1. Activity —Bound to Fail (6 min)

Choose one of the two activities

A. Cut a Perfect Circle

Cut a circle with a tool no more than scissors, the rounder the better.

B. Draw a Perfect Straight Line

Draw a straight line with no tool, the straighter, the better.

2. Reflection (5 min)

Question

1. If you only look at your feelings, would you call yourself a “success” or a “failure”? Why?

2. Has your judgment changed after comparing your work with the template image?

3. At what moment did you realize during the event that it could not be perfect? What makes you feel that way?

4. Who do you think is deciding what ‘failure’ means? Does this judgment come from you, others, or some social standard?

3. Concept Introduction—How Contemporary Art Uses Failure (5 min)

1. Why talk about failure?

You just went through an art task that was destined to fail.

This makes us think:

Does failure really exist?

Or is it just not meeting a predetermined standard?

2. How does contemporary art view failure?

Many contemporary artists see failure as:

Evidence of the Process

Doubts about the rules 

Breakthrough in creation 

Failure in art is not a flaw, but a resource.

3. Subjective Failure & Objective Failure

Your experience demonstrated two types of failures:

Subjective failure: Did not meet one’s expectations

Objective failure: Not ‘correct’ compared to reference standards

The key is what these differences themselves can tell us, not right or wrong.

4. Why is failure important in art？

Failure can:

Exposing ‘standards’ is a cultural construction, not a natural truth

Release creative freedom

Make art closer to the real human experience

In contemporary art, failure is not the end, but a new starting point.

4. Concept Introduction—How Contemporary Art Uses Failure (4 min)

Art does not need to be ‘well functioning’ to be valuable.

In many contemporary art practices, failed attempts and actions that were originally impossible to succeed have instead become the source of meaning generation.

The charm of art often comes from the questions it raises, rather than providing answers. Failure exposes the artist’s vulnerability, while also making us realize that vulnerability itself is a shared experience and an important way to connect creators and viewers.

Learning to Fail © 2025 by Yiming SUN is licensed under CC BY 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

(https://www.thebluediamondgallery.com/wooden-tile/f/failure.html)