an action to take place. So while it might still
mimic natural processes as most of my work
does, the collaborative works serve a different
personal need for me as a maker of things.
EK: Yes, so let’s talk about your collaborative projects. Some of your projects have been produced by
cooperative actions when you elicit individual contributions from others to make a work.
The Petri Island Project is a good example of this
method. Do you think of the finished product of as
a process of a “super-organism,” not unlike an ant
colony?
JT: That seems so obvious to me now that you
phrase it that way. Thank you for pointing that
out. As much as I agree with your comparison, I
never really made that connection.
So, upon reflection, yes, to a certain extent I
would like to think of it that way. However, I
imagine the origins of these endeavors are a bit
less rooted in such broad thinking. I’m afraid
they are more seated in the desire for a direct
connection with others—the Heinz Project, enlisting 56 other artists, being the first big collaborative work back in the mid-’90s and now the
Petri Island Project, which at present count has
over 1,300 contributors. The Petri Island Project is perhaps a result of my work over the last
decade with the Community Based Teaching
Program in Easton, PA at Lafayette College.
Working with a diverse population in the
public sector, creating opportunities for many
different types of individuals, some deeply
engaged in the creative process, and others not
engaged at all, allowed me to consider numerous ways for people to come together and share
an aesthetic experience. This collective endeavor excites and humbles me. But on another
level, relinquishing control and creating an opportunity for circumstance and contingency to
come into play has always been a major attraction.
EK: Emerson’s 19th century essay “Nature” lays out
the transcendentalist view of the wholeness and connectivity of human experience to nature as our great
teacher from which we are not separate. Emerson says
we have the capacity to realize almost anything by
understanding that we are also the natural world.
22
The Petri Island Project (2012). 100 mm. x 15 petri
dishes by over 1,000 collaborators. This installation
11’ high by 15’ wide. The Studios of Key West. Images
courtesy the artist.
SciArt in America June 2014