where we share the same tools and at the same time appreciate our differences?
• How can the large amount of information generated within FPA 285 be harnessed into a cohesive collation of ideas?

Knowledge sharing: This research will be disseminated to the local community through workshops and conference presentations at Woodwards (such as the Embodied Artful Practices Symposium held in early July 2014). In the final stage, I hope to publish this information as a new methodology through articles and eventually a book.