Create News 2: Brian Maguire on Practice, Process and Audience

Brian Maguire reports on Practice, Process and Audience. What do we want to achieve?

Six artists from Ireland and four artists from the UK initiated and continued an intense conversation, part in private, part in public, over two days in Middlesex University and Soho Theatre, London on the 26th and 27th February. The initiative forms part of an ongoing bigger ‘conversation’ and initiative between NCAD, Create and ResCen, Middlesex University.

The overall purpose was to share understanding of individual practice and the audiences encountered, but in the process much larger philosophical issues emerged, making for a fascinating and illuminating event. An additional focus was on the role of the audience in the creative process and how these artists conceive of an audience during the creation of their work. The mix of artistic disciplines represented by the ten covered dance, film, theatre, music and visual arts. The public conversations were conducted by two artists talking to each other for twenty minutes, after which they continued as a panel and the invited London audience joined in the ‘conversation’.