Hi all
thanks for answers thus far - i realise my questions were quite hasty
and anything but scientific.
i completely agree that case by case, in consultation with the
artists is the most important thing in terms of both documentation
and dissemination.
i have made a point, in my practice of late, of putting pre-
vernissage installation shots on the web... because i think making
the curatorial process transparent is a good thing (with new media
art anyway) and the images being available is possibly helpful, to
me, to the artists, to others. i'd pleasantly take them down if an
artist was uncomfortable about images of their work in an unfinished
state being available, of course (see for instance this awful debate
around unfinished work: http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/
articles/2007/03/28/behind_doors_a_world_unseen/)
i'm also aware however, in the non-new media art world especially,
that there is tremendous reluctance to use so-called web2.0
technologies as documentation, as kelli writes:
"We do not use these types of web2 sites for formal
documentation because they are commercial sites, there longevity is not
assured, their license agreements with contributors are controversial
and there is no guarantee about the direction these businesses will take
in future."
exactly. if yahoo is bought by whoever, what happens?
which makes me wonder, is it good for _informal_ documentation?
what's the difference? use, abuse?
for instance, if anyone here is from the brooklyn museum, i'd love to
hear more about their strategies:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brooklyn_museum/sets/
what should we be doing about making public on the web exhibition
opening parties with lots of people in them? should we not? should we
ensure the photos only include staff?
At the Bliss Out Centre in Cambridge someone told me about a museum
cataloguing their collection on flickr rather than buying an
expensive content management system... making the records available
only to registered users/staff rather than public. but now I struggle
to remember who or what that was. i imagine people are using flickr
or the like in this personal way all the time.
on another point, so much of the documentation work is after-the-show-
opens / post-production, which few of us have time for as we struggle
to get on with the next show... but is there a way to do it all
along, or throughout? what strategies work best here?
lastly, please don't get me started on the raison d'etre of having a
myspace account for your institution -- what is that about?! ;-)
http://www.myspace.com/artscouncilengland
sarah
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