For me, the act of doing evaluation is similar to the process of making a sculptural piece of art using matter found in the world.

I have the great fortune to be close friends with an artist who works with ceramic materials to create beautiful and unique works of art. I met Narelle (I call her Rellsie!) when we shared a house in Hanoi. Rellsie shared a video with me recently about her work that was made for the Ian Potter Gallery. (The video is at the bottom of the page.)

In this video, Rellsie discusses her work, what she produces, how she produces it, and what it means to her as an artist. She discusses how she uses immersive experimental processes which involve gathering found matter and merging this with clay to form artefacts and sculptural masses. The processes and materials require her to relinquish control and embrace the unforeseeable in a messy, unpredictable, and joyful way. The colour and shape of the artefacts and sculptural masses are informed by an appreciation of the beauty and shape of the raw materials, which are integrated and transformed through the artistic process. Over time, more artefacts and sculptural masses are created, creating a kinship network of pieces connected through material companionship and relational groupings.

Resllie's video resonated with me as an evaluator. As an evaluator, I am involved in creating sculptural masses and artefacts. A sculpture involves creating a representation through moulding matter. Artefacts are objects created by humans through investigative procedures that have a cultural interest. A mass is a large body with no definite shape.

My work involves using unpredictable and messy processes to gather and sculpt found matter. Every evaluation I conduct produces some type of artefact. The colour and shape of each artefact are informed by the beauty and uniqueness of the materials I gather. The mass and shape of each artefact changes as it finds relational kinship with other artefacts to tell a story about the nature of the world.

I think a major point of departure between the disciplines that Rellsie and I work in lies in the willingness of each discipline to sit comfortably with messiness, unpredictability, and to be willing to create artefacts that may appear to lack definite shape in the present but can be connected with other artefacts through relational groupings to tell a story of the nature of matter over time.

I recently talked to a company that wants to create digital evaluation products that allow people to input data to generate methods and findings. A very precise and controlled process that does not have space to accommodate evaluation as a form of art. Much of the evaluation discipline is concerned with predictability and preciseness, which is needed. But unpredictability, joyful messiness, and the nurturing of relational kinship can run as fruitful parallel processes in evaluation.

(The image header on the blog page is a piece by Narelle White - more about her work can be seen at narellewhite.com)