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Hi all
In response to Zoe Li's comments about the theoretical aspects of media
curating, I had a very similar experience. I completed Teresa Gleadowe's
masters in curating contemporary art at the RCA in 1996. The course is, as
she alluded to, excellent for providing practical support for all of the
projects commissioned, one of which in my group's case, was digital
installation. But the theoretical discourses surrounding media arts were not
at that time an integral part of the course which, to my knowledge, is
still the case.
This meant that when we were selecting work for the exhibition my co student
curators, who unlike me were not involved in any digital media activities
outside the college, felt that they did not have the skills required to make
an informed judgment about the conceptual integrity of the works we were
selecting. At the time they chose to take my lead, but obviously that was
not an ideal situation.
This year's Ars Electronica Cyberarts publication discusses the growing
'difference' between media art pioneers, such as David Rokeby, who by
necessity had to turn their hands at creating their own software because the
issues they wanted to explore were being underdeveloped, ignored, excluded,
and/or not even thought of, in commercial packages and the younger
generation of practitioners who find the burgeoning array of off-the-shelf
software can suit their particular purposes perfectly.
I do think there are many important issues raised by this state of play such
as what the conceptual, political and aesthetic imperatives of choosing to
write your own software or not may be.
I suspect that, sadly, one reason these debates are not central to
postgraduate curatorial training, is because these works (digital as opposed
to video installations) are still not fully recognised by mainstream
contemporary arts organisations. I often find myself wondering why so many
organisations are so comfortable commissioning and exhibiting exciting
Internet art but not digital installation. Perhaps the fact that digital
installation is not discussed thoroughly at the theoretical level within the
widest possible disciplines is at the heart of the problem.......
Hannah Redler Curator, Gallery X
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-----Original Message-----
From: Zoe Li [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 04 October 2002 08:32
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Educating New Media Curators: Oct Theme of the Month
Hi All,
When I studied in Goldsmith curating course, me and one other student
present a project together about livestreaming, webcasting, commissioning
sound work and performance with artists from UK, Amsterdam, Hong Kong and
LA. The presentation went well, but we found it is very difficult to
develop the idea further. It was mainly because it is so hard for tutor and
other curating student to engage the discussion both theoretical and
practical level, and the limitation of my mate and my own knowledge in new
media field. There is students and tutor who have experience work with
video and sound installation, maybe some experiences on web project and
digital music, but still, it was lack of people who have broader knowledge
within the new media field.
The beginning of my interest in new media starts from my undergraduate study
in Hong Kong (It was about 6 years ago). I have double major in Fine Arts
(History and Theory) and Comparative Literature (Post-colonial studies and
new media studies). The most enjoyable course in my third year was New
Media Culture and Technology which was taught by Heidi Gilpin (who is a
lecture from UCLA, now teach in Amherst). It was first time I was
introduced to the works of Bill Viola, Jeffrey Shaw and readings of Paul
Virilio, website like C-theory and rhizome.com. We had chance to organise a
co-event of ZKM opening in Hong Kong Geothe Institute, there we used
webcasting tecnology to link up the event in both place with boardcasting
and Djing. There was only few artists in Hong Kong working on new media
(but a lot of video) and no curator. And through the course, it was my
first time to know what is curating and esp curating in New Media.
Few years later, there is a School of New Media opened in City University of
Hong Kong, mainly focus on film and it is very technical. It build up a
large number of young people who will be interests in New Media, and they
are technically very good to make individual pieces of work, but only few of
them will be able to engage in a theoretical level in curating.
Sure the context in UK is different from in Hong Kong, but still I think to
be able to curate within new media it really need to have specific knowledge
in both curating and new media technologies. But how is a MA course can be
programmed to be able to deliver those knowledge to the students? I am
speaking here with the perspective and concern as being a student.
Zoe
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Connor" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2002 9:08 AM
Subject: Re: Educating New Media Curators: Oct Theme of the Month
> Hi All
>
> I think Steve poses an interesting question, and since most of the invited
> guests have remained quiet I'll take a stab at it. I've taken a very
> circuitous route to curating new media, and I'm curious if others have had
> similar experiences.
>
> I haven't studied new media curating in an academic context--my major was
> Cultural Studies, focusing on critical theory and global media. During the
> commercial heyday of the web, I confess that I did everything I could to
> look the other way, co-directing and programming a short film festival in
> North Carolina (US) and ignoring sponsorship offers from venture
> capital-funded twentysomethings. It was only after the much-heralded
> "bursting of the bubble" that I rediscovered my interest in new media,
> curating a number of events/performances/installations over the past
couple
> of years and producing work of my own as well. During that time I also
> worked as a video art teacher, freelance writer (covering technology &
> culture), and web designer, but not necessarily in that order.
>
> My interest in art and technology led me to FACT in Liverpool
> (http://www.fact.co.uk), where I am Curator [New Media] as of quite
> recently.
>
> So that's my American-style confessional sort of thing, now lets hear from
> someone else. I don't want to get too far into Beryl's other questions at
> this point, we'll leave that for the next round.
>
> Michael Connor
>
>
> --
> Michael Connor
> Curator [New Media]
> FACT, the Foundation for Art & Creative Technology
> PO Box 911
> Liverpool, L69 1AR
> UK
>
> http://www.fact.co.uk
>
> t. +44 (0) 151 709 2663
> f. +44 (0) 151 707 2150
> m. +44 (0) 777 910 9878
> e. [log in to unmask]
>
>
> Coming soon - the FACT Centre, a major new centre for film, art and
> creative technology
>
> Opens in Liverpool in early 2003
>
> FACT is pleased to be supporting Liverpool's bid to become European
> Capital of Culture 2008.
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