Dear List,
Thanks to all of those involved in the event
"Curating can be learned, but can it be taught?"
at NGCA. Please find below my very 'raw' notes on
the presentations.
Tomorrow I'll post some more digested points!
Yours,
Beryl
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BARNABY DRABBLE:
"curators as theoretical beings" or "academic curators"?
The tension between that and "a public that isn't savvy to those theories".
People think, ah, "Goldsmiths Guy" i.e. trained not "born to it.
Liam Gillick: conceptual artists need curators who know conceptual theory
The key question of Authorship:
Curators "ideas of their own" which may be imposed on artists.
How vocational is curating education?
Curator as "multitasking maniac"?
Freelance or institutions? In his year at
Goldsmiths only 2 out of 12 work in institutions.
Is curating a radical project?
RE CuratingDegreeZero Exhibition:
Was difficult finding funding for something about
curating. Eventually 30K from ACE.
Each show had a defferent interface to the data collection:
CCC hacked the collection by adding extra material.
Spike Island don't have an education department,
but an "interpretation group" for one year only.
They were very interested in democracy and
information, and arranged the books etc. by
colour.
"Cleaning Company" translation from German arranged by themes.
Tim Brennan put them in boxes, with "a little bit of IKEA".
Web site functions as a portal, with a
downloadable bibliography. A lot of data IS
online.
Not a cannon, but a subjective selection process.
Questions:
Curatorial Practice or Curating?
Perhaps the difference is not Freelance or
Institution, but Careerism or Not. Visibility is
perhaps more necessary for a freelancer.
Are curating students doomed to model themselves on their tutors?!
What is curating? German curatien. Drabble is
"often referred to as an artist" although he
wouldn't describe himself as an artist. He does
do "co-production".
Is the CuratingDegreeZero Exhibition not about
curating but about critical publishing?
LILIANE SCHNEITER and YVES METTLER
See http:://www.cyberaxe.com. Also CRUMB interview forthcoming.
Critical Curatorial Cybermedia course runs in in
a "classical fine art school" in Geneva.
The first support came from a theoretical base
rather than studio art: Social software came from
political and gender studies to technology. The
content came first.
At first there was "one professor in the back with a new computer", but
They did get one dean to support later on. There
was not much student interest at first, this came
slowly from participation.
The cyberaxe materials are made by the students
with the staff. Students role: Editing ALL of the
sources including course documents.
These are not technical students: they use low
tech html, no Flash. They use "small tools" for
beginning students. They spend more time engaging
in political discourse than learning software.
Free software is an ethic.
Evolving nature: Each year's materials has a new interface.
Students use web as creators/artists to make
avatars, "or to represent communities or social
structures"by work with immigrants (media include
video, film, web). They have made presentation
at for example the G8 summit as an alternative to
the "information society". There is "personal yet
collective perspective" on the network.
The site was hosted at Thing, then went
banner-free. Now hosted "outside the
implementation of the School" as there is no
official money for hosting. This year is the
first that there has bee funding for a web site
editor/programmer (an ex student).
It's about process.
Examples are: Raqs Media Collective, Wikipaedia,
rastasoft.org, Josh On's They Rule.
Students also use weblogs and Datahammer software.
Theory is based on "Frankfurt School". Montage
and Brecht. Lara Croft and Paul Klee. A
collaborative dictionary of Benjamin.
Would like to develop a better balance between
content and navigation. Lack of search engine or
index means it is not so good as a research tool.
Making things like game clips is difficult in a
fine art school not dedicated to it.
Questions:
Re institutions: They are "on the edge"which is a
good position. The school didn't have a director
for 5 years, so they were under the radar.
Was the early work more about politicising, and
later more technical and decorative? The colours
are free! Not like print.
Barnaby: Is this old theory for new media? "the
dreams and the nightmares of your time".
STEVAN VUKOVIC
He is sometimes "Curating curators who curate
curators" because he does workshops with curators.
Many cynical shows "are meant for those who are
already in the curating business"
Freelancers may seem radical, but it's about
power: freelancers are more heavily branded .
He "Hacks onto existing cultural management courses "
Being a curator is: "Just a function not a
substantive position" could be done by a
collective.
At the least, curation is a guarantee "that it has some sense".
His background is in Anti-war movements, living
in Serbia. He works with articulating social
discourses. Something other than "Supplying the
market with cultural goods". How to make visible
a political action without getting into conflict
with police or right wing groups " That's a
curatorial job"
They didn't debate artistic quality, but were
"producing a platform and a basic frame "
If you want to distribute information it's better to have a social event.
School of Missing Studies artists, architects and cultural critics.
Questions:
Activist art assumes an audience. The ICA
invited Goldsmiths student to critique
institutions;'to be 'radical curators'.
Is Philosophy easier than curating?
Direct action can be invisible because of no
access to media. Have debates. Dialogue.
TIM BRENNAN
Believes that curating can be taught, and quoted
particularly from The Pedagogy of the Oppressed
concerning the Dialogical nature of education
"Mediated by the world".
Experience, and being able to take it apart, is important.
Freelancing and careerism differ in different
contexts: Sunderland is multiethnic but not
cosmopolitan. Agendas of Regeneration are key.
Art: ephemeral, radical, social? Arts Council
like the avant garde, but there is a conflict of
Audience vs avant garde.
Why are most Mas 1 year? Because they can close them down quickly.
Selecting, editing, collecting are key words for
curating and the wider context.
Questions
Is being a curator dialogic? (Artist/curator/audience)
All teaching (rather than lecturing) is by nature dialogic?
Did Harding say that curating 'can't be taught
because it needs to be learnt by being done (a
practice rather than a theory)?
--
_________________________________________________________
Beryl Graham
Tel: +44 191 515 2896 email: [log in to unmask]
Curatorial Resource for Upstart Media Bliss http://www.crumbweb.org
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