> In response to Beryl's questions:
>
> I doubt very much whether my comments here will be as erudite as previous
> postings, not least because I don't consider myself in the same academic
> role as the majority of the other participants, but mostly because it will
> run very roughly and as I think of it (I've no time to review, consider or
> edit at the moment).
>
> My comments come from my experience of a number curatorial studies courses
> and the often pragmatic role one plays as a museum based exhibition
> curator.
>
> My experience of how students understand different new media is entirely
> dependent, it seems to me, on the route they have taken to curatorial
> practice (amongst other factors).  Many people who are called curators,
> who work in the museum sector, arrive in post from a formal and usually
> pretty traditional art history degree (or postgraduate degree), some from
> literature, journalism and some from fine art practice -- these students
> may have spent that entire course looking at painting, drawing, sculpture,
> photography and may have had just one lecture on new media, performance,
> film and video in 3 years or more of study.
>
> (Believe it or not I recall having to explain to one assistant curator why
> it is not possible to put a 16mm film into a VHS player and then having to
> explain the telecine process -- before we even started on the complexities
> of DVD authoring.  This was around 2000 / 01 and is no where near the high
> tech world of new media installation today or even then.  It may seem that
> knowing how something works is irrelevant with so many technicians
> available, but its essential if as a curator you are to present work in
> the best / most appropriate or (strategically inappropriate way).
>
> For me, new media art works are 'just part of the contemporary art scene'
> and while they demand special consideration on behalf of the curator in
> selecting, (budgeting), installing and maintaining them, I am of the
> opinion that they should be presented like any other work and they should
> be viewed (actually and theoretically) in the context of art.  To treat
> new media works separately runs the risk of boxing them in again, both
> literally and theoretically.  This has the effect, and I'm sure you will
> have noticed this from a meta-curatorial perspective, that museum
> programmes are becoming increasingly media specific (photography shows,
> film/video shows, performance shows -- my last exhibition at Tate an
> example itself).  While this serves to profile the medium and show a great
> deal more work, it makes linking the works into the broader context of art
> history difficult in any way other than the associated publications or
> education events.
>
> Where I think there is potential for serious innovation is through the use
> of new media technologies not only as a medium for art work but as a
> medium for new forms of curatorial practice which might be rhizomic,
> global, intangible, temporal or ephemeral, interactive, invasive,
> subversive, broadcast, not located within the 'elite' establishment of the
> museum or gallery.  Exactly the sort of blurring of artistic and
> curatorial practice the advent of the 'artist-curator' brought about in
> the 80s/90s and exactly the sort of project revealed by degree zero...
>
> I would hope that curatorial courses take this on board and ask their
> students to investigate how curatorial practice can develop to work with
> new media and how new media can support developments in curatorial
> practice.
>
> Adrian
>
> Adrian George
> Curator: Collections Projects
>
> Government Art Collection
> Department for Culture, Media and Sport
> Queen's Yard
> 179a Tottenham Court Road
> London W1T 7PA
>
> T: +44 (0)20 7580 9135
> F: +44 (0)20 7580 9120
> W: www.gac.culture.gov.uk
>

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