In every built environment, collaboration among various trades and philosophies is required not only to build the space, but also for the space to function as intended after construction. At its heart, collaboration is recursive, meaning one or more actions in the process invokes or refers to the collaborative process itself, while also requiring the participants to distinguish their new actions from their past actions. While the process may sound familiar and even simple to most of us, studying each individual step is where the inherent complexity reveals itself. The element of recursion happening within collaboration is a bit like going through a maze; one can move forward until you reach either an exit or a branching point, trying each path recursively until the goal is met. Getting out of the maze requires carefully making note of all explored paths before the right path, the one that actually gets you out of the maze, is found.
Incorporating fine art sensibilities into any collaborative process can be much trickier than proceeding without them; most artists tend to have a singular vision, and finding others to assist in carrying one’s creative torch can be a challenging task. A wonderful example of a creative, collaborative and recursive process recently opened at the Center for Advanced Biomedical Imaging Research in Houston, TX, where artist Jo Ann Fleischhauer took advantage of many different perspectives, approaches and levels of experience to create a site-specific art installation called Leonardo Dialogo. The work of art, which began with an artist-in-residency project with nanotechnology expert Dr. Mauro Ferrari soon transitioned into a permanent installation as Texas-based architectural firm PhiloWilke was fitting out the interior spaces of Dr. Ferrari’s new research facility. Drawing upon inspiration from past creative individuals as diverse as Buckminster Fuller and Leonardo da Vinci to describe the forward-thinking work happening inside the lab space, the common language of mathematics became the continuous thread that leads visitors through her amazing and creative open-ended narrative.
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