Why Make? Episode 75: Emma and the Art of Collaboration
This is the final episode of the 2025 season of Why Make and fittingly the concluding episode of our series on the Emma International Collaboration. Why Make was invited to attend and document the 2024 edition of this event which happens every two years. Our previous episodes on Emma are, Episode 59 “What is Emma”, 63 “Impressions of Emma”, 67 “What if” with one of Emma’s founders Michael Hosulak , 68 with Miranda Jones a long time participant and finally this episode that we are calling “Emma and the Art of Collaboration”. When I first entertained going Emma to document it two years ago I had not a clue as to how this mysterious process of collaboration worked, this episode will hopefully give you some insight into what that actually looks like.
There are four unattributed voices in the podcast that I would also like to mention, they are in order of appearance, Adam John Manley of San Diego CA, Lisa Geertsen Seattle WA, Jason Nemec Charlton NY and M Craig Campbell of Ness Creek SK
In my quest to understand Emma I collected many hours of interviews many of which did not make it to the podcast but all of which helped me understand this amazing phenomenon that is Emma. I would like to give my thanks and appreciation to all those who were willing to sit down and talk with me. Some of that material will be used for the short documentary piece on Emma that will be released in early 2026 and all the conversations will archived on the Why Make web site in early 2026, as well for you to listen to.
The Work shown below only represents a small smattering of the hundreds of pieces built but during that amazing week but hopefully it gives you a feel for the beauty of collaborative art making. Again my many thanks the Emma board of directors for Inviting Why Make to the 2024 event and to the Emma community as whole for being the wonderful supportive generous people they are. Please go to https://www.emmacollaboration.com/ for more information and to see more of the pieces produced during the 2024 gathering
