Remembering (Art)Work: Collective Memory-Work in Higher Arts Education and Research

Abstract

The Collective Memory-Work method carries strong democratic norms regarding equality, ownership and deliberation where emancipation is enabled through collective work and by questioning hierarchies between researcher and researched. Another norm in the Collective Memory-Work method is the scientific norm of creating distance using language as a means to separate the imaginary from the subject. However, these ideas might cause problems when applied in real situations where ownership and inequality are important and meaning-making features, and distance is a way to create legitimacy and demonstrate power rather than enable shared ownership. As a means to explore these issues and develop the Collective Memory-Work further, this article compares the method with approaches within western higher arts education and research, as there are some interesting similarities. In light of experiences from a research project at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, various possibilities and problems with Collective Memory-Work are addressed regarding issues such as ownership, trust, motivation, and norms of distance and equality.