iwishicoulddescribeittoyoubetter

iwishicoulddescribeittoyoubetter is an archive of possibilities. Less a collective, art/design studio or fixed group, but the place of perchance running into one another, where encounters are created and some relationships last, others which we remember warmly in retrospect. The projects, blog entries and works presented at left have become what may be an idealistic cloud of tags and labels that have in previous manifestations been difficult to categorise, name and place. The ambivalence as such is noted and taken, yet please take that as possibility --yes, possibility-- to wander, link through, come back and find threads between the works, ideas and people... as we have. ^{1 2 3 4 5 6}



These are some of the people that have been involved, working together and independently since 2002:

Daniel Berndt
Born 1982, Meissen, Germany. Currently living and working in Berlin. Photography, history, poetry.

Lucio Castro
Born 1975, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Currently living and working in New York City and Shanghai. Menswear, knits, film.

崔凯旋 Cassidy Cui
Born 1979, Daqing, China. Currently living and working in Beijing. Lecturer, 艺术管理 arts management & design history.

何京蕴 Anouchka van Driel
Born 1981, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Currently living and working in Beijing. Photography, design.

何穎雅 Elaine W. Ho
born 1977, boynton beach, USA. currently living and working in the Pearl River Delta region. art, design, theory.

Fotini Lazaridou-Hatzigoga
Born 1979, Thessaloniki, Greece. Currently living and working in Berlin. Art, Architecture, Theory.

이토비 Toby Lee
Born 1980, Long Beach, USA. Currently living and working in new york city. Anthropology, film.

Joseph Pfeifer
Born 1975. Baltimore, USA. Currently living and working in oakland. Art, design.

張秀娥 Monika Truong
Born 1981, Solothurn, Switzerland. Currently living and working in Zürich. Sinology, Art, Culture.

张秀芳 Simone Truong
Born 1983, Solothurn, Switzerland. Currently living and working in Zürich. Dance, choreography.

王尘尘 Cici Wang
born 1987, Xiangyang, China. Currently living and working in Beijing. photography, art, daily life.

山口明香 Asuka Yamaguchi
Born 1977, Kyoto, Japan. Currently living and working on Sado Island. Art, design.

张小船 boat zhang
born 1983, Yuyao, China. currently living and working in Shanghai and various places in Japan.
打怪，被怪打。恋爱，失恋。 art, writing, life, running away.


an archive on collaborative practice



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we wish we could have described it to you better.


⁶ March 2009
The original iwishicoulddescribeittoyoubetter.org domain name is usurped by a certain Yuri Efremov located in Yoshkar-Ola, Russia, forcing the migration of the site to www.iwishicoulddescribeittoyoubetter.net.


⁵ May 2008
The initiators are part of the design/arts collective CHAN, a network of creators working together and independently since 2002.


⁴ March 2007
产缠掺搀阐颤铲谗蝉冁单婵孱廛忏潺澶禅羼蒇蟾觇谄躔镡馋骣


³ Thank you...
金井大明 Hiroaki Kanai
Born 1982, Osaka, Japan. Currently living and working in London. Fashion design.

谢婷婷 Hailey Xie
Born 1983, Chongqing, China. Currently living and working in Beijing. Writer, blogger, lover of long walks through the city.


² February 2006 - June 2008
CHAN studio is a collaborative practice created through the work from and among an open group of creators based in different parts of the world, including China, Japan, Holland, Greece and Argentina. CHAN approaches each project as 'open practice', whereby boundaries blur, work blends with life and life is continual practice. In this sense, ideas and research surpass commercial products or working with any one particular medium. Coming together with others in various fields becomes the way to investigate and share things that may be impossible to describe with one voice or one hand alone. The common point of communication involves looking for the intimate, miniscule details of everyday life, through design, art or merely in enjoying breakfast. CHAN studio works in a range of media, from video to performance, fashion or architectural design, but always on the scale of the familiar, the everyday and the banal. Design, in this sense, becomes a wandering course from an otherwise incomprehensible system — a way to ask questions about how people relate to their surroundings and, hopefully, find in them small moments of relief.

Members of CHAN have been working together and individually since 2002 and have in 2007 set up a studio in Beijing, China.

CHAN艺术设计工作室自许开放合作。在这里，来自中国、日本、荷兰、希腊、阿根廷等不同国家的15位年轻人共同施展着想象力。“开放、合作”的原则贯穿CHAN的每一个作品。因此，作品有了很多形式：或是设计，或是行为，或是影像，又或是生活。而CHAN的工作正是要抹去“生活”与“工作”的界线：没有没有生活的工作，也没有没有工作的生活。与不同背景的人共同生活工作是探索和分享的捷径，是一个人很难完成的。CHAN关心普通生活里的普通细节，即使凑在一起分享早餐也能带来设计的灵感。在关注生活的情况下，设计是每一个人都在经历的过程。捕捉生活里的点点滴滴，思考与周围环境的联系，寄以希望获得片刻的慰藉。

CHAN成员自2002年起以个人或合作的方式开始创作。2007年落脚于北京。


¹ 2002 - 2004
Some of us initially came together under the name 'We Throw Parties'. www.wethrowparties.org active 2003-2004, Arnhem NL.