A common attitude from recent discussions it seems has been about taking RISK, pushing ideas and possibilities as far as they go. It could well produce an amazing event, output, solution, possibility or experience. Sophie Hope ( B+B, http://www.welcomebb.org.uk/
- Curator/artist) came up to Gray’s from London via Bristol and worked for a couple of hours with 8 PG students on a textual/video workshop. The aim was to consider your own work and something which has happened to you but you really want to try an explain what really should or could happen. So we were able to disguise ourselves to express what we really thought about it all. Starting texts were , Audre Lorde's short essay: The Master's Tool's Will Never Dismantle the Master's House' (in Sister Outsider, 1984) in conjunction with the summary of the DCMS' Creative Britain report (2008): http://www.culture.gov.uk/reference_library/publications/3572.aspx
showing that we need to pursue risk and identity and creativity or we will all end up doing the same things and controlled by bureaucracy.
Katie Nicoll (independent arts producer, Glasgow) also came and talked about her recent projects (Hidden Garden, Tramway, Glasgow; Jardin Public, Edinburgh). Major production values and high in health and safety procedure to produce the projects. Katie showed skillful negotiation style and experience to produce creative, dynamic works which took risks but ultimately had to accept certain compromises to exist.
Thursday, 6 November 2008
Wednesday, 15 October 2008
Hang the DJ
Have been a bit lazy/busy with all this over the past month due to holidays, needed a break, and finishing and restarting the post-grad course. Now its going I need to get back on track. Just found some new texts which discuss collaboration and the current practice, although I thought this was what we did anyway so it seems to take time to formalise and be accepted which seems late in the day. Also texts in US magazine Art Lies which talks of the Death of the Curator, which I suppose is inevitable in the current discussion, maybe death of curator as is thought of in museums and galleries but the birth of the new curator as a practice in it own right. We do it all the time in life and in work, its what we do. We don't need to be invited or asked to do it. Like Thomas Hirschorn when he was a graphic designer, he just did it.
Monday, 8 September 2008
Wednesday, 27 August 2008
Back to the Garden
This was another spontaneous curating project while on holiday on the Isle of Mull. I created a curated 'event' by producing a poster advertising the project, "Back to the Garden", which included Simon Starling, Bill Drummond, Mull Organics, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Nils Norman, Rachel Carson, Agnes Denes and Constantine Brancusi and would take place at Calgary Bay. The poster was handmade with available materials then posted on the public noticeboard in Dervaig, near Calgary Bay, Mull, Scotland. The noticeboard was full of other local event announcements. I pinned it up and left it there. It was a 'phantom' exhibition bringing together a list of artists/people/contexts to create a project which physically didn't exist but did exist as a public conceptual idea. People would see and read it in the context of local information, its their choice to 'see' it, if they 'get' the references.
Wednesday, 2 July 2008
Review of progress
My objectives are to continue to define and analyse my own and others’ practice, and hence define curatorial practice in the specific contexts of interventionist, non-urban and non-white spaces. Interviews with key curatorial practitioners are being developed. These will be documented and analysed for significant motivations and to identify practice materials. My own personal practice has informed my research and I have created some experimental curatorial projects (eg. The Ship’s Cousin). These were conducted in public places and documented through photography and posting on my research blog.
Further experimental projects will be produced and the development of a major public curatorial project will be initiated. Through discussion with my supervisors I have been encouraged at this stage to define my own curatorial practice, this has been initially through brainstorming and mind mapping analysis of the core materials that make up my practice, but now there is a need to develop a more rigorous methodology through regular reflective self-interviews (audio/visual). My literature review has identified key texts (Warner, Lippard, Greenburg, Fergusson, Nairne, Dorner, König), which determine a historical overview of experimental “break through points’ in global curatorial practice. This has also led to research into the theoretical underpinning of curatorial practice, (Dewey, Ranciere). I also intend to produce an introduction text that explores my understanding and definition of conceptual curatorship as a practice outside of the conventional contexts, the curatorial establishment and curators as individuals.
Further experimental projects will be produced and the development of a major public curatorial project will be initiated. Through discussion with my supervisors I have been encouraged at this stage to define my own curatorial practice, this has been initially through brainstorming and mind mapping analysis of the core materials that make up my practice, but now there is a need to develop a more rigorous methodology through regular reflective self-interviews (audio/visual). My literature review has identified key texts (Warner, Lippard, Greenburg, Fergusson, Nairne, Dorner, König), which determine a historical overview of experimental “break through points’ in global curatorial practice. This has also led to research into the theoretical underpinning of curatorial practice, (Dewey, Ranciere). I also intend to produce an introduction text that explores my understanding and definition of conceptual curatorship as a practice outside of the conventional contexts, the curatorial establishment and curators as individuals.
Friday, 6 June 2008
Wednesday, 28 May 2008
Tuesday, 27 May 2008
Need to get some structure
Notes/Reading through –
Doing a Literature Review by Chris Hart (1998) Open University
Doing PG Research by Stephen Potter et (2006) Open University
- to get some structure, plan and requirements to the enquiry as there is lots of information/literature, ideas and analysis of my practice to work through
Review serves the following -
Distinguishing what has been done from what needs to be done
Discovering important variables relevant to the topic
Synthesising and gaining a new perspective
Identifying relationships between ideas and practice
Establishing the context of the topic or problem
Rationalizing the significance of the problem
Enhancing and acquiring the subject vocabulary
Understanding the structure of the subject
Relating theory and ideas to applications
Identifying the main methodologies and research techniques that have been used
Placing the research in a historical context to show familiarity with state of the art developments
Planning lit review
Define the topic
• General reading
• Notes on the concepts used and authors cited
• List of terms to search
• Shape of topic
Think about the scope of the topic
• What time frame how far back what subject areas might be relevant
• List terms and phrases to search vocabulary
•
Think about outcomes
• What do you want out of the search and why
Think about housekeeping
• Means to record and cross reference what you find
Plan the sources to be searched
• List of relevant sources
Search the sources listed
• Work through sources, start with general moving to abstracts and indexes
Research is aimed at explaining, exploring and/or describing the occurrence of some phenomenon.
ethnomethodology |ˌeθnōˌmeθəˈdäləjē|
noun
a method of sociological analysis that examines how individuals use everyday conversation and gestures to construct a common-sense view of the world
Methodology
Practice and theory
Soft data ethnographic data
Interpretivistic approach
Ontology
epistemology |iˌpistəˈmäləjē|
noun Philosophy
the theory of knowledge, esp. with regard to its methods, validity, and scope. Epistemology is the investigation of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion.
Methodological meanings of validity, reliability and data
Different views on -
What reality is (ontology)
What can be accepted as real (epistemology)
Validating our claims
Collecting data
look for the reasoning that the author has used in the reviewed texts
structuralism |ˈstrək ch ərəˌlizəm|
noun
a method of interpretation and analysis of aspects of human cognition, behavior, culture, and experience that focuses on relationships of contrast between elements in a conceptual system that reflect patterns underlying a superficial diversity.
• the doctrine that structure is more important than function.
Originating in the structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and extended into anthropology by Claude Lévi-Strauss, structuralism was adapted to a wide range of social and cultural studies, esp. in the 1960s, by writers such as Roland Barthes, Louis Althusser, and Jacques Lacan.
Mapping out ideas and context
Evaluative and critical
Organize the content of the review into sections and subsections
Classification is part of the analytical stage –
• Descriptive foundation
• Need to be explicit on why chose to highlight connections
correspondence |ˌkôrəˈspändəns; ˌkär-|
noun 1 a close similarity, connection, or equivalence : there is a simple correspondence between the distance of a focused object from the eye and the size of its image on the retina.
Correspondence
Noun 1 there is some correspondence between the two variables correlation, agreement, consistency, compatibility, consonance, conformity, similarity, resemblance, parallel, comparability, accord, concurrence, coincidence.
Rhetorical analysis and mapping of review materials
to convince the reader using various rhetoric
• Ethos personal experience
• Point of view vantage point first or third person
• Style – the way to express ideas ie. It often appears etc
• Gnomic present connecting to other statements
• Story – overall structure for telling of the events
• Tropes – figurative phrases –
• Metaphor – something familiar to describe something complex
• Synecdoche – part of the whole
• Metonymy – name of one thing is substituted by another
• Irony – say one thing but mean another
Logics of Enquiry
Induction, Deduction and Abduction
Explanatory and Explicatory research
I reckon my research is –
• Abductive enquiry
• Constructivist paradigm
• Epistemology – the knowledge is constructed, multiple and a means exercise
• Ontology – the world as we know it is constructed through human meaning making. It is a world of representations, signs and symbols
• Research aim to explicate the social world – to gain insight and understanding of how it operates
• To develop hypotheses
• Observe or create anomalies or surprises – examine ‘the residue of the unexplained’
Doing a Literature Review by Chris Hart (1998) Open University
Doing PG Research by Stephen Potter et (2006) Open University
- to get some structure, plan and requirements to the enquiry as there is lots of information/literature, ideas and analysis of my practice to work through
Review serves the following -
Distinguishing what has been done from what needs to be done
Discovering important variables relevant to the topic
Synthesising and gaining a new perspective
Identifying relationships between ideas and practice
Establishing the context of the topic or problem
Rationalizing the significance of the problem
Enhancing and acquiring the subject vocabulary
Understanding the structure of the subject
Relating theory and ideas to applications
Identifying the main methodologies and research techniques that have been used
Placing the research in a historical context to show familiarity with state of the art developments
Planning lit review
Define the topic
• General reading
• Notes on the concepts used and authors cited
• List of terms to search
• Shape of topic
Think about the scope of the topic
• What time frame how far back what subject areas might be relevant
• List terms and phrases to search vocabulary
•
Think about outcomes
• What do you want out of the search and why
Think about housekeeping
• Means to record and cross reference what you find
Plan the sources to be searched
• List of relevant sources
Search the sources listed
• Work through sources, start with general moving to abstracts and indexes
Research is aimed at explaining, exploring and/or describing the occurrence of some phenomenon.
ethnomethodology |ˌeθnōˌmeθəˈdäləjē|
noun
a method of sociological analysis that examines how individuals use everyday conversation and gestures to construct a common-sense view of the world
Methodology
Practice and theory
Soft data ethnographic data
Interpretivistic approach
Ontology
epistemology |iˌpistəˈmäləjē|
noun Philosophy
the theory of knowledge, esp. with regard to its methods, validity, and scope. Epistemology is the investigation of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion.
Methodological meanings of validity, reliability and data
Different views on -
What reality is (ontology)
What can be accepted as real (epistemology)
Validating our claims
Collecting data
look for the reasoning that the author has used in the reviewed texts
structuralism |ˈstrək ch ərəˌlizəm|
noun
a method of interpretation and analysis of aspects of human cognition, behavior, culture, and experience that focuses on relationships of contrast between elements in a conceptual system that reflect patterns underlying a superficial diversity.
• the doctrine that structure is more important than function.
Originating in the structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and extended into anthropology by Claude Lévi-Strauss, structuralism was adapted to a wide range of social and cultural studies, esp. in the 1960s, by writers such as Roland Barthes, Louis Althusser, and Jacques Lacan.
Mapping out ideas and context
Evaluative and critical
Organize the content of the review into sections and subsections
Classification is part of the analytical stage –
• Descriptive foundation
• Need to be explicit on why chose to highlight connections
correspondence |ˌkôrəˈspändəns; ˌkär-|
noun 1 a close similarity, connection, or equivalence : there is a simple correspondence between the distance of a focused object from the eye and the size of its image on the retina.
Correspondence
Noun 1 there is some correspondence between the two variables correlation, agreement, consistency, compatibility, consonance, conformity, similarity, resemblance, parallel, comparability, accord, concurrence, coincidence.
Rhetorical analysis and mapping of review materials
to convince the reader using various rhetoric
• Ethos personal experience
• Point of view vantage point first or third person
• Style – the way to express ideas ie. It often appears etc
• Gnomic present connecting to other statements
• Story – overall structure for telling of the events
• Tropes – figurative phrases –
• Metaphor – something familiar to describe something complex
• Synecdoche – part of the whole
• Metonymy – name of one thing is substituted by another
• Irony – say one thing but mean another
Logics of Enquiry
Induction, Deduction and Abduction
Explanatory and Explicatory research
I reckon my research is –
• Abductive enquiry
• Constructivist paradigm
• Epistemology – the knowledge is constructed, multiple and a means exercise
• Ontology – the world as we know it is constructed through human meaning making. It is a world of representations, signs and symbols
• Research aim to explicate the social world – to gain insight and understanding of how it operates
• To develop hypotheses
• Observe or create anomalies or surprises – examine ‘the residue of the unexplained’
Thursday, 15 May 2008
Reading list update
Bourdieu, P (1984) Distinction, London, Routledge
Debord, Guy (1994) The Society of the Spectacle, Cambridge, MIT
Devine, T and Logue, P eds. (2002) Being Scottish, Edinburgh, Polygon
Dormer, P ed (1997) The Culture of Craft, Manchester, Manchester University Press.
Dormer, Peter (1990). The Meanings of Modern Design. Thames & Hudson
Dorner, Alexander, (1947). The Way Beyond ‘Art’, NY, Wittenborn, Schultz Inc.
Eco, Umberto (1986). Travels in Hyper Reality. Picador
Eco, Umberto (1998) Serendipities, Language and Lunacy, London, Phoenix Press
Frith, Simon, (1996) Performing Rites: the value of popular music, Oxford : Oxford University Press
Gray, C. and Malins, J. (2004) Visualising Research: A Guide to the Research Process in Art and Design, Ashgate.
Grenfell, M and Hardy, C (2007) Art Rules: Pierre Boudieu and the Visual Arts, Oxford, Berg.
Harrison, Pile and Thrift eds. (2004) Patterned Ground: Entanglements of Nature and Culture, London, Reaktion Books.
Hickey, Dave (1985) Air Guitar, Los Angeles, Art Issues Press
Holbrook, David (1994) Creativity and Popular Culture, London, Associated University Presses
Laurel, Brenda, (2001) Utopian Entrepreneur, MA, MIT Press.
McGuigan, Jim (1996) Culture and the Public Sphere, London, Routledge.
McGuigan, Jim (1999) Modernity and Postmodern Culture, Maidenhead, OU Press
Painter, Colin (2002) Contemporary art and the home, Berg
Putnam, James, (2001) Art and Artifact : the museum as medium, London : Thames & Hudson.
Stewart A. Thomas (1997) Intellectual Capital, London, Nicholas Brealy Publishing
Sutton, Brind and McKenzie. eds, 2007 The State of the Real, Aesthetics in the Digital Age, London, I.B.Taurus
Thackara John. (2005) In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World. MIT Press
Tufte, R. Edward (1983) The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Connecticut, Graphics Press
Tufte, R. Edward (1990) Envisioning Information, Connecticut, Graphics Press
Tufte, R. Edward (1997) Visual Explanations, Connecticut, Graphics Press
Warner, Marina (1997) From the Beast to the Blonde
Weintraub, Linda (2004). Making Contemporary Art, Thames and Hudson.
Debord, Guy (1994) The Society of the Spectacle, Cambridge, MIT
Devine, T and Logue, P eds. (2002) Being Scottish, Edinburgh, Polygon
Dormer, P ed (1997) The Culture of Craft, Manchester, Manchester University Press.
Dormer, Peter (1990). The Meanings of Modern Design. Thames & Hudson
Dorner, Alexander, (1947). The Way Beyond ‘Art’, NY, Wittenborn, Schultz Inc.
Eco, Umberto (1986). Travels in Hyper Reality. Picador
Eco, Umberto (1998) Serendipities, Language and Lunacy, London, Phoenix Press
Frith, Simon, (1996) Performing Rites: the value of popular music, Oxford : Oxford University Press
Gray, C. and Malins, J. (2004) Visualising Research: A Guide to the Research Process in Art and Design, Ashgate.
Grenfell, M and Hardy, C (2007) Art Rules: Pierre Boudieu and the Visual Arts, Oxford, Berg.
Harrison, Pile and Thrift eds. (2004) Patterned Ground: Entanglements of Nature and Culture, London, Reaktion Books.
Hickey, Dave (1985) Air Guitar, Los Angeles, Art Issues Press
Holbrook, David (1994) Creativity and Popular Culture, London, Associated University Presses
Laurel, Brenda, (2001) Utopian Entrepreneur, MA, MIT Press.
McGuigan, Jim (1996) Culture and the Public Sphere, London, Routledge.
McGuigan, Jim (1999) Modernity and Postmodern Culture, Maidenhead, OU Press
Painter, Colin (2002) Contemporary art and the home, Berg
Putnam, James, (2001) Art and Artifact : the museum as medium, London : Thames & Hudson.
Stewart A. Thomas (1997) Intellectual Capital, London, Nicholas Brealy Publishing
Sutton, Brind and McKenzie. eds, 2007 The State of the Real, Aesthetics in the Digital Age, London, I.B.Taurus
Thackara John. (2005) In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World. MIT Press
Tufte, R. Edward (1983) The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Connecticut, Graphics Press
Tufte, R. Edward (1990) Envisioning Information, Connecticut, Graphics Press
Tufte, R. Edward (1997) Visual Explanations, Connecticut, Graphics Press
Warner, Marina (1997) From the Beast to the Blonde
Weintraub, Linda (2004). Making Contemporary Art, Thames and Hudson.
Tuesday, 6 May 2008
more direction
tacit knowledge
craft of exhibition making
genres
patternmaking
Listing /categorizing/archiving
interventions
serendipity
materiality
• artists
• location
• collaborators
• money
• creativity
• theme
• research
• production
• interpretation
craft of exhibition making
genres
patternmaking
Listing /categorizing/archiving
interventions
serendipity
materiality
• artists
• location
• collaborators
• money
• creativity
• theme
• research
• production
• interpretation
Tuesday, 29 April 2008
Print the Legend at Fruitmarket
Some great films pieces Issac Julien and Salla Tykkä in particular, but it all seemed a bit literal to the overall theme
Sunday, 27 April 2008
Recoded - Landscape and politics in New Media conference at Aberdeen Uni
Attended Friday (24th) session of this conference, it also ran on Saturday which I would have really liked to attend, after the experience of the Friday, much thought provoking stuff in a very convivial atmosphere. Very textual oriented so it made for some difficult understanding but a stimulating experience.
Friedrich Kittler - euro history to today's digital, seems like inventive ideas always existed just mediated through progressive technology.
Regene Debatty - put forward artistic ideas dealing with surveillance, lots of ideas and tricks, lots of students dealing with this stuff. supervision performance.
Trevor Paglen - black installations and CIA conspiracy he's probably being watched as we speak. highlight Ansel Adams photos close up with installation.
Julia Scher - interesting to see her speak in Aberdeen, about various projects, repository of ideas JFK, Location is outwith studio.
Kriss Ravetto - ran through Lozano-Hammer video installation, which created an interactive matrix for audience, tech probs skillfully accommodated
This session was the most interesting for me in terms of artistic/curatorial practice, through text publishing, exhibitions, websites, databases and categorizing.
Trip down to the Glasgow International Visual Art Festival
Jim Lambie at GOMA - Glammy sparkely sculpture vibrant and exciting to see all at once, makes the venue seem dull.
Jonathan Monk at Tranway - sorry but predictable and somewhat lazy, is that all there is to creativity? nice to have a rattle on the drums though.
EJ Major at Streetlevel - really interesting, crafty, contextual and beautifully mounted.
Alasdair Gray at Sorcha Dallas - great spaces, nice detail and attention to, groovy paintings.
Wilhem Sasnal film downstairs in scarey old shop, one version of song was fine enough and made point.
Simon Starling at The Bath House, tidy presentation of the sinking boat.
Tea on train, £1.50, lunch at Starbuck's £6.25.
Jonathan Monk at Tranway - sorry but predictable and somewhat lazy, is that all there is to creativity? nice to have a rattle on the drums though.
EJ Major at Streetlevel - really interesting, crafty, contextual and beautifully mounted.
Alasdair Gray at Sorcha Dallas - great spaces, nice detail and attention to, groovy paintings.
Wilhem Sasnal film downstairs in scarey old shop, one version of song was fine enough and made point.
Simon Starling at The Bath House, tidy presentation of the sinking boat.
Tea on train, £1.50, lunch at Starbuck's £6.25.
Saturday, 26 April 2008
Tuesday, 22 April 2008
Lit review just now
Curating Literature
Current list: books
Ute Meta Bauer, ed., Meta 2 The New Spirit; 1 Curating
(Stuttgart. Kunstlerhaus Stuttgart, 1992)
Peter White, ed., Naming a Practice: Curatorial Strategies for the Future (Banff, Canada: Banff Centre for the Arts. 1996)
Anna Harding, ed. Art and Design Magazine: On Curating - the Contemporary Art Museum and Beyond, No 52
(London: Academy Editions, 1997)
Mike Hannula, ed. Stopping the Process, Contemporary Views on Art and Exhibitions
(Helsinki: NIFCA, 1998)
Barnaby Drabble and Dorothee Richter, eds Curating Degree Zero, An International Curating Symposium
(Nuremberg: Vela fur Moderne Kunst, 1999)
Catherine Thomas. ed. The Edge of Everything: Reflections on Curatorial Practice
(Banff, Canada: Banff Centre Press, 2000)
Dave Beech and Gavin Wade, eds. Curating In the 21st Century
(Walsall & Wolverhampton: The New Art Gallery Walsall/University of Wolverhampton 2000)
Susan Hiller and Sarah Martin, eds. The Producers; Contemporary Curators in Conversation (Series 1- 5) (Newcastle: Baltic and University of Newcastle, 2000-2002)
Carolee Thea, ed. Foci: Interviews with 10 International Curators
(New York: Apexart, 2001)
Paula Marincola ed., Curating Now: Imaginative Practice? Public Responsibility
(Philadelphia: Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative, 2001)
Carin Kuoni, ed. Words of Wisdom: A Curator's Vode Mecum
(New York, Independent Curators International (lCI), 2001)
Melanie Townsend, ed, Beyond the Box: Diverging Curatorial Practices
(Banff, Canada: Banff Centre Press, 2003)
Christoph Tannert, Ute Tischler and Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, eds., MIB - Men in Black box Handbook of Curatorial Practice
(Frankfurt am Main: Revolver, 2004)
Liam Gillick and Maria Lind. eds. Curating With Light Luggage
(Frankfurt am Main: Revolver, 2005)
Douglas Crimp, On The Museum's Ruins
(Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1993)
Bruce Altshuler, The Avant-Garde in Exhibition: New Art in the 20th Century
(Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1994)
Bruce Ferguson, Reesa Greenberg and Sandy Nairne, eds. Thinking About Exhibitions (London and New York: Routledge, 1996)
Mary Ann Staniszewski, The Power of Display: A History of Exhibition Installation at MoMA (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1998)
Brian O'Doherty, Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space
(Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 1999)
Lewis Kachur, Displaying the Marvellous: Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dali and Surrealist Exhibition Installations (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press 2001)
Sybil Gordon Kantor, Alfred H. Barr Jr and the Intellectual Origins of the Museum of Modern Art (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press 2002)
Alexander Alberro, Conceptual Art and the Politics of Publicity (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press 2003),
Hans-Joachim Muller, Harald Szeemann: Exhibition Maker (Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz, 2005)
Tobia Bezzola and Roman Kurzmeyer, Harald Szeemann: with by through because towards despite - Catalogue of All Exhibitions, 1957-2001 (Vienna and New York: Springer Verlag 2007)'
Miwon Kwon, One Place After Another: Site-Specific Art and Locational Identity (MIT 2004)
Erika Suderburg, Space, Site, Intervention: Situating Installation Art 2000
Nick Kaye, Site-specific Art: Performance, Place and Documentation 2000
Kylie Message, New Museums and the Making of Culture
Johanna Billing, Taking the Matter into Common Hands
Paula Marincola, What Makes a Great Exhibition? 2006
Paul O'Neill ed., Curating Subjects, Open Editions 2007
Current list: books
Ute Meta Bauer, ed., Meta 2 The New Spirit; 1 Curating
(Stuttgart. Kunstlerhaus Stuttgart, 1992)
Peter White, ed., Naming a Practice: Curatorial Strategies for the Future (Banff, Canada: Banff Centre for the Arts. 1996)
Anna Harding, ed. Art and Design Magazine: On Curating - the Contemporary Art Museum and Beyond, No 52
(London: Academy Editions, 1997)
Mike Hannula, ed. Stopping the Process, Contemporary Views on Art and Exhibitions
(Helsinki: NIFCA, 1998)
Barnaby Drabble and Dorothee Richter, eds Curating Degree Zero, An International Curating Symposium
(Nuremberg: Vela fur Moderne Kunst, 1999)
Catherine Thomas. ed. The Edge of Everything: Reflections on Curatorial Practice
(Banff, Canada: Banff Centre Press, 2000)
Dave Beech and Gavin Wade, eds. Curating In the 21st Century
(Walsall & Wolverhampton: The New Art Gallery Walsall/University of Wolverhampton 2000)
Susan Hiller and Sarah Martin, eds. The Producers; Contemporary Curators in Conversation (Series 1- 5) (Newcastle: Baltic and University of Newcastle, 2000-2002)
Carolee Thea, ed. Foci: Interviews with 10 International Curators
(New York: Apexart, 2001)
Paula Marincola ed., Curating Now: Imaginative Practice? Public Responsibility
(Philadelphia: Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative, 2001)
Carin Kuoni, ed. Words of Wisdom: A Curator's Vode Mecum
(New York, Independent Curators International (lCI), 2001)
Melanie Townsend, ed, Beyond the Box: Diverging Curatorial Practices
(Banff, Canada: Banff Centre Press, 2003)
Christoph Tannert, Ute Tischler and Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, eds., MIB - Men in Black box Handbook of Curatorial Practice
(Frankfurt am Main: Revolver, 2004)
Liam Gillick and Maria Lind. eds. Curating With Light Luggage
(Frankfurt am Main: Revolver, 2005)
Douglas Crimp, On The Museum's Ruins
(Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1993)
Bruce Altshuler, The Avant-Garde in Exhibition: New Art in the 20th Century
(Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1994)
Bruce Ferguson, Reesa Greenberg and Sandy Nairne, eds. Thinking About Exhibitions (London and New York: Routledge, 1996)
Mary Ann Staniszewski, The Power of Display: A History of Exhibition Installation at MoMA (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1998)
Brian O'Doherty, Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space
(Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 1999)
Lewis Kachur, Displaying the Marvellous: Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dali and Surrealist Exhibition Installations (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press 2001)
Sybil Gordon Kantor, Alfred H. Barr Jr and the Intellectual Origins of the Museum of Modern Art (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press 2002)
Alexander Alberro, Conceptual Art and the Politics of Publicity (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press 2003),
Hans-Joachim Muller, Harald Szeemann: Exhibition Maker (Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz, 2005)
Tobia Bezzola and Roman Kurzmeyer, Harald Szeemann: with by through because towards despite - Catalogue of All Exhibitions, 1957-2001 (Vienna and New York: Springer Verlag 2007)'
Miwon Kwon, One Place After Another: Site-Specific Art and Locational Identity (MIT 2004)
Erika Suderburg, Space, Site, Intervention: Situating Installation Art 2000
Nick Kaye, Site-specific Art: Performance, Place and Documentation 2000
Kylie Message, New Museums and the Making of Culture
Johanna Billing, Taking the Matter into Common Hands
Paula Marincola, What Makes a Great Exhibition? 2006
Paul O'Neill ed., Curating Subjects, Open Editions 2007
Tuesday, 15 April 2008
Notes and things
Compiling through a whole bunch of texts mostly from the internet on curating - interviews, opinions from curators, definitions of curating, critical texts on ideas of curating,
there is starting to appear top be a number of ongoing projects Degree zero curating, Curating Now CCC, /seconds which are continuing to develop their ideas and definitions of curating, a number of similar names are cropping up, Maria Lind, Lars Bang Larsen, Paul ONeill, Dave Beech etc etc maybe people making a name for themselves as commentators on the practice,
Lots of trying define the practice over past ten years
European/American, London /England based
Less comment from Scotland although
Identified curatorial practice in Scotland – there is, curating.info, Rebecca Gordon Nesbit, ECA, Common Guild, GI, Francis McKee, Andrew Patrizio, DCA, Fuitmarket, Talbot Rice, Deveron Arts, Inverleith, Tramway, Collective etc other venues, l
less independent individuals, where are they? who are they?
there is starting to appear top be a number of ongoing projects Degree zero curating, Curating Now CCC, /seconds which are continuing to develop their ideas and definitions of curating, a number of similar names are cropping up, Maria Lind, Lars Bang Larsen, Paul ONeill, Dave Beech etc etc maybe people making a name for themselves as commentators on the practice,
Lots of trying define the practice over past ten years
European/American, London /England based
Less comment from Scotland although
Identified curatorial practice in Scotland – there is, curating.info, Rebecca Gordon Nesbit, ECA, Common Guild, GI, Francis McKee, Andrew Patrizio, DCA, Fuitmarket, Talbot Rice, Deveron Arts, Inverleith, Tramway, Collective etc other venues, l
less independent individuals, where are they? who are they?
Sunday, 30 March 2008
RDR forms and planning
Met with Anne D and complied and signed the RDR forms, Method Module exemption forms, ethics, and Andrew P forms, all signed and handed in for reg with Martin S on 8/04/08
Meeting with Andrew on 28/04/08 to start with and discuss the way ahead, need to do –
• Literature review and compile and read
• General plan and schedule for activities
• Project structure
• Consider any possible funding to help with outputs and materials
• Identify and communicate with practitioners
• Consider output projects to identify the practice, consider locations, venues, collaborators, scale, output forms,
• Continue reflections on ongoing work
•
Meeting with Andrew on 28/04/08 to start with and discuss the way ahead, need to do –
• Literature review and compile and read
• General plan and schedule for activities
• Project structure
• Consider any possible funding to help with outputs and materials
• Identify and communicate with practitioners
• Consider output projects to identify the practice, consider locations, venues, collaborators, scale, output forms,
• Continue reflections on ongoing work
•
Tuesday, 18 March 2008
Notes with Judith
What are the aesthetics of curatorial practice
Within Scotland
How differences of speech come in, in an exhibition you are conscious that something changes
Nature is to invite in not just looking, stepping into an environment, compare with theatre and plays, looking at CP, the thesis sets it in another context, performance, music, ecology, making and effacing art, relating physically to art, location, geography,
Multi disciplinary, can it be thought of as an individual discipline, includes humanity, sociology, music,
Visualising in your mind.
The difference, getting a note right,
Original work, the act, practice, detail,
What other people are writing about it, also have a critical eye, on what they are saying,
Seeing curating in this sense, therefore what use is curating, special awareness, linking this on to the other categorizing?
Who’s funding the shows,
Independent,
Do stuff for yourself
As an artists being taken up by the right curator.
Self-publishing?
Kudos
What constitutes the value, recog of talent, that’s aesthetics, not just intermediates but gatekeepers,
Product to be noticed by the right people,
What is it like? Producer, conductor, musician,
More than admin, its authorship, directors role,
Is it like writing, writing with things, putting things into a narrative, authorship
Within Scotland
How differences of speech come in, in an exhibition you are conscious that something changes
Nature is to invite in not just looking, stepping into an environment, compare with theatre and plays, looking at CP, the thesis sets it in another context, performance, music, ecology, making and effacing art, relating physically to art, location, geography,
Multi disciplinary, can it be thought of as an individual discipline, includes humanity, sociology, music,
Visualising in your mind.
The difference, getting a note right,
Original work, the act, practice, detail,
What other people are writing about it, also have a critical eye, on what they are saying,
Seeing curating in this sense, therefore what use is curating, special awareness, linking this on to the other categorizing?
Who’s funding the shows,
Independent,
Do stuff for yourself
As an artists being taken up by the right curator.
Self-publishing?
Kudos
What constitutes the value, recog of talent, that’s aesthetics, not just intermediates but gatekeepers,
Product to be noticed by the right people,
What is it like? Producer, conductor, musician,
More than admin, its authorship, directors role,
Is it like writing, writing with things, putting things into a narrative, authorship
Saturday, 15 March 2008
Tuesday, 26 February 2008
More thoughts and possible actions
Look/note at the ideas and activities of ICE (Institute of Curating and Education at ECA)
Write up notes from the Hidden Ontologies symposium I attended on Friday 22nd Feb, and write up something more formal about the ideas discussed and my understanding and interpretation of the discussion
Gather together and do more literature searching for curatorial texts, discussion, publications, papers, and articles.
Look over and digest the RGU research website for direction on research methods.
Thoughts on the terms Curator / Producer
Perhaps need to Define the terms
Curator is connected to the visual but could argue that the pursute could be film, dance, music
Curator in the visual is not just the looking after, it’s the making of things, curator has connotations of the term producer
Curator has creativity, colour, innovation, ideas, communication, collaboration,
Definitions of
Curator
a keeper or custodian of a museum or other collection.
Producer
• a person or thing that makes or causes something : the mold is the producer of the toxin aflatoxin.
2 a person responsible for the financial and managerial aspects of making of a movie or broadcast or for staging a play, opera, etc.
• a person who supervises the making of a musical recording, esp. by determining the overall sound.
3 the producer of the show impresario, manager, administrator, promoter, regisseur.
Write up notes from the Hidden Ontologies symposium I attended on Friday 22nd Feb, and write up something more formal about the ideas discussed and my understanding and interpretation of the discussion
Gather together and do more literature searching for curatorial texts, discussion, publications, papers, and articles.
Look over and digest the RGU research website for direction on research methods.
Thoughts on the terms Curator / Producer
Perhaps need to Define the terms
Curator is connected to the visual but could argue that the pursute could be film, dance, music
Curator in the visual is not just the looking after, it’s the making of things, curator has connotations of the term producer
Curator has creativity, colour, innovation, ideas, communication, collaboration,
Definitions of
Curator
a keeper or custodian of a museum or other collection.
Producer
• a person or thing that makes or causes something : the mold is the producer of the toxin aflatoxin.
2 a person responsible for the financial and managerial aspects of making of a movie or broadcast or for staging a play, opera, etc.
• a person who supervises the making of a musical recording, esp. by determining the overall sound.
3 the producer of the show impresario, manager, administrator, promoter, regisseur.
Tuesday, 19 February 2008
Some more ideas to get direction
The what and The why
Need to consider the format process of the research how to do it, what direction to go in
Read some of How to get a PhD, Phillips and Pugh, How to do research section
WHAT questions
Is intelligence gathering - gathering info on the subject but not research
Asking what it is
What is curatorial practice what is value what is identity
What are exhibitions projects of contemporary art in Scotland
What is contemporary art
What is a curator what do they do
What is going on in Scotland in terms of curating
What is Scottish identity
WHY questions
Goes beyond description and requires analysis
It looks for explanations, relationships, comparisons, predictions, generalizations and theories.
Info is used for developing understanding
Research questions have comparisons in them
I.e. fewer, different, slower, etc
Why is there curatorial practice in different organisations
Why is there a need to define curatorial practice
Why do we need to define the identity of the practice
Why is there any value in the work
Why does it happen
Why is this culturally relevant
Why is a new type of practice and did it exists already in another way
Characteristics of research
Open system of thought – everything up for grabs continual testing, probing to establish what is not obvious or trivial
Examine data critically – to establish evidence
Generalize and specify the limits on their generalizations – to establish generalizations through the development of explanatory theory, it’s the application of theory which turns intelligence gathering into research
Basic types of research
Exploratory – tackling a new problem
Testing out – trying to find the limits of the generalizations, endless and continuous so able to improve, specify, modify, clarify important generalizations
Problem solving – starting with a real world problem, problem has to be defined and a solution has to be discovered
Testing out is best route
But still need to create new knowledge and theoretical insight
Observe how others research and what skills, techniques and practices they do
Practice these skills as much as possible
Need to attempt trial processes
Judith suggested to make a critique on an exhibition, text, ideas of curating, cultural policy, write some text which analyses something relevant to written work down
Is the area to big prob not at this time
What the parameters
Geographically, Scotland? NE?
Gallery spaces, rural and urban, non white spaces, public/social art, site specific, performance sites/work, hospitals
Personnel who are we thinking about to have this knowledge understanding – curators in galleries/museums, curators in festivals, organisers in public /social oriented work, exhibition organisers, gallery managers, marketing, fundraisers, installation team, gallery guides, the viewing public, the showing artists, the producers of events, residencies,
Need to consider the format process of the research how to do it, what direction to go in
Read some of How to get a PhD, Phillips and Pugh, How to do research section
WHAT questions
Is intelligence gathering - gathering info on the subject but not research
Asking what it is
What is curatorial practice what is value what is identity
What are exhibitions projects of contemporary art in Scotland
What is contemporary art
What is a curator what do they do
What is going on in Scotland in terms of curating
What is Scottish identity
WHY questions
Goes beyond description and requires analysis
It looks for explanations, relationships, comparisons, predictions, generalizations and theories.
Info is used for developing understanding
Research questions have comparisons in them
I.e. fewer, different, slower, etc
Why is there curatorial practice in different organisations
Why is there a need to define curatorial practice
Why do we need to define the identity of the practice
Why is there any value in the work
Why does it happen
Why is this culturally relevant
Why is a new type of practice and did it exists already in another way
Characteristics of research
Open system of thought – everything up for grabs continual testing, probing to establish what is not obvious or trivial
Examine data critically – to establish evidence
Generalize and specify the limits on their generalizations – to establish generalizations through the development of explanatory theory, it’s the application of theory which turns intelligence gathering into research
Basic types of research
Exploratory – tackling a new problem
Testing out – trying to find the limits of the generalizations, endless and continuous so able to improve, specify, modify, clarify important generalizations
Problem solving – starting with a real world problem, problem has to be defined and a solution has to be discovered
Testing out is best route
But still need to create new knowledge and theoretical insight
Observe how others research and what skills, techniques and practices they do
Practice these skills as much as possible
Need to attempt trial processes
Judith suggested to make a critique on an exhibition, text, ideas of curating, cultural policy, write some text which analyses something relevant to written work down
Is the area to big prob not at this time
What the parameters
Geographically, Scotland? NE?
Gallery spaces, rural and urban, non white spaces, public/social art, site specific, performance sites/work, hospitals
Personnel who are we thinking about to have this knowledge understanding – curators in galleries/museums, curators in festivals, organisers in public /social oriented work, exhibition organisers, gallery managers, marketing, fundraisers, installation team, gallery guides, the viewing public, the showing artists, the producers of events, residencies,
Tuesday, 5 February 2008
a bit of brainstorming to get some ideas down
Value of curating
Why isn’t curatorial practice taught in school
Its thought as something you do later on when you know some stuff know the system, know the values, audience, education buyers system
As someone said why aren’t they teaching engineering at schools that’s where the jobs are not in this art thing, which gets a job with that.
I’ve been reading in MAP (issue 6 summer 2006) about Duncan McLarens journeys round Scotland to find the value of contemporary art and interesting things about SAC report 04/05 and how much things were funded for a gallery in a flat in Glasgow called One Ton Prop which was set up to show work by young artists without funding, what’s that for the artists friends, art world to get to the next stage
There’s also abit about Mark Neville taking photos in Port Glasgow and the images are amazing and human and joyful, Christmas party ones in Town Hall, these aren’t planned they just happen, no one funds it, but its constructed and arranged for people to come to and let their hair down, with friends
Duncan McLaren welcomes correspondence duncan.mclaren@virgin.net
"The problem with the professional and the bureaucratic," Clifford explains, "is that they locate themselves in the so-called objective, in numbers, costs, putting a financial value on something. How do you value your grandmother? How do you value a field? You cannot value such things in bureaucratic mode." Sue Clifford Common Ground Guardian 09/12/07
What’s curating about, placing things together, arranging things, making connections, need to think about defining it,
Has it always existed since drawing began, its not just an art thing it happens through out life and work in all things we do
Placing things together, at home at work in sport at play in school at college in offices in nature gardening hobbies collecting shops radio stations
Curate = to draw
• Need to make list of areas to think and research about
• What is value
o Political
o Economic
o Social
o Environmental
o Cultural
o National
o Aesthetic
o
• Want to map out all the projects and events and space that have existed in recent years to do with curating, things that people just do and it happens things that are planned and funded and thought about arrange managed things that are strategic in location, create public interest involvement enhance life things that are commercial selective elitist business
• Literature review
• Mapping of project context, what are the subject areas, who is involved, what are the outputs, how is it documented and discussed
• Redefine statement and details
• List of who could be interviewed
o Katrina Brown, Common Ground
o Francis McKee, CCA/GSA
o Angus Farquhar NVA
o Toby Webster, Modern Institute
o Susannah Beaumont Doggerfisher
o Pat Fisher, Talbot Rice
o Rebecca Gordon Nesbit
o Jenny Brownrigg, DJCA
o Paul Nesbit, Inverleith
o Keith Hartley, SNGMA
o Duncan Mclaren, writer
o Sorcha Dallas
Need to find the Scottish executive statement on cultural identity
Whats happening here, Scotland that doesn’t happen elsewhere
• Deveron Arts
• SSW
• Peacock Visual Arts
• Mount Stuart
• National Trust
• Projects in landscape
• Projects in cities
• Projects with particular demographic
• Scottish Heritage
• Public arts agencies
o PACE
o Art in partnership
o
Who are the independent curating mavericks, the entrepreneurs, hucksters, fascilitators See
• Axis curators index
• Who else????
Why isn’t curatorial practice taught in school
Its thought as something you do later on when you know some stuff know the system, know the values, audience, education buyers system
As someone said why aren’t they teaching engineering at schools that’s where the jobs are not in this art thing, which gets a job with that.
I’ve been reading in MAP (issue 6 summer 2006) about Duncan McLarens journeys round Scotland to find the value of contemporary art and interesting things about SAC report 04/05 and how much things were funded for a gallery in a flat in Glasgow called One Ton Prop which was set up to show work by young artists without funding, what’s that for the artists friends, art world to get to the next stage
There’s also abit about Mark Neville taking photos in Port Glasgow and the images are amazing and human and joyful, Christmas party ones in Town Hall, these aren’t planned they just happen, no one funds it, but its constructed and arranged for people to come to and let their hair down, with friends
Duncan McLaren welcomes correspondence duncan.mclaren@virgin.net
"The problem with the professional and the bureaucratic," Clifford explains, "is that they locate themselves in the so-called objective, in numbers, costs, putting a financial value on something. How do you value your grandmother? How do you value a field? You cannot value such things in bureaucratic mode." Sue Clifford Common Ground Guardian 09/12/07
What’s curating about, placing things together, arranging things, making connections, need to think about defining it,
Has it always existed since drawing began, its not just an art thing it happens through out life and work in all things we do
Placing things together, at home at work in sport at play in school at college in offices in nature gardening hobbies collecting shops radio stations
Curate = to draw
• Need to make list of areas to think and research about
• What is value
o Political
o Economic
o Social
o Environmental
o Cultural
o National
o Aesthetic
o
• Want to map out all the projects and events and space that have existed in recent years to do with curating, things that people just do and it happens things that are planned and funded and thought about arrange managed things that are strategic in location, create public interest involvement enhance life things that are commercial selective elitist business
• Literature review
• Mapping of project context, what are the subject areas, who is involved, what are the outputs, how is it documented and discussed
• Redefine statement and details
• List of who could be interviewed
o Katrina Brown, Common Ground
o Francis McKee, CCA/GSA
o Angus Farquhar NVA
o Toby Webster, Modern Institute
o Susannah Beaumont Doggerfisher
o Pat Fisher, Talbot Rice
o Rebecca Gordon Nesbit
o Jenny Brownrigg, DJCA
o Paul Nesbit, Inverleith
o Keith Hartley, SNGMA
o Duncan Mclaren, writer
o Sorcha Dallas
Need to find the Scottish executive statement on cultural identity
Whats happening here, Scotland that doesn’t happen elsewhere
• Deveron Arts
• SSW
• Peacock Visual Arts
• Mount Stuart
• National Trust
• Projects in landscape
• Projects in cities
• Projects with particular demographic
• Scottish Heritage
• Public arts agencies
o PACE
o Art in partnership
o
Who are the independent curating mavericks, the entrepreneurs, hucksters, fascilitators See
• Axis curators index
• Who else????