Dear crumb list members,
To kick off December's discussions I wanted to report briefly on some of
the interesting questions raised at this past weekend's new media
curating symposium in Ottawa. The event was attended by over 60 people
and from the comments I've heard, it seems to have been a useful
meeting.
In discussing production artist and Information Technology and Art
curator Nichola Feldman-Kiss made the comment that artists who are
attempting to partner with industry were often seen as falling into the
"charity" wing of the company's structure, rather than the "research and
development" wing. Two questions were raised in response to this comment
-- 1) how are we defining industry? and 2) what steps can we take to
move artist-industry relationships out from under the charity umbrella
and into the R&D framework? (Nichola's site is at www.itac.ca/ITandArt)
In discussing distribution independent curator Skawennati Tricia
Fragnito recounted one response she had to organising a "gathering" at a
local museum for her online project Cyberpowwow (www.cyberpowwow.net).
Seeing as cyberpowwow is a virtual chat environment (run on a software
called The Palace), in trying to reach larger audiences and increase
access to her work for First Nation's artists, Skawennati had partnered
with museums and galleries to set up gatherings (which consisted of a
circle of 5 - 10 computers which artists could use together
simultaneously to both chat online in the Palace to other gathering
sites in other countries, as well as to chat to each other in real time,
real space around the circle). One museum's response to Skawennati was
"it's great that you've brought us kicking and screaming into the 21st
century by being the catalyst for us to bring computers into the
building, and now that we've got them here we can also use them to show
our website." Skawennati said she was taken aback by this comment in
relation to her art project and wondered if a curator had ever said to a
sculptor "it's great you've put your sculpture here and now we can also
use it as a coat rack!" What can be done to better understand and
prepare for these conflicts in a museum's interpretation of the role of
distribution in regards to networked media art?
In discussing consumption Surrey Art Gallery curator Liane Davison
pushed further at the questions of an audience's response to new media
work by saying that with the audience for a regional gallery you have to
help them make the leap from art in the gallery, to computer in a
gallery, to computer with content on it, to computer whose content *is*
art. What curatorial strategies are there that can facilitate this
process?
I invite those in attendance at the symposium, and my co-organised Nina
Czegledy, to share their comments on these and other questions raised on
Sunday, and hope you lurkers on the crumb list might also have some
insights about these topics of production, distribution and consumption.
thanks,
Sarah
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