The interlocutory agency project is a two-year initiative at the AdBK Nürnberg. The project aims to take advantage of the transformative power of dialogue within the context of artistic practice. It aims to establish an environment that encourages collaboration, engagement, active participation, personalised research and overall interdisciplinary approaches. It stands in contrast; interrupting and at the same time discussing the current established norms in artistic education. Instead of goal-oriented, perfectionist procedures that produce artworks as though they were nothing more than mere commodities, the project will explore the creative process as a dynamic and dialectic action. This involves forming relationships on multiple levels: with one’s own self and art, with others and their art, and within the context of an educational setting.
As previously stated, the project aims at interrupting the current norms in art education, thus the title Interlocutory Agency. Interlocutory originates from the medieval Latin word interlocutorius, which comes from Latin interloqui, meaning to "interrupt". In this case, the interrupting agent is not a rebel without a cause but a necessary element that is embedded inside the artistic process.
The artistic process, a breakaway modus of self- or communal expression can therefore act as the very same Interlocutory Agent. However, an "interlocutory agent" could also be an individual, a group of people or the relations among them. Its main goal could be to enter historical narratives or archives, interact with or alter the unfolding stories, and challenge established perspectives. It should set the framework for reimagining seemingly stationary relations with one’s self, their community (be that a neighbourhood, peer group or classroom), their own art, etc.
The Interlocutory Agency thus has a multifaceted output incorporating ceramics, photography, archival repositories, nature, drawing and sound. Incorporating different media and art forms naturally supports this project’s aim. Dealing with different material demands deconstructing and reconstructing one’s learned and comfortable artistic techniques. Hence, the afferent monocultural narrative of the status quo of relations can only be interrupted in a reconstructional, deterritorialized setting. Students are also collaborating in situ; interacting physically in the studio. They examine and collectively address responses to the syllabus readings and video links. Consequently, each and everyone, either as individuals or as subgroups, along with Prof. Kyambi, are part of a network in which they can decide beforehand or impromptu what their roles should be. They can participate with confidence or awkwardness; verboseness or silence.
The first year will focus on foundational elements, delving into themes of identity, memory, and history, employing nature, nurture, animism, and mythology as influential methodologies. The second year will see the implementation and synthesis of these explorations, emphasising experiential engagement, methodologies of mischief, and transformative processes. Collaborative reframing through both Western education and intuitive knowledge sources will be integral to the pedagogical process.
Prof Syowia Kyambi has been a visiting professor at the AdBK Nuremberg since 1 November 2023. The visiting professorship is funded by the Top Professorship Programme (SPP) of the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts.
