Work in OPTIMISM:

Think Tank n. A group or an institution organized for intensive research and solving of problems, especially in the areas of technology, social or political strategy, or armament.

One of the art works in OPTIMISM, Ghana Thinktank, is interactive and community-based. It is a collaboration with artists Christopher Robbins, Matey Odonkor and John Ewing. The artists “collect” a set of problems from a community—in this case, Westport—and send them to a think tanks established in Ghana. Once the Ghana Thinktank has come up with solutions, the artists enact and present those solutions using various methods and media.

According to Robbins, “The project is an attempt to transpose parts of one culture into another, to take a solution generated in one context and apply it elsewhere.”

Ghana Thinktank, 2006, Detail and Photograph.

Photographs by Paul Shambroom