Hi List
thanks to Ele for posting so many good questions about what exactly
is going on with the question of video art work online, and making
curatorial selection using the online world. I completely agree with
her sentiment that jury selection processes feel outmoded online in
this way when there is the possibility to exploit social networks,
draw in specialist knowledge AND be transparent about how it all
works. Can anyone give examples of when curatorial jury processes
work well online? I'd like to think we have good models within our
community -- RunMe.org? Rhizome commissions? Is curatorial jury
transparency just about sharing the voting process with the masses?
Apologies for these jetlagged thoughts - I am in Toronto today and
earlier this afternoon I sat in and listened to a panel about
Curatorial Consciousness at the ImagineNATIVE festival -- a film
festival which is increasingly incorporating new media art, both
'programmed' and 'curated' in separate strands. While the panel was
stacked with some absolutely excellent curators I was still
disheartened to discover that we are still talking about the same
things as 20 years ago - how video art changed to fit the gallery -
but now, because of the plurality and affordability of technology we
are celebrating and lauding that very variability. An esteemed museum
curator (who fought for the acquisition of media art into national
art collections, and so is very well versed in formats) who is now
running a commercial gallery, commented that because her gallery
space is small she and her artists come up with creative solutions,
showing works on 'exquisite' little screens or even 'old style'
monitors, even when the exact same work is projected large scale in
concurrent museum shows. Of course this is the choice of the artist,
but surely curatorial suggestion is at play here too - video wouldn't
have been projected if there weren't big rooms to fill with art, and
if museums weren't better placed to afford bigger projectors. now
that anyone can afford many types of presentation technology, and
we're all used to seeing thumbnails of works online, it doesn't
matter if the work changes again - scaled for the space in which it
is presented, with no concern for which is the 'real' version? This
of course relates to the great letter from Kenneth Goldsmith which
Charles posted about the role of Ubuweb.
I suppose I'm left with the question of how online filesharing and
the necessary compromises/compression isn't helping our argument
about maintaining best possible quality for the artists when curating
media work.
But all that aside, the live stream from the Guggenheim starts in 15
minutes! Set your browsers to full screen!
sarah
On 21 Oct 2010, at 11:52, Ele Carpenter wrote:
> YouTube spatially flattens our viewing of moving images, which is
> why it's
> great for selecting thumbnails, but useless for making final
> curatorial
> decisions unless your presentation format is YouTube itself. And if
> that is
> the case - then the spatial networked potential of YouTube could
> offer a
> number of selection and exhibition models. What seems clear - is
> that the
> work has been selected for a YouTube audience without challenging
> the medium
> or expectations of YouTube itself (except perhaps the film calling
> us to
> unplug). This uncritical approach and lack of knowingness about the
> medium
> seems incongruous with the level of critical expertise of the
> selection
> panel. But most importantly, the open-submission and jury selection
> is an
> outmoded curatorial model loathed by most curators as a token fop to
> pseudo-democratic transparency. It's a model which ignores the
> strength of
> social networks and specialist knowledge, it ignores the
> impossibility of
> viewing thousands of artworks, and denies the opportunity to really be
> transparent about the selection process at all.
>
> Has anyone seem the presentation of the films at the Guggenheim(s)
> - I'm
> very curious to know how they were installed and accessed. I guess
> many of
> the works were shown in their full 'feature' length at a higher
> resolution?
>
> Bestest,
> Ele
>
>
>
> On 20 October 2010 14:19, Charles Turner <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
>> On Oct 18, 2010, at 8:24 AM, Sarah Cook wrote:
>>
>>> ... can I request that the conversation come back to the practice of
>> curating?
>>
>> In case y'all didn't catch this:
>>
>> <http://ubu.com/resources/frameworks.html>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Ele Carpenter
> Curator
>
> Lecturer, MFA Curating, Dept of Art, Goldsmiths College,
> University of London. New Cross, London SE14 6NW
>
> m: +44 (0)7989 502 191
> www.elecarpenter.org.uk
> www.eleweekend.blogspot.com
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