DodoLab
DodoLab is the experimental creative practice of Lisa Hirmer and is focused on developing provocative approaches to working with the public and the nebulous reality of public opinion. Often modeled as a type of performative research, the work explores and responds to the public’s relationship with contemporary issues—meaning that it is never solely an idea in and of itself that is explored, but rather an idea in relation to the public’s (or more accurately a specific public, counter-public or community’s) understandings and beliefs about that idea.
This interest in popular ideas and beliefs arises from a conviction in creative production as a meaningful vehicle for discourse, as well as for resistance and change. DodoLab therefore works to create opportunities and mechanisms for meaningful conversation and exchange in the public sphere, drawing out a multitude of voices—from across cultures, generations, social spheres (and sometimes species)—and the diverse realities they reflect. By soliciting then working with this complex and often contradictory material, together with participants and other audiences, DodoLab aims to unravel dense ideas and unsettle the seemingly fixed or inevitable. DodoLab is particularly concerned with barriers that prevent adaptation and change within human ecologies. Through collecting, disseminating, critiquing, annotating, adapting and reconfiguring public ideas, the hope is to make work that not only explores these barriers but also begins disrupting them.
To this end, DodoLab employs a range of mediums and strategies—including exhibition, installation, public intervention, performance, art-based research, artist multiples, and experimental forms of publishing—and operates both within gallery and non-traditional settings—often exploring alternative strategies for bringing critical creative work to new publics and drawing the public into the animation of site-specific works. Projects frequently act as a dialogue between DodoLab, the public and other collaborators, with multiple voices being present in the work in rich, layered explorations of an idea. While at its core an artist practice, DodoLab is committed to navigating the sometimes-challenging space between more traditionally defined forms of art making and the realms of community-based and publically engaged arts, practice-based research and activist practices. As a practice that often centers on research, DodoLab also occasionally accepts creative public research commissions from like-minded partners.
For more information about this IICSI partner please visit their website: dodolab.ca
