ISEA (International Symposium Electronic Arts)
Istanbul
Sept 2011
Conference Paper and Publication
Curatorial Cultures – Considering Dynamic Curatorial Practice. Paper considering how responsive methods and approaches are called for when curating media-artworks. It considers curation as praxis; positioning it at a point between what is known and what will be revealed.
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Transmission Conference and Publication
Sheffield Hallam University
July 2010
Conference Paper and Publication
Paper on the themes of host and stranger and the work of video artists Rose Butler (UK) and Lynne Marsh (DE).
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Doctoral Thesis, Winter 2009
Practice-based PhD completed at the Digital Research Unit, University of Huddersfield.
Abstract
Since the 1960's contemporary art has seen a paradigm shift occur that has rejected the individual perspectives of modernity and begun to consider the value of connective and participatory aesthetics. New process led and technologically based practices have shifted the emphasis away from the art object and onto the art process, rendering the approach to making art a much more connected and relational one. However, mainstream object-orientated modes of curation and exhibition structuring proved limiting for context led works, catalysing the move toward alternative and off-site exhibition spaces. Such locations offered a more flexible solution, allowing both artist and curator the freedom to explore the possibility of more relational spaces of exhibition.
In parallel, the curatorial role has radically shifted since it was first popularised in the 1970's. With less emphasis on the archival and more on the mediation and dissemination of practices, the role has risen to the forefront of our contemporary art arena. Yet curatorial criticism and a relevant critical discourse have been slow to record and reflect these changes, leaving large gaps in our collective knowledge and documentation of this period. This has rendered curation a role in flux, lacking solid critical underpinnings and thus continuing to remain largely uncontextualised and undefined.
This thesis works towards establishing curation as a practice and situating it at a well-founded and clear point of perspective. Situated at the juncture between the social outputs of reciprocal artworks and the curators' role in exhibiting them, this research presents four practical case studies with each responding to a perceived curatorial issue or a potential solution. The thesis argues that a clearer understanding of curatorial practice will in turn establish an active and more integrated way of working, one that is responsive and relevant to the practices' it curates. It establishes a foundation for Social Curation, an active curatorial practice that seeks to contextualise fully the potential of exhibitions as structures of communication and exchange, maximising social interaction and engagement across curatorial approach, process and outcome
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