Dear crumb list members,

Rob Murphy posted this to the Thing list... feedback?
I'm particularly interested in his comment that we're reluctant to
"complicate the relationship between art and curatorship to include a
broader picture of the world beyond "artists, venues, funders and audiences".
1) who is meant by "we"?
2) what would the broader picture include? examples?
3) is the relationship between art, curators and
venues/funders/audiences (each individually and together) not
complicated enough when it comes to new media?
4) in his criticism of the artist-curator hybrid role, what might the
third "middleman" between the two be?

looking forward to the events of the weekend...
-Sarah

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: <thingist> update: Curating New Media Symposium at the Ottawa      ArtGallery
Date: Sun, 25 Nov 2001 11:19:13 -0500
From: Murphy <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]

on 11/22/01 6:33 PM, Sarah Cook at [log in to unmask] wrote:

> The symposium represents a timely and unique opportunity to consider and
> discuss among peers from across Canada, the issues arising from the
> burgeoning field of new media, highlighting some of the fissures and
> opportunities that have arisen in the shifting ground between
> traditional, institutionally-based curatorial practice and new models
> less bound to specific locales. It seeks to initiate a dialogue between
> artists, venues, funders and audiences by defining and discussing
> relevant issues and Canadian practice.

The term "new media" isn't new at all. Artists (and industry) have always
been judged by how they adapt to changing media so that it would be better
to talk about the process of "changing media". I've just read a review copy
of a book called "Bright Earth" by Philip Ball (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, due
out in 2002) about the technology of color that goes into great detail about
the influence of industrial needs on the availabilty of paint for artists
and how, at times, the needs of artists have informed industry development.
The book also brings up the interesting connection between the manufacture
of colors and the growth of pharmaceutical giants of the past two centuries.

The problem may be in our reluctance to complicate the relationship between
art and curatorship to include a broader picture of the world beyond
"artists, venues, funders and audiences".

Since I'm not attending this conference I'll take this oppportunity to put
in my two bits anyway:


> the shifting relationship of art to industry

By this I suppose "industry" means digital technology and how to entice more
funding out of high tech corporations. Yet, it's been the financial industry
where a great deal of innovative work has been done over the past ten years
(as is reflected in the work of John Klima or something like Net-o-Mat).

> the hybrid role of artist-curator

I cringe at this hybrid role for a variety of reasons I'll elaborate on
later but will say I think it devalues both artists and curators who have
specific roles to play. There should be another role situated right where
that hyphen is placed as a "hinge" to provide the needed flexibility.

> online communities/local community education

The concept of "community education"  needs to be  expanded to include the
ways in which members inform each other, what seems to work and what
doesn't.

> global network dissemination

Is "dissemination" the right term for this or does it reinforce the idea of
one-way communication?

> the changing role of museums and collections

One way to look at this change is to forget what the museum wants and to
create your own way of using it.

> the creation of new media production centers in regional galleries

With the understanding that state-of-the-art production facilities do not
necessarily promote good art.

> audience interactivity

I no longer have any idea what this is suppose to mean.


> art and science collaborations

For a small group of people this is a fruitful goal but we should stop
demanding that artists take an interest in science or vice versa.

Enough for this Sunday morning. The sun in shining and I'm going to the
beach.

Rob

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