Collaboration— All together now? A special section of Print Guest edited and designed by Project Projects TITLE TYPOGRAPHY: LL BROWN BOLD BY AURÈLE SacK SECTION PHOTOGRAPHY: HENRIK KNUDSEN ROUNDTabLE PHOTOGRAPHY: JOSH MELNICK PROJECT PROJECTS is After a discussion about this special section a design studio in New York focusing on print, on collaboration for Print, we were left at odds on exhibition, and interactive how best to begin. While our day-to-day is spent work, with an emphasis on independently pro- working together on a wide variety of tasks at our duced curatorial and pub- studio practice, it’s something else altogether lishing projects. The studio was founded in 2004 to step back to talk about working, or talk about by Prem Krishnamurthy and Adam Michaels; talking, or talk about talking about working. We Rob Giampietro joined considered a few focused directions. One approach as a principal in 2010. could be definitional: Wikipedia’s evolving multi- Recent projects authored page on the subject indicates, as of a visit include catalogs for the Whitney Museum of on 11/29/2010, that collaboration is “a recursive American Art and the process when two or more people or organizations Guggenheim Museum, identity programs for work together to realize shared goals.” Another the Museo Tamayo in approach could be topical/pop-cultural: On Mexico City and a new cultural institution the eve of the opening of the largest and, at $65 in Istanbul, websites with Bernard Tschumi million, most costly musical in history, Spider- Architects and Tablet Man: Turn Off the Dark, director Julie Taymor Magazine, editing and design for the Inventory mused on 60 Minutes, “If you don’t have fear, Books series, as well then you’re not taking a chance. What I do have as the design of exhibi- tions at the Canadian is a team. If your collaborators are there and they Centre for Architecture and BOZAR Brussels. all are as impassioned as you are and believe in it, then your fear is mitigated.” A third approach might be interrogative, starting with our own questions: What do we really mean when we speak of collaboration? Can we identify different modes and types of collaboration? What examples of collaborations are instructive to analyze? When does collaboration work, and when does it fail? It was difficult to agree on restricting ourselves to just one of these modes. Instead, as is often the case in collaborative environments, On one evening in October 2010, we agreed to disagree. To adopt a more dismissive 13 people from different disciplines mood: “The celebration of collaboration as a came together at Artists Space in New York City to discuss “collaboration” technique or as a practice just generally strikes and its relationship to their respec- me as pointless.” This quotation belongs not to us tive practices. What ensued over but to artist David Levine, who offered it by way the next two hours was a sprawling conversation that touched upon the of introduction at a roundtable discussion practical, professional, theoretical, organized by Project Projects and Print in October and personal aspects of the topic. 2010. (The transcript of this roundtable runs This edited transcript, continued from the cover, attempts to capture both the content of that discussion as Introduction 33 well as the lively engagement of its participants. continuously in red throughout this section.) Participants of the In our own professional circle, designers Project Projects and At the start of this 48-page consideration of Print roundtable before euphemistically call both clients and employees collaboration—with contributions from a diverse the discussion at collaborators to underplay hierarchical distinc- Artists Space, New York, set of artists, designers, architects, photographers, October 2010. The tions. And beyond the workplace and labor typographers, printers, curators, editors, and roundtable included practices, there are many examples—especially Alec Hanley Bemis, writers who explore collaboration both past and Rob Giampietro, Angie from political history—that demonstrate the Keefer, Aaron Kenedi, present—we agreed it was worth injecting a Prem Krishnamurthy, implications of collaboration to be cautionary, healthy dose of skepticism into the conversation. Carin Kuoni, David if not sinister: Designer Daniel van der Velden Levine, Lin+ Lam, Tina We wondered: Why is collaboration Lutz, Michael Rock, asked, “What about the Coalition of the Willing, considered by so many to be inherently good Alice Twemlow, and the people who wanted to invade Iraq? Is that Daniel van der Velden. or interesting? Projects in worlds of business, For a complete list of collaboration?” Many decades earlier, Vichy issue contributors and technology, fashion, art, and design are routinely biographies, see page 80. France’s “collaboration” with Nazi Germany was labeled as collaborative to make them more a dangerously unequal partnership masquerading appealing. This past November, New York taste- as an equal one. Mark Lamster addresses this very makers Opening Ceremony released a Tron- subject in a Print magazine review from 2009 on themed “collaboration”—the company’s second Nicholas Fox Weber’s biography of Le Corbusier: foray into a fictional world after its collaboration “Somehow, Weber resists what must have been with Warner Brothers’ Where the Wild Things Are a considerable moralizing impulse, even when debuted last year. This collection features pieces the hero of his story willingly aligns himself with that employ “high-tech aesthetics, neon, and the Nazi’s puppet regime in Vichy.” Lamster then laser cutting” along with a signature revival: quotes Weber, who writes, “Le Corbusier believed a threeASFOUR � Tron � Opening Ceremony circle that collaboration could lead to good things.” bag. Here is a fashion collective (threeASFOUR) Indeed, our perspective is considerably collaborating with a second group (Opening more fragmented than that of Le Corbusier. Ceremony) on a revival (threeASFOUR’s circle Collaboration could lead to good things, though bag) for a collection inspired by the fictional uni- it could also lead to countless other, possibly verse of a film remake (Tron). Round and round less beneficial, outcomes. Our hope is that the we go, with each partnership in this collaboration characters and contents collected in this issue connected by an “�”—a symbolic force multiplier will provide a rich basis for further consideration. that suggests to the buyer that many makers Carin Kuoni, director of the Vera List Center for are surely better than just one. Maybe it’s true. Art and Politics, noted during our roundtable that, As Eagles frontman Don Henley has observed, whatever its ends may be, “a commitment to this “Mick Jagger can’t even make a successful solo shared space, this shared time—that is very, very album, but the Stones are the biggest rock group valuable.” We look forward to sharing time and that ever was.” space in these pages with you. What’s so special, so extraordinary about —Project Projects collaboration? On the one hand, roundtable PReM K RiSHNAMuRTHY: i thought TiNA L u Tz: i started a fashion that we could start with introductions company with my partner called Lutz & participant Angie Keefer notes that “it’s difficult and any thoughts on how collaboration Patmos ten years ago. We started it out for me to talk about ‘collaboration’ because I relates to each of your practices. of my six-floor walk-up apartment with can’t think of anything that’s truly possible to do i’m one of the principals of Project a little savings, and today, we’re sold Projects, and collaboration is in over 200 stores in the world. as an individual.” Perhaps there’s actually nothing of particular interest to me because Given our limited budget, i was inherently special about collaboration—in the the practice of design seems to be in charge of marketing. One of my ideas context of a mutually dependent society, every entirely about the negotiation and to enhance the profile of the brand discussion of individual desires. was to invite a guest designer every action is the product of an unfathomable collection season to design their dream garment. of collaborative forces. We could consider any ROb Gi AMPieTRO: i’m also a principal At the beginning, i invited mostly activity, even “dinner,” a collaboration. But would at Project Projects, and i’ve been celebrities, Hollywood actresses, but a writer and teacher for more than i also included people like Richard that be useful, productive, or interesting? eight years. Design is inherently Meier and Desmond Tutu, and one unknown We certainly were interested in an email collaborative, as is teaching: lately person, a train conductor. These we received from designer Michael Rock i feel that i learn almost as much from collaborations created a lot of press my students as i’m able to impart to and interest in the company. following the roundtable discussion that attempted them. So my role is both to facilitate We also collaborated with big, to sum up the three types of collaboration we and to guide. established companies who could help described. According to Rock, they are: “Prosthetic: us finance our growth, who wanted DANieL V AN D e R V e LDeN: i’m co-founder the cachet of working with a small, partnering to fill a lack (as in a writer and art of a design studio in Amsterdam called cool fashion brand to enhance their director team in an agency); Systematic: partner- Metahaven and a critic at the Yale reputation and help our bank account. ing to tackle extremely complex problems (as School of Art. We thought a little bit about the theme of tonight’s panel — ANGie K e e f e R: i do a number of in architecture and film); and Distributive: everyone’s confronted with the idea activities, almost exclusively in partnering, often asynchronously, to take advan- of collaboration, and they practice it collaboration with others.