Paired together two by two, the participating artists and art students who are from Umeå Academy of Fine Arts and Iceland Academy of the Arts, have been sending simple instructions to each other via email, every third week from June until September 2013. Their assignments are based on systems, which they develop within the framework of contemplating about the phenomena of “The Tree of Life”, given by the project leaders to be used as point of departure for all their assignments.

The concept of the project is aimed at casting light on the emergence of using alternative methods as part of the artistic practice. This collaborative project focuses on the idea of creation through restraints and restrictions by means of invented, internal systems. The purpose is to motivate the participants in developing an arsenal of tools for actively choosing different creative approaches rather than passively waiting for inspiration. The project is about how, in a practical ways, to provide artists with the experience of using methods imposed on our work and realize in which ways this alters our work and in which ways it doesn´t. The aim, in a progressive sense, is to subvert our own approach and make us see and use possibilities within limitations.