About the Project

The first Intercourse project was presented at Experimentica 1.1 in Chapter Art Centre, Cardiff in 2011, which aimed to explore public engagement, investigate human interaction and the ethics of public and private observation. The intention was that Intercourse would be an ongoing discussion with the outcomes and conversations generated by its presentation informing a future programme of events, artworks and dialogues.

We have recently been awarded funding from Arts Council of Wales and GwirVol to further develop Intercourse as a series of events in creative partnership with artists, venues and organisations. Ania Bas, Freya Dooley, Tiff Oben and artist group B.R.G. will be working with Elbow Room to explore in more detail the nature of participation, shared experience and interactive engagement.

We are not pre-empting the outcomes or engagements of the artists but Elbow Room is interested in the broad consideration of questions such as:

· Is there any intrinsic value of public engagement with visual art projects?
· What makes artists want to engage with their audience?
· Can any benefits of these projects be effectively and innovatively measured?
· Can these projects and experiences be effectively and creatively documented?
· What are the moral and ethical considerations when ‘manipulating’ an audience?
· Who is the audience and is it important to define authorship?

The project is structured in the form of a practice-led research group which will bring together the commissioned artists, Elbow Room, other collaborators and the public, each of whom will investigate a strand or area of the overarching themes through their practice. We are working towards a series of events and interventions culminating in a seminar/event in Spring 2013. The event will place the outcomes of the artists’ research (possibly in the form of performance, presentations or other interventions) in dialogue with one another and with speakers from different professional fields that have a common or overlapping focus.