dear CRUMBsters
I wanted to write to say I returned from the AHRC moot about 'digital transformations' in London yesterday all the more excited about this discussion theme (see the twitter hashtag #digitrans for a recap of the debates throughout the packed schedule of the day). I think it is very important that we, as curators working in today's digitally transformed culture, know the ins and outs of the platforms we are using for our curatorial projects - and the differences between them structurally, aesthetically, philosophically!
Marialaura's original questions are key, and offer the opportunity to reflect on over nearly two decades worth of work in some cases:
> How does curating online differ from organising gallery exhibitions?
Many on this list have experience of both of these - how did the curatorial role change? was the documentation of the exhibition drastically different, for instance? Was securing the work a different process? I heard some comments on this point recently from Katrina Sluis (who spoke at the 'moot' yesterday) in terms of curating for the screens at the Photographers Gallery.
> Also, is there a difference, for instance, between web as exhibition and web as broadcast and/or publishing?
This seems to me to be an ongoing site of confusion, especially as regards 'digital' initiatives and research. What good examples do we have of each, and why are they good examples?
> How does adopting web-based platforms have an impact on the contextualisation of a work, the creation of a curatorial narrative, and communication with an audience?
This question of context was key to many of the discussions at the moot yesterday - something which in digital/online spheres is hard to pin down. How do we allow for, document, preserve, the context in which a work sits, when the context is digital? Many invited to this month's discussion have good experience of creating curatorial narratives on web-based platforms - so how has that worked?
I don't mean to add more questions, but just to prompt the debate, as I'm so looking forward to hearing from you all!
Sarah
On 15 Nov 2012, at 15:38, Marialaura Ghidini wrote:
> Dear List,
>
> This month's theme will focus on curatorial practices online, with specific reference to discussing the structural and socio-economic conditions inherent in adopting ready-made web-based platforms such as YouTube, versus custom-built ones. This theme is hosted by Marialaura Ghidini, Doctoral researcher with CRUMB. To give some background to this discussion, let's start from some notes on curatorial practice recently re-read.
>
> In her introduction to the book Curating with Light Luggage (2005), curator Maria Lind writes 'the amnesia surrounding curatorial practice is astounding, as if the spatial and time-related contextualisation of an artwork in exhibitions and their formats where not relevant.' Most of Lind's curatorial practice centres around institutional spaces and the possibility to break with classic forms of display within their structural and organisational framework (the museum solo or group exhibition as conceived in the 19th century) in favour of a mode of 'communicating art' through working towards creating a 'museum that would function simultaneously as a production site, a distribution channel and as a venue for conversations' (Learning from Art and Artists, 2001). The reason I am quoting Maria Lind as a starting point for this discussion is that she touches upon some curatorial questions and concerns which I find helpful to ground a discussion about curating online in the broader context of curatorial practice. Lind talks about "creating contexts in relation to and in combination with other existing contexts" - chiming with the curator as editor, filter-feeder, etc. – simultaneous site of production and distribution - see the web-based platform as both a medium of production and distribution - and she discusses her curatorial practice in relation to site-specificity, in her words 'context-sensitivity' - for which curatorial work affect and is affected by the site in which it takes place seen as both a physical space and intellectual landscape – in our case the web-based platform or the online context.
>
> How does curating online differ from organising gallery exhibitions?
> What are current examples of the tensions or complementarity existing between the online (web display and publishing, radio, streaming) and offline (physical exhibition, paper publishing, event) dimensions when curating on and through web-based platforms? Also, is there a difference, for instance, between web as exhibition and web as broadcast and/or publishing?
> How does adopting web-based platforms have an impact on the contextualisation of a work, the creation of a curatorial narrative, and communication with an audience?
> In what ways does this change the artist-curator relationship and the processes of curatorial production?
>
> I am interested in discussing the above (broad) questions in relation to the concept of curatorial strategy, such as the form and format of presentation, structural organisation and arrangement of artistic material and production/distribution processes.
>
> //
>
> Invited Respondents are:
>
> - Mark Amerika is a renowned "remix artist" and Professor of Art and Art History at the University of Colorado at Boulder (US). Recent projects include the artwork Museum of Glitch Aesthetics presented at Abandon Normal Devices 2012 in Liverpool (UK) and the publication remixthebook (2011), a print book and a website functioning as an online hub for the digital remixes of many of the theories generated in the print book. http://markamerika.com/
>
> - bubblebyte.org is an online gallery showcasing artists that engage in a creative way with the digital space and stress the multiple possibilities of the media. bubblebyte.org is in itself container and content, artist and gallery. Founded in January 201 as a collaboration between artist Rhys Coren and curator Attilia Fattori Franchini. http://bubblebyte.org
>
> - Susan Collins works across public, gallery and online spaces employing transmission, networking and time as primary materials. Key works include In conversation, Transporting Skies, Tate in Space, Fenlandia and Seascape. She is currently Director of the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL where she founded the Slade Centre for Electronic Media in 1995. http://www.susan-collins.net
>
> - Field Broadcast is an online art platform examining the simultaneous experience of remoteness and proximity through live broadcasting. Field Broadcast has developed through the practice of, and is run by, artists Rebecca Birch and Rob Smith. http://www.fieldbroadcast.org/
>
> - Lindsay Howard is the Curatorial Director of 319 Scholes. Her work uses experimental curatorial models to reflect what she sees as an essential shift in contemporary culture, specifically a growing interest in collaborative creativity, open source philosophy, and unlimited access to information. She is the 2012-2013 Curatorial Fellow at Eyebeam in New York. http://319scholes.org/
>
> - Candice Jacobs is an artist and curator. Recent projects include: SLEEPING UPRIGHT an online project designed to interrupt and punctuate the somewhat personal space between you and your computer and ACCIDENTALLY ON PURPOSE a gallery exhibition that was accompanied by the online project ACCIDENTAL PURPOSE, a website, an audio project and a closing symposium organised with artist Fay Nicolson. http://www.meaningfulmeaninglessness.info/
>
> - Jacob Lillemose (b. 1974) is a freelance curator and writer based in Copenhagen and Berlin. He holds a PhD on software art from the University of Copenhagen and is currently curating the transmediale exhibition.
>
> - Fay Nicolson is an artist who also writes and curates. Recent curatorial projects include ACCIDENTALLY ON PURPOSE, a gallery exhibition, audio project and closing symposium, accompanied by the online project ACCIDENTAL PURPOSE organised with artist/curator Candice Jacobs. Other projects include RE-RUN, an on-line exhibition of digital video works curated with Majed Aslam and a collaborative practice with Oliver Smith @ www.expansioncollapse.com. http://www.faynicolson.com/
>
> - Anna Ramos is programme manager of Ràdio Web MACBA. Since 2006 Ràdio Web MACBA has been operating as a platform, initially to showcase the exhibitions and activities of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona and then as a content-generator for specific projects. With over 250 podcasts and 150 texts and essays available online, the platform focuses on contemporary thinking, the exploration of sound art, radiophonic art and experimental music. http://rwm.macba.cat/
>
> - Zoe Salditch is program director for Rhizome. As Program Director she oversees Rhizome's programs and events including The Download, a digital art collecting program she conceived and initiated in 2011. http://rhizome.org/the-download/
>
> - Reinhard Storz is editor of www.xcult.org - Net Forum for Art. Teaches Art History at the Academy of Art and Design Basel. Active in media publishing, focussing on New Media. Works since 1995 as a curator of netbased art projects. http://www.xcult.org/curated
>
> - Juliette Xiaoying Yuan is an independent curator and researcher living and working in Beijing. Past projects include Roy Ascott's La Plissure du Texte within 2012 Shanghai Biennial and the workshop IMMERSION: Art | Technology Workshops for the Biennial's educational programme. She is currently pursuing her PhD at the Planetary Collegium (University of Plymouth, UK), with the focus on the online curatorial theory and practice between China and overseas.
>
> ///
> Marialaura Ghidini
> PhD Researcher at CRUMB
> University of Sunderland
> m. +44 (0)7816 483221
> skype: mlghidini
> http://www.crumbweb.org/
------------------------------------------------
Dr. Sarah Cook
Reader
MA Curating Module Leader
Faculty of Arts, Design and Media
University of Sunderland
Curator for the Festival of New Media and Video, Transitio_MX05 "Biomediations", September 20-29, 2013 in Mexico City
Co-editor and co-founder, The Curatorial Resource for Upstart Media Bliss, www.crumbweb.org
Read our books:
Euphoria & Dystopia: The Banff New Media Institute Dialogues.
http://www.banffcentre.ca/press/39/euphoria-and-dystopia.mvc
Rethinking Curating: Art After New Media. 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.
http://www.thegreenbox.net
University of Sunderland - Shortlisted for the Times Higher University of the Year 2012
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