Hidden in the urban fabric: art + architecture, a case study of collaboration in interdisciplinary contexts

This essay serves as a critical introduction to the documentation of the Back to the City exhibition project. As an introduction, it relates to the publication's theme of exploration of possible (interdisciplinary) worlds, where collaboration flows naturally and partnering delivers benefits for all participants involved. The publication contributes to the ongoing debate about temporary interventions in an urban context and the potential that such new collaborative experiences and interdisciplinary models can present. It discusses the potential that partnering between architects and artists has for creative interaction with a city's cultural (in this case, often derelict and left-over) fabric through informal urban interventions. It introduces and examines a selection of site-specific installation works in Newcastle and Brisbane (Australia) and Berlin (Germany), which were the results of collaborative practices initiated by the author. These temporary works question our comfortable notions of life in cities as well as challenging our understanding of the roles of architecture and art, and their modus operandi in general. The first part of this introduction explores the differences between three collaborative design studio models. Each model represents a unique way of drawing different disciplines together and of opening conversations between and beyond compartmentalized traditions of disciplines. The second part of the introduction looks at two case studies of previous projects: Art+Arch infinite, in Brisbane (2004); and Rethinking: Space, Time, Architecture, in Berlin (2002). Each installation involved the collaboration of at least one artist and one architect. These projects delivered great insight and understanding of such collaborations, which was helpful for the third exhibition project Back to the City in Newcastle (2008). For instance, these 3 projects provided insight into the organizational process, the interaction between the organizations involved and the behind-the-scenes activities of how the curator was able to get the different groups involved, to work together and to focus on the projects. While working together with a common goal opens up new arenas for artistic exploration, the question 'Where do the boundaries between art and architecture/urban design begin and end?' needs constant re-definition. Addressing this question of discipline boundaries has been a recurring, essential element of the process. All three exhibition projects involved teams of established and emerging artists, architects, students of architecture, visual arts, landscape architecture and urban design. The resulting dialogues and contemporary cross-overs between the disciplines led to new, informal means of collaboration and ways of understanding the urban context. It also promoted a fresh perspective on the design process, demonstrating the potential of such reciprocal relationships. Based on common terrain between the disciplines, it is interesting to observe and ask: How do media artists draw inspiration from architects and vice-versa (e.g. intuitive versus analytical approaches)? How can disciplinary boundaries best be challenged and transgressed in order to critically reassess them? How might architecture and art students work together, in collaborative Design+Build Studios and in temporary urban interventions in public spaces, in an interdisciplinary future