I think Simon is onto something important when he suggests that open
source curating would entail the operation of the community of people
of around the projects in question.
At the Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art at Cornell University
(http://goldsen.library.cornell.edu), we've tried to engage in a
similar curatorial practice in which the nature and direction of the
Archive remains open to the collaboration of an increasing number of
participants, both artists and outside curators. While the Archive
was initially established as somewhat of a convenient holding place
for some Cornell based curatorial projects (particularly CTHEORY
Multimedia, http://ctheorymultimedia.cornell.edu and Contact Zones:
The Art of CD-Rom, http://contactzones.cit.cornell.edu), it very
quickly developed into an international repository whose extensions
and developments have been suggested by outside curators, listservs,
and institutions who share our commitment to open curating and
access. Although initially focused specifically on new media, for
instance, discussions with other partners have led us to realize that
it's important for an archive of new media to include open access to
the sources of new media themselves, to their discussion on
listservs, and to their possible permeations, as evidenced by the
range of materials added annually to the repository of the Tribeca
Institute (Renew Media)/Rockefeller New Media Fellowship Program,
whose records are accessible online. We also have an extensive
collection of digitized video documenting the development of
contemporary art in China (Wen Pulin Archive), which emphasizes the
role of video art in performance art and more recent new media
installation, and we're working with Experimental Television Center
to house their digital files of the tapes created there over the past
thirty years.
We've been equally "open" about accepting artistic portfolios from
international artists whose work intersects broadly with the most
open paradigms of "new media" while trying to make listings of all of
our holdings available for access on our website with additional
description and software information available on the Cornell Library
catalogue.
What's challenging is that we're a very small operation with a
ghastly budget whose curatorial affairs, including descriptions,
website, and initial cataloguing data, are maintained only by me and
the Associate Curator, Madeleine Casad. But our commitment is to
provide ongoing open access to our archive as well as immediate
onsite access to all materials to anyone who's able to visit the
Cornell Library. The challenge, as you all appreciate (particularly
Jon who's been involved with the DOCAM initiative), will be to
maintain access to the materials over the short haul that were made
on software and hardware systems now rapidly becoming obsolete.
Best,
Tim
>There are 6 messages totalling 612 lines in this issue.
>
>Topics of the day:
>
> 1. Open source first steps (2)
> 2. From Jon Ippolito. Fwd: Which came first, open source or open art?
> 3. From Jon Ippolito. Fwd: ThoughtMesh
> 4. From Jon Ippolito. Fwd: Alternative models of governance
> 5. CALL FOR APPLICATIONS - MediaArtHistories
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:07:20 +0100
>From: Simon Biggs <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Open source first steps
>
>I would have thought Rhizome a good example of open source curating.
>Turbulence has aspects of this too. In the case of Rhizome the =8Copen code=B9
>is the operation of the community of people around the projects in question=
>.
>
>Regards
>
>
>Simon Biggs
>
>Research Professor
>edinburgh college of art
>[log in to unmask]
>www.eca.ac.uk
>
>[log in to unmask]
>www.littlepig.org.uk
>AIM/Skype: simonbiggsuk
>
>
>
>From: Gabriel Menotti <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Gabriel Menotti <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2008 18:53:04 -0300
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: [NEW-MEDIA-CURATING] Open source first steps
>
>And how about open source curating? Is it even possible?
>
>If we assume that exhbitions/collections/shows are systems/apparatuses
>that are somewhat programmed by the act of curating, what would be
>their level of opacity?
>
>Is it necessary to "open the code" of an exhbition, in order for
>others to analyze, understand, replicate and expand it? If so, how
>would it be done?
>
--
Timothy Murray
Professor of Comparative Literature and English
Curator, The Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art, Cornell Library
http://goldsen.library.cornell.edu
Director of Graduate Studies in Comparative Literature
Director of Graduate Studies in Film and Video
285 Goldwin Smith Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853
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