Foreword

"Interdisciplinarity is having an impact on our understanding of disciplines. The Interdisciplinary program is the ground upon which we can receive, question and accommodate non-disciplinary art practices within our funding institution. We actively engage in the beauty of shifting sands."

- Monique Léger and Anne Valois, October 1996

Capturing Change

In April 1999, I enthusiastically undertook the review of the pivotal Interdisciplinary Work and Performance Art Program at the Canada Council and found myself faced with some intriguing and sometimes troubling questions…

What exactly is performance art and interdisciplinary work? Are there other artistic practices that don't fit into these two open yet delineated terms? Who are the stakeholders of this community? What are its weaknesses, its opportunities and its principal threats? Who is the audience for this work? What are the histories of these practices? How are new technologies affecting the creation and dissemination of these practices? How do contemporary interdisciplinary and performance art practices position themselves in an increasingly transcultural world?

During this program review I found that the artistic community, from coast to coast, was also questioning itself. For instance, in an letter dated to the national interdisciplinary art community (as part of a call-for-projects for the "Inter2000/Throughlines Conference on Interdisciplinary Practices in Art, Montreal, February 2000"), interdisciplinary artist Guy Laramée asks:

* Should we look at the interdisciplinary as a mixture of art forms, or rather, as a genre-traversing throughline?

* Is interdisciplinary art a recent phenomenon, or is it an undifferentiated primeval space, a necessary condition for any artistic expression?

* How does one become an interdisciplinary artist?

How does one create and sustain a practice in interdisciplinary or performance art?

Many questions arose during the review and this "final" report is really only the beginning of an on-going process of "capturing change" and reflection about these lively, vital and often doggedly undefinable artistic practices.

On a personal note, this review has been a particularly interesting and delicate process for me to co-ordinate, due in part to its striking similarity to my artistic practice in electroacoustic ecology. Both are transdisciplinary activities that call upon a high degree of personal and social awareness and propose new models in which to consider the age-old dichotomy of process and object…

It is my hope that this review, sustained by a healthy infusion of collective interdisciplinary energy, will serve as an important step towards acknowledging and understanding some of the key issues that are of concern not only to performance artists and interdisciplinary artists, but to all artists in all disciplines.

Let us celebrate the beauty of shifting sands.

Claude Schryer

(To read the whole report, click on the link below, which will bring you to the Inter-arts Program, from the Canada Council for the Arts.)