The goal of the theoretical part of my study is to clarify the problematics between art and document as well as the documentation an artist makes of one's own observations, work processes and completed works of art in the field of modem art as specified in the presentation of the study problem. 

In the artistic part I study the meaning of the observations I made and of documenting my work its manifestations in my work within the field of ceramic art. My aim is to find possibilities to combine ceramics, documents and documentation into interesting work from the artistic approach. The documents would function as a mean for artistic expression beside ceramics. The results of the artistic part I will try to present as the following entities: book, exhibition and a work classified as environmental art. Moreover, my aim is to examine the possibilities of documenting artistic post graduate studies within the framework of my study. 

In general people are used to the idea of documenting a work of art as taking photos of a work of art once completed or at a specified stage of work. In my study I set out from the holistic work process of an artist, starting from examining and observing the environment, images and ideas being brought about, different phases of working when converting the invisible into a visible outcome. I also find observation of the final result important. Many artists make sketches, notes, keep a diary, take photos, collect material and objects from their environment. The meaning of these can be examined as evidence of one's own actions, documents on the observations made and thoughts in the process of making art. The method of documenting a completed work of art varies a lot on the basis of its nature. For example when considering pieces of environmental work of art, installations, that usually are disassembled at the end of the exhibition or changed by the effect of the environment, then documentation with the help of photographs, written notes are an observation tool for the artist and at the same time a method of transferring the knowledge and aesthetical experiences that were gained in process to other people. Documentation can also be seen as a means of explaining the essence of the process and work insofar as these terms are seen in a positive light as a means for artistic processes and for understanding things. 

The study problems are: how do artists document their observations and work? Can a document observing the artist's own processes be a work of art as such? What functions does personal documentation have in modern art, in modem society? To create art is reality for an artist, are the documents produced by the artist real documents? Does an artist find the work process aesthetically interesting? How do I document the observations, work processes and outcome of my own? How can I join documentation and ceramics into an artistically interesting whole? 

The problems in the theoretical and artistic part of my study overlap in parts; for this reason it seems premature to distinguish them into different categories. The two last of the study problems dearly belong to the problem setting of the artistic part. The problem setting of the study inevitable touches the problematics of the artistic part of the post-graduate study. 

Documents, such as photos and text, are used as construction material of modern art. The objective of the study is not, however, to collect a comprehensive art-historical presentation of the usage of documents in art but it will be restricted to the artist's personal observations and documentation of the 

Work, thought, seeking, and production processes. As background information and also to specify the definitions of the terms if is necessary to analyze the phenomena of the international modernism and contemporary art from the viewpoint of the relationship between art and document. 

In the artistic part I look for solutions to combine ceramics and thought-related (words) along with documents (photos) to be viewed into concrete works of art. 

On the basis of the problem setting I focus the study on the held of visual art, leaving movies, videos, performances and theater as well as dance outside the scope of this study. My intention is not to try to create a pattern for artistic documentation. 

Within the scope defined in the problem setting, my study consists of an analysis of written and pictorial material as well as material collected in interviews using the theoretical methodology of art history. For the background material to the study I will examine the expressions that documents and the concepts of documentation have taken in the discourse of the development of modern art at this century and contemporary art. 

In the artistic part of the study I study the relationship of my own artistic work to documentation. In my own ways of expressing I search for possibilities to use ceramics, documents and documentation as means of creating art. 

My study contains a scientific and artistic part that intertwined whereby I apply the larger meaning of the scientific paradigm, i.e. depicting reality not only with scientific macro paradigm but also with the help the macro paradigm of art defining aesthetical dimensions (approach to reality) (Venkula, 1993). The connections between the process of forming scientific knowledge and artistic activities I study with principle of shaping knowledge as defined in pragmatism - to the extent to which possible - as the understanding of the operative processes of the field of creativity contains issues on the logic of which there is not much information. At this stage a 'hole' emerges in the operative process to which the old knowledge is not applicable and an insight is needed on the necessity of a new pattern of acting and through H of creation of new information. 

One of the starting points for the artistic part is my artistic work so far and the graduate thesis as a comprehensive process along with documenting H in my graduate thesis Raotuksia (Opened Ajar). In my work I have moved among simplified, rather massive ceramic elements. In the series Siniset hetket (Blue Moments) one starting point was photographic documentation on the relationship of the elements and nature. In my graduate work I used ceramics as building material for the architecture of my own mind. In the documentary part I dealt with concrete and thought processes relating to my perception, the idea being brought about, my work being done and ceramics as a material. In the artistic part of the study will go on from this with aim of integrating documentation to the final result. 

In the artistic part I merge ceramics and documentation into the following entities: book, exhibition and environmental art whereby the documented processes of my own will lead to these concrete results. The outcome will be a book on the creation of work of art from ceramics; an exhibition on objects with ceramics and documents as their material along with documentation on the exhibition itself, and additionally a ceramic work of art belonging to scope of environmental art, documentation of processes of making it and documentation of the work in interaction with the environment. 
 

Publications

Info:

Tiina Veräjänkorva,@

University of Art and Design Helsinki UIAH
Department of Ceramics and Glass
Hämeentie 135 C 
FIN-00560 Helsinki, Finland 
phone: +358 9 75630397, fax: +358 9 75630275