Norton Simon Project

Norton Simon Project: An Anthology of Public Voices.

“Yet when an image is presented as a work of art, the way people look at it is affected by a whole series of learnt assumptions about art” John Berger from “Ways of Seeing”

Every time I visit a museum it is a unique adventure. Each time, I am surrounded by a new community with which to share the experience of a being a “viewer”.
A memorable incident at the Metropolitan Museum of Art inspired me to create this anthology. I visited the MET with an individual who owned a gallery. We were viewing paintings by the artist Paul Gauguin, who is one of my favorite painters. This individual asked me, “Did you know he was a pedophile?” Suddenly, the painting I had known for years was different. I realized how the power of unknown information could quickly change my perspective.
Due to this episode, I developed a curiosity for the various perspectives in which viewers experience a piece. At museums, individuals range from scholarly experts to those who’s knowledge of artists and art work is vague. The range of the audience opens the range in opinions, and it is my belief that one opinion is no more valuable than another that may exist on the further end of this spectrum of observers. In order to investigate this further, I conducted an experiment that involved eavesdropping at the Norton Simon Museum. This book reflects the public’s interaction within the museum, as well as gives insight into the multiple perspectives that exist within an audience.

Volume 1: Canvas of Conversation–an exploration of multiple perspectives within Art.
The layers of conversation presented in Canvas of Conversation allows the audience to become the voice behind the painting.
Each time the reader turns a page, they are presented with additional conversations about the Art ranging from fact to fiction–hopefully allowing them to gain new perspectives about the work. The audience’s voice is a crucial part of how the work in the museum is perceived. Through the multiple opinions expressed by the audience, will the reader gain unexpected meaning about a painting?
When opening the book, there is a folder that holds layers of translucent paper stacked on top of one another to reflect upon the multiple conversations that were collected. This stack is to be displayed as one canvas portraying the viewers voices. The rectangles on top of the page represent the range of conversations based on fact to opinion. These rectangles are situated left to right. The first rectangle on the left side is colored red and the far rectangle on the right is colored blue; everything in between represents the voices between fact and opinion. For example, a viewers comment “There is a lot of green”, becomes a fact because they state the obvious of what is in front of them. This highlights the first rectangle, which is red. On the other hand, a subjective commentary on how the painting makes the viewer feel, or how they feel about the painting becomes an opinion, thus highlighting the last rectangle of the spectrum.

Volume 2: Depth of Dialogue– an exploration of multiple dialogues within Art.
Depth of Dialogues explores the dialogue between two individuals when conversing about Art. One opinion does not carry weight more than the other because both parties contribute to the conversation in order to create this dialogue. When eavesdropping, the listener hears pieces of the conversation, which can give a sense of what the conversation entails. In reality, when entering from an outside context, understanding the full depth of the conversation becomes limited. In order to display this relationship between the individuals participating in the dialogue, two roles were assigned within a page. Person A’s comments were lifted up and pasted on top of the page whereas Person B’s comments were di-cut into the page. To reflect upon the experience of being a listener when eavesdropping, there is a portion of the page that is cut out to give the reader a clue into what the audience may be discussing.

Volume 3: Retellings of Space– an exploration of public voices vs. the Museum
The public’s interaction within the museum gives insight into the multiple perspectives that exist within an audience, thus giving another meaning to the Art. The museum provides a certain amount of information for the viewer to digest. Whether this is a label description on the artist’s background or piece, it is what the Museum issues to the public along with the access to view the Art within their space. So what does the public give? Their commentary is much a part of the meaning placed on the art as these information labels. Retellings of Space allows the reader to listen to publics conversations by inserting a headphone into the manual. On the opposite page, exists a photograph of the painting. Underneath this image, is a description provided by the Norton Simon Museum. By juxtaposing the public voices to the Museum label, it explores various layers that gives the piece meaning.

view volume 1

[View with PicLens]

[View with PicLens]

[View with PicLens]

Listen to a few of the sound files from Volume 3 below:

oceanpark3

ingres

exoticlandscape2

bust

Project Luke

Project Luke

Project Luke explores the territory when the curator creates alongside with the Artist/Designer. Luke Johnson, a graduating MDP student was preparing for his Thesis exhibition. A problem emerged within his exhibition. As a media designer, Luke used the techniques of embedded observation, interventions and interviewing within his design work. Through these projects, he was able to work across a range of media platforms. In order to exhibit the artifacts created for each project, he came across the problem of how these artifacts would be displayed so the viewer could quickly understand what the artifacts represented. We decided to collaborate on the project because of my interest in portraiture and people knowing which was a big part of his thesis project. We realized, that he had a very defined methodology. Each project followed a certain process, which lead to the outcome. With this, we decided to design a series of labels curating his projects for the exhibition. Coming from a graphic design background, I assumed the role as the designer for this task. Luke provided me with the content, in which I broke down into a formula of what the artifact represented. The architecture for the formula was: Title, Question, Intervention+people+time + (process) = statement, designed outcomes, takeaway lessons and unexpected results.
This project reinforced my belief in that the curator should be a part of the making process if they possess the ability to do so. By doing so, the curator can have a better understanding of what it means to be an Artist, which can have the effect of creating a new experience for the viewer as well.

[View with PicLens]

[View with PicLens]

[View with PicLens]

Project Hong G

Project Hong G

Project Hong G begins to explore a possible role for a curator to assume. Hong G is a painter. Much of her work revolves around themes exploring the metamorphosis of memory as a space for time travel. Myself as a designer, I decided to assume the role as a curator when working with Hong G. During the brainstorming stage, we decided to take equal parts within creating the unknown. Because of mutual interests, it was decided that the concept or theme would revolve around memory. As individuals, do we remember the mundane? The days that are not memorable? If so, how and when? What does a mundane day look like? These were the questions that lead us to the project “process of remembering a day in the mundane” I gave the instruction to Hong G to write down her itinerary for three days. With this information, I chose what I believed to be the most unmemorable day.

The plan was that Hong G would paint for five days. Each day, I provided her with a new clue about the events of that day. The first day, she was given five constraints along with the clue. Each day, I lifted up a constraint, yet introduced a new clue. The itinerary I possessed was color coded with a key that separated the events of that day into necessity, transitional, relaxation and work. I chose to narrow down the subject to necessity. When things are done because it is a necessity, these events become habitual, which is something we may not reflect back on. The clues introduced a new color into the canvas which she could incorporate into her painting as well as the highlighted text revealing the events of the day. The hope was that a viewer would be able to experience the process of remembering the mundane. The project partially failed in this manner because the experimental territory of dealing with the unknown. New discoveries were made about how I operate as a curator. I had to let go of control, which is very difficult for me to do. Also, it was realized that next time, there needed to be more of a clear direction of how I wanted the piece to look so the constraints could be morphed around a more clear focused vision.

Hong G

17 Photos

 

Collections study

Collections

I asked people to photograph their curated collection. With these responses, how do I curate other people’s personal collections? The next step is to categorize these collections to explore the realm of why and what people collect.

view collections

Week 10

Week 10

Norton Simon Project
What is my role? To create a compliment for the museum that is a comments on the relationship between the Norton Simon and public.

I eavesdropped, listened, took notes on the comments people make when viewing art.
Outcome:
Book–Layers of Perspective
Visualizations of people’s comments
3 sections:
descriptive of the obvious
emotional
outside knowledge or artist/painting–factoids

Layers–
what the museum gives us, what the public gives back

Curating people’s voices.
Where does this exit in the imaginative space?

Project Luke
Working with someone who already has the most of their project done, but issues with one aspect of the project that he needs my help on.

How do you present the artifacts of the project without going into full detail?

Hong G study

How do you curate/paint the memory of a mundane day?

Have Hong G write an itinerary of her day for three days. Choose the most mundane day out of the three to create a set of constraints and clues for her to paint from for 5 days. These paintings should reflect the process of recollecting the Artist’s memory of a mundane day.

Question:

Why am I assuming these different roles as “curator”? What is the meaning behind all of this? How can I diagram where I exist within the public and space? And what is my interaction? Am I complicating, adding, subtracting or intervening to the interaction?

Week 8

Week 8 Notes

Future Projects?
Concept: Breaking down the ideology of the gallery space
“Window Display for Artists”
Curating content based on the space/environment
“Window shopping for “art”
How do you change the relationship of Art and Buyer?
How do you break down the white cube and make art for the Public Mass?
How do you give accessibility to people not “welcome” within a gallery space?
Mediums are biased. Using the Medium as the message.
How do I curate more room for opinion through experimentation?
Provide spaces, opportunities to see in equal playing field.
The Person is not the medium, the medium itself is the core.
I’m the mediator instigator.
How do I create a methodologie that other people can adopt?

Questions for myself as curator.
How effective can you be when you arn’t that specialized in the field of curation or even the content that you are curating?
When do you need to know more?
New area of “curator at large”
crafting a different way to look at it.
new ideology of the gallery space? curating the voice?
keep in mind of the technology and materiality as a new way to look at the space.
As a media designer, I have the ability to manipulate the media of different mediums

Current Project:

Project Eavesdropping of the Mundane.
1. Go to a place of conversation to eavesdrop on conversations. (cafe)
A place to experience multiple perspectives
Project failed. Too much conversation, not specific enough. Go back to the gallery or museum space in order to gather conversation about the same thing.

Ongoing Projects:

Collections

Project Luke

Week 7

Week 7 Notes/Committee review notes:

textual visualization–text and coding
manual process–text visualization analysis
linguistics–breaking down sentences
What is my voice in this?
Editing–documentary/articles/objects
assigning axis using 3 dimensional space
Mundane Conversations—collect and categorize the mundane
MOCA–eavesdropping at art galleries–go with rigor.
What is my Bias in all this? Personal angle is essential
contribution between content and system
robotic parsic of love note
Rigor in a system of multiple perspective
systematically–vivid and powerful.
MARTIN BECK
ZOE LEONARD–Postcards
Museum vs Gallery does this live in the white space
There is a contradiction/disconnect between the subject and my system.
How do I methodologize something?
Portrait of an author
Sensibilities of the curator
Who is your audience?
Difference in cultural value
Process of editing—editing vs the curator.
reverse edit–taking a movie, editing it to create new form.
meaning points of view.
re-editing, exhibition as a medium
Act of curating
force, cutting, deconstructing in a defined way
Love vs Hate gradient

Current projects:

Project Luke: Curating labels for a Thesis exhibition

Collections: what do people collect? Take a picture of your collection, and write a description of why that collection holds meaning.

Week 6

Design a space that investigates different points of view.

I gave myself a project brief to investigate different points of view through:
Optical technique–different glances. How does the first glance differ from the second or third?
Physical technique–How do you move physically to see the different view points?
Sound technique–How do you use sound to visualize different points of view? Narratives? Podcasts?
When brainstorming for this project, I juggled with the constraints of working with the subject vs the frame of these different techniques.
While struggling with my own project brief,  I came across a NYTimes article titled: “No Place at School for Aids Orphans”. It discussed how a group of parents in Vietnam were opposed to AIDS orphans attending school with their children. At first read, I was appalled! Quotes such as  “They were saying the children were going to die anyway, so there’s no need for them to study,” disgusted me. Then I read over the article a second time–probably because I couldn’t believe some of the things wrtitten. This time, my reaction was more contemplative. I realized that although the perspective of the other parents seemed ludicrous, it didn’t make their viewpoint less valuable. We read articles everyday, but how long before we forget the content of the article? I happened to choose an article that provoked my interest, but what about the other numerous articles read by individuals that may not have as much of an impact? How do you deconstruct and dissect an everyday article? And afterwards, what do you do with the pieces?
In my opinion, a well designed documentary or journalism( I used these examples because they are interests of mine other than design)  touches on multiple perspectives as well as composing a voice of its own.How do I combine the affordances of a documentary or an article and curate it into an exhibition? This lead me to experiment with taking one form and forcing it into a different structure using curation as the tool.

Deconstructing Narratives; Curating the pieces

dissecting an everyday article

Deconstruct the article “No Place at School for Aids orphans” by point of view.
There are two main views in the article. The opinions of the AIDS orphans vs the opinions of the parents opposing the idea of AIDS orphans attending the same school as their children. There is also everything in between. Creating a scale, from red to green, red represented the “AIDS orphans” and Green represented the “other parents”. Other statements fell within the colors between the Red and the Green. Going through the article, I highlighted the text corresponding to the two opinions.
Afterwards, I deconstructed the text and then reorganized it according to the color, from Red to Green.

In the second experiment,
I highlighted the text according to 6 different subject matters. First Person Voice, Second Person Voice, Adjectives(used within the voices), Statistics, Assumptions, and Facts. Afterwards, I deconstructed the article based on what subject was highlighted and pasted them on to each own sheet of blank paper.

VIEW PDF: Deconstructing narratives; curating the pieces-dissecting an everyday article

Week 5

Why Curation?

“What are my interests” Seems to be question that everyone is asking. As a designer, I feel that I can be interested in anything. “What are my interests” is a bit overwhelming. Growing up as an only child, I could find interest in the most mundane things. At age five, I had a sketchbook full of colored grids. My mother would draw these perfectly spaced grids for me so I could color the squares to every imaginable color combination possible. Also, my interests are broad—how do I choose and boil them down to what I am “passionate” about? So with the help of a Thesis support group, I started re-thinking how to narrow down the many interests within curation I have. My advisor asked me if there was a connection to why I was drawn to curating. The first thing that came to mind was the my eight grade field trip to the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC. There was a room filled with the shoes taken from the individuals.  As I looked at these shoes, a flood of emotions came over me. I was standing in front of the artifacts taken by the murdered individuals. The possible images, stories went through my head. Who had been wearing these shoes? I thought about how they must have felt when the shoes were taken away. The context in which the shoes were displayed provoked an undeniable reaction.

Notes
Emotional vs. Technique
Emergence through repetition.
Why am I drawn to curation?
Having a critical eye about a point of view, informed point of view.
First Look, Second Look.
Building a context for the Exhibition.
There needs to be a balance between embracing the moment and creating context.
The past present and post. Use three stages of time to impact the context.

VIEW PDF: hpaek_week5_pechacucha

currently reading: “Ways of Seeing” by John Berger

Week 4.5

Thoughts after the MOCA experiment.

1. I thought about the constraints of an exhibition. The first constraint is:
Curators perspective. The second, the Designers perspective–What is the companion concept?

2. What can be created with the recordings/transcripts collected at MOCA to display the different techniques of seeing?

3. Through design research, what type of probes should be designed to gather information for “different ways of seeing” other than eavesdropping?

4. Am i mediating the curation of the objects or mediating the audience?

Possible project proposals/goals:

Gathering a group of “blank” artists to show their work.
As an embedded designer, how do I curate their work where a device exists to view the show or how is the show curated in a manner where it would cause people to see things from different perspectives?
From this, how and what can a viewer take away from the show where they could eventually curate their own souvenirs? Is it a viewing tool? Sound tool? Will it allow them to archive the pieces they value?
ex) exhibition books.
Senario: The viewer may not have liked all the work in the exhibition. From what they have collected, could they eventually design their own book gathered from the device?

notes: consider that headphones can kill the social aspect of a space.