Hello list - I've been lurking for a bit, but this is my first time writing.
In response to Beryl's Graham's question about exhibition history: Bruce
Altshuler's pioneering work on the subject (see: The Avant-Garde in
Exhibition, and his more recent two-volume work) shows that the question of
"experience" - the idea that the art, to a certain extent, doesn't exist
without the exhibition - is hardly new to new media art. Phenomenology has
been a crucial part of the discussion since (at the very latest) the rise
of Minimalism in the 1960s. This summer's restaging of Harald Szeemann's
groundbreaking exhibition When Attitudes Become Form is an obvious example.
(I feel quite ambivalent about the exhibition, but the massive catalogue,
packed with primary documents, is spectacular).
I sometimes sense a desire to reinvent the wheel when it comes to
discussing new media histories. I don't want to be part of any revolution
that throws out its own pre-history.
Similarly, (especially having worked as a museum archivist for four years,
and now having returned to art history), I appreciated Dennis Moser's call
to remember that the archivist and art historian already have separate,
well-defined methodologies for tackling these sorts of problems, even if
new approaches and techniques need to be developed.
J.
On Wed, Oct 16, 2013 at 10:54 AM, Beryl Graham <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear List,
>
> What a great discussion!
>
> I'm particularly interested in histories of exhibitions at the moment, and
> seem to have been writing a lot about it - most of it in press at the mo,
> including a chapter for Christiane's new book, and a book on collecting for
> Ashgate, but this one is actually out now:
>
> Graham, Beryl (2013) “Exhibition Histories and New Media Behaviours.”
> Journal of Curatorial Studies, 2 (2 (summer)).
> http://dx.doi.org/10.1386/jcs.2.2.242_1. 242-262.
>
> The basic argument is that Staniszewski says that exhibition histories are
> 'repressed', and that “It is in the installation design of the first half
> of the twentieth century that the sources of such practices as viewer
> interactivity and site specificity, as well as multimedia, electronic and
> installation-based work, are to be found.” (Staniszewski 1998: xxiii) If
> the ‘sources’ of new media art practices, alongside installation and
> site-specific artwork, lie in exhibition installation, then the very nature
> of what is documented about exhibitions becomes particularly important to
> these practices, regarding issues of historicization.
>
> If the exhibition IS the artwork, and needs to be interacted with to
> exist, as with some new media art, then exhibition histories become
> particularly important. The importance of contextual documentation
> including audience response also becomes crucial.
>
> I think the Afterall books on exhibition histories have been very useful,
> but does anyone else have any good examples of excellent histories of
> exhibitions based on very full documentation?
>
> Yours,
>
> Beryl
>
>
>
> On 14 Oct 2013, at 13:04, Nicholas O'Brien wrote:
>
> Maybe a good starting point would be to look at Oliver Laric's Incomplete
> Timeline of Online Exhibitions and Biennials:
> http://archive.rhizome.org/artbase/56398/timeline.html
>
> Also some good/interesting subsequent conversation about the creation of
> this work:
>
> http://rhizome.org/editorial/2013/apr/26/oliver-larics-response-biennaleonline-2013/
>
> very best
>
>
> On Mon, Oct 14, 2013 at 4:57 AM, Charlotte Frost <
> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Can anyone remember examples of early online art galleries that tried to
> mimic the real world layouts of gallery/museum spaces. The pre-Second Life
> skeuomorphic ways of displaying artŠ.
>
>
>
>
> --
> Nicholas O'Brien
>
> Visiting Faculty | Gallery Director
> Department of Digital Art, Pratt Institute
> doubleunderscore.net
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Beryl Graham, Professor of New Media Art
> Research Student Manager, Art and Design
> MA Curating Course Leader http://www.macurating.net
>
> Faculty of Arts, Design, and Media, University of Sunderland
> The David Puttnam Media Centre, St Peter's Way, Sunderland, SR6 0DD
> Tel: +44 191 515 2896 Fax: +44 191 515 2132
>
> CRUMB web resource for new media art curators http://www.crumbweb.org<
> http://www.crumbweb.org/>
> Recent books:
> * Rethinking Curating: Art After New Media (2010) from MIT Press
> http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=12071
> * A Brief History of Curating New Media Art, and A Brief History of
> Working with New Media Art (2010) from The Green Box
> http://www.thegreenbox.net<http://www.thegreenbox.net/>
> * Euphoria & Dystopia: The Banff New Media Institute Dialogues (2011)
> from Banff Centre Press and Riverside Architectural Presshttp://
> www.banffcentre.ca/press/39/euphoria-and-dystopia.mvc
>
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