We were assigned to write a piece of fiction in relation to our thesis project. Below, you can read a story about a painting narrated by different voices.
Curation as a medium for People-Knowing.
Everyday conversations, daily happenings and the simple choices that a person makes in their lifetime are a part of the human existence. Interesting relationships are made from these experiences. Using curation, editing and organization as a medium, how can we orchestrate an alternate view for people-knowing? According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, “curator” is defined as one who has the care and superintendence of something; especially: one in charge of a museum, zoo, or other place of exhibit.
A current artist that has emphasized curation as an art or medium is Fred Wilson–an artist turned curator. Wilson mentions “I am seeing museum space as a constructed kind of design space, as an installation environment. Very much like an artist you’re manipulating objects, light, color, spatial relationships. So I thought perhaps I could manipulate the space, make it kind of a trompe l’oeil of a museum space. Critiquing, as well, the notion of museum.” which has provoked a thought of what other areas can be explored when the curator of the museum/show/gallery collects, creates and curates?
Inspired by the curiosity for the various perspectives in which viewers experience a piece, whether it be object or Art, a curator can assume the role to edit the content accordingly, resulting in a new way to read or view the story.
Through various systems of collecting, curation as a medium for people-knowing is a thesis project that will investigate the use of daily happenings and everyday people as the contents of an exhibition, as well as exploring the diverse roles that a curator can assume in order to collate and present this material. What are the different ways to interview that would facilitate different modes of everyday conversation? Verbalization can be conscious, subconscious, direct or indirect. Through multiple ways of collecting these conversations, —which range from eavesdropped conversations about art at a museum, to direct answers from an interview about life choices, how can limitless content be edited down to display an unconsidered perspective?
In reaction to feeling that art has become less accessible to the public, the thesis project is a way to bring Art back to the people, by having the subjects of their everyday life provoke new perspectives. How can spaces of the future move forward to the antithesis of this current art world? Rather than focusing on the business aspects of what the art industry has become, could it transform into a space where there is no bureaucracy, ego or falsehoods? Pontus Hulten, a curator that has considered the museum an elastic space, discusses how in 1951, “things were infinitely easier then. Paintings didn’t have the value they do today. You could bring a Mondrian to the gallery in a taxicab. One of the shows was held in a bookstore.” How did the industry go from bringing a Mondrian painting to a gallery in a taxicab to current contemporary art becoming an object, not necessarily for the public, but only for the people who can afford it? Rather than putting so much emphasis on how the auction world, collectors and historians place value on artwork–what would happen if the public became essential to the content of the curated space?
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.
Listen to a few of the sound files from Volume 3 below:
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.
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.
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.
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 9 Notes
How to organize/curate large collections with more thought
Conceptual Art–fluxus movement.
What is the actual intent of the work?
Curating new Media
Steve Dietz and Sarah Cook–Curating Media Art.
Eric Carle—The Lonely Firefly–electronic in the back of the book.
Designing a book that has low tech and still embodies the essence of book/graphic design
Exhibit as a magazine
I act as the Editor.
Comparing the role of the curator to a film director/producer
Brainstorming all the different types of relationship that a curator has with an artist
Curator’s relationship to the environment.
The different constraints a curator can give the artist
ESTABLISH an Agenda
Documenting the process–Lars Von Trier–8 obstructions
the apparatus becomes a part of the work
Design Research–
Different ways of collecting. For example Project with Jiyeon,
Getting her to write down her itinerary and me sythesizing the data
Different roles:
Advocate for the concept!
Time and Space–process driving it.
Investing a way of seeing
Designer will advocate the integrity of form
good design=cohesive and appropriate.
50/50 Relationship with artist
This As That
What am I communicating? The Value of things? How we see things?
New Ways of seeing.
Is there a way to record the imaginative space–
How do I want to present myself?
The space between Curator and Designer = collaboration
break out of traditional interpretation of curating
non-traditional space
How do you set up a space in the beginning?
Selecting the way to brainstorm—depends on who I am working with. varies from business to artists to designers. How do I create a non-creatives stuff? Curate a seminar? conferences? Establish a criteria that can be adopted. The language is important. New places and opportunities for growth.
Test the different levels of interaction.
Art for the Masses
How can I foster/help art be more accessible, and how do I facilitate that?
Curator: Who is it for and how do I make it happen?
Designer: Make it happen
Define the constituency
Curator as matchmaker?
Amplify, clarify, deliver the MESSAGE
Current Projects/studies
Experiment: Folding clothes.
How do you deconstruct a mundane motion event?
Study in sorting, processing.
Problem: Chaotic to order, which differs from the intentionally curated.
Norton Simon:Eavesdropping
Create a compliment manual for the Norton Simon Museum.
Eavesdropping at the Norton Simon in order to gather content on the multiple perspectives.
HONG G study
work with painter HONG G to curate/create a series.
In order to do this, I asked myself:
What are the different types of relationship a curator has with an artist?
1. Curator as a mediator for the Artist’s and contemporary events
2. Curator as a designer for a system which the artist can apply to their creation.
3. Curator as a facilitator for aiding in the Artists creation to exist in different spaces.
4. Curator as a facilitator for the Artists wants to the greatest extent possible
5. Curator as a diplomat for environment/space in which the Artist is creating within.
6. Curator and Artist as one.
7. Curator as a facilitator for collaboration amongst Artists
8. Curator as an advocate for the Artists concepts
9. Curator as a documentarian/producer for the Artists dialogue and process
10. Curator to challenge the Artists in environment they are creating within.
On going projects:
Collections
Project Luke
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
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.
