Curatorial Models and Strategies in a Digital Age
Abstract Nina Czegledy
[email protected] Artist, curator, educator, works interna-
This presentation is focused on the changing models of curato- tionally on collaborative art & science
rial practice in general and then I will proceed to illustrated & technology projects.
case studies of my own curatorial experience. Senior Fellow, KMDI, University of
Toronto; Associate Adjunct Professor
Concordia University, Montreal; Senior
Over the last decade, the progressively blurring boundaries Fellow, Hungarian University of Fine
between the different roles of art production and dissemination Arts, Budapest; member of the Leonar-
created an entirely new ecology where nearly every phase, do/ISAST Governing Board, member
every aspect, and every role embodied in art practice is radi- of Observatoire Leonardo des Arts des
Techno-Sciences OLATS, Research
cally changing. Rapidly emerging technologies contributed to
Fellow Intercreate org, New Zealand,
this process. It has been also argued that truly contemporary Board Member, Year Zero 01, Toronto
work emerges at the point of exhibition, consequently the and contributing editor to LEA, the Leo-
provisional nature of the ‘workshop lab in public’ or ‘lab as nardo Electronic Almanac.
exhibition’ –a rapidly growing field- seems to keep the con-
temporaneity of the work alive in a particularly strong way.
Recibido: Abril 24 de 2012
Today the role of the curator can be seen: Aprobado: Julio 13 de 2012
-Curator as producer
-Curator as collaborator
-Curator as champion of objects and/or interactivity
-Curator as hacker
-Curator as broadcaster,
-Curator as context provider
-Curator as communicator
-Curator as outsourcer Key Words: Media Art, curato-
- Or even as a politician. rial practice, new collaborative
models, on-line exhibition.
In addition to the rise of new collaborative models, on-line
exhibition opportunities such as YouTube or Second Life, cu-
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ratorial selection, dissemination and audience reception,
have shifted -beyond previously un-imagined settings and
conditions. Today’s emphasis on the process rather than
on the presented works is owing to the fact that in nu-
merous cases the operating method- due to improvement
in communication and presentation technologies- has
changed, and I can’t repeat enough the word “change”
in this context.
A considerable amount of my references are based on the
CRUMB or Curatorial Resource for Upstart Media Bliss
mail list discussions and IDC or Institute for Distributed
Creativity. I will freely quote from the relevant topics of
these lists. In postings on this list a discussion ensued
concerning analog and digital art.
In her introduction to the curatorial discussion Beryl Graham noted:
Artists, who comfortably use both digital and analog processes, call the relationship between digital
processes and material craft objects into question. What are the histories of such hybridity? Are craft and
142 design curators ahead of art in integrating new media into mainstream exhibition?
In this context Andy Gracie reported on a Laboratory Life event from Brighton,
England.
The organization of this event featured 5 lead artists whose practice engages with science, and 17 col-
laborators drawn from various artistic and scientific fields. I think that most of the interesting work being
done now in what is referred to as media-art in its most general sense: trans-disciplinary and collabora-
tive, when the media becomes subsumed under the process. Mat Trivett commented: “I feel that there
a disconnect can be observed between the realms of the digital and the analogue in the way that so
called 'digital art' is viewed by institutions and funders and therefore framed to the viewer or audience.
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In my own opinion a lot of artists and curators don't necessarily work with
digital technologies but possibly more with the lexicon and protocol of digital
technologies, the language of network culture as the basis for their work. With
laboratory life, this blurring of disciplines and egos relates in a way to the ways
in which digital technologies are changing the ways of making. How might a lab
be different from a studio or a residency? What does this collaborative process or
online processes like the wiki look like in real world scenarios?
I quote so much from these discussions, because they are very current and deal
with actual situations. The online blog VVORK, organized by Oliver Laric and
others, continues to garner fans and result in offline real-world exhibitions due to
its brilliant take on informal research online, displaying images of artworks which
take the bloggers fancy, 'tagged' with just title, year, artist and link but no comment.
An interesting example of so-called “crowd curation” is the Click project from
2008, by the Brooklyn Museum - Or the interactive YouTube exhibition by the
Guggenheim Museum
Amanda McDonald Crowley formerly director of Eyebeam, New York, refused
to be categorized as a curator. "I'm making situations!" she said. Amanda inves-
tigated the role of collaboration in curatorial practice asking if it merely consti-
tutes compromise. She also raised the question if workers in the culture industry 143
with its corporate, institutionalized funding dynamics now become new media
apparatchiks.
A curator once had to be assigned to a specific collection—the word is rooted in
the notion of caring for someone (etymology links curators to insane asylums).
In recent years, however, “curation” has been de-linked from any fixed array of
things. A curator is no longer a warden of precious objects but a kind of freelance
aesthetic concierge. The task now simply involves a clever way of putting works
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together to follow a purported theme. Independent curators are hired by museums
on installation hit-and-run missions. The independent curator has migrated into
the realm of commercial galleries. …Glossy magazines write breathlessly about
beautifully curated retail emporia. One reads about well-curated lifestyles, cheese
trays, and sock drawers. Our daily information diet comes to us from curators of
the news.
The role of the curator is argued more and more these days. “Me and you and
everyone we know is a curator” in December 2010, was
looking for quality in a messy world; more specifically about looking for notions, ideas and ways of work-
ing in online culture, and asking ourselves how these could be applied / assessed / made into qualitative
content in the offline world (and vice versa).
At the symposium Andrew Keen, author of The Cult of the Amateur, reduced the
notion of curating to simply gate keeping and following his keynote most of the
discussions about curating were limited to the editorial/selection/quality-control
aspects of the profession.
Are Curators Unprofessional? This conference from November 12 to the 14th,
2010 in Banff, offered a rare opportunity in Canada to examine the place of the
144 curator within a rapidly shifting terrain of practice, to step back from daily tasks
and responsibilities in order to probe the underlying tenets of curatorial work to-
day. The three -day symposium– to my regret I was unable to participate - brought
together leading international curators, critics and artists to ask: Is curating a
profession? Does curating have a code of conduct? What does it mean to be a
professional and when is it necessary to become unprofessional? The answers to
these important questions are unrecorded.
As is evident, from the above today we seem to have more questions than answers
in the field of curating. Personally, I am working on the intersection of arts, scien-
Czegledy / Curatorial Models and Strategies in a Digital Age
ce and technology, frequently with complex technologies. Consequently, before
describing my projects, I would like to talk about the topic of how much technical
knowledge one is supposed to have, as a curator. If one is not a technician, but
an art historian (as curators traditionally are, and as museums tend to hire) it is a
challenge to keep up with all the new technological advances in skills related to
sound, visuals, interactivity, code, etc.
I see myself as a bridge between the artists and the audience. I know much more
about technology and its theory as applied to art -as well as art history- than
the average exhibition visitor, but I almost always know less than the artist I am
presenting -who has specialized in that one specific area for several years-. The
trick is to bring these two parties to a level where they can both speak to each
other through the artwork.
The traditional point of view is that the artist and the curator inhabit very different
roles. Although this is the case in many situations, my own work and that of many
of my collaborators aim to break down this sharp demarcation and propose a
model of cultural production that recognizes the shared ground of 'certain types'
of artists and curators by seeking common-ground. How can we create debate
about the meaning, which emerges from exhibitions? And how can curated
events act upon concrete socio/political situations?” My practice is often based 145
on collaborative art & science projects including curating. At the 3rd Quadrila-
teral Biennale in Rijeka four of us curators representing four European countries,
worked in collaboration, led by Christiane Paul artistic director from the Whitney
Museum, New York. On the Resonance, Electromagnetic Bodies touring project,
I collaborated with Montreal based Louise Provencher. Resonance premiered in
Montreal and toured in six countries. The Pleasure of Light, Frank J. Malina and
Gorgy Kepes, co-curated with Rona Kopeczky opened in 2010 in the Ludwig
Museum in Budapest and toured in 2011 to Poland. Realizing that at this festival
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there is an emphasis on biology in the conclusion I will outline my past and cu-
rrent projects thematically linked to Art and Medicine.
From recent projects I have worked on, I would like to first briefly introduce “An-
gles and Intersections” from the 3rd Quadrilateral Biennale in Rijeka, followed by
Resonance The Electromagnetic Body and The Pleasure of Light projects. Each pro-
ject required two to three years of research, in collaboration with the co-curators.
The 3rd Quadrilateral Biennale: the curatorial team from four Central European
countries worked remotely on developing “Angles and Intersections”. We had
regular Skype meetings and met in person only at the installation of the exhibi-
tion. The exhibition provided insight into characteristics of media art, such as its
connectivity, interactivity, and adaptability, thus reflecting on the current state of
information society, while transcending national borders and generating a much
wider regional effect. I was responsible for curating the Hungarian artists work
and due to various considerations– the selected works were to a great extent
portable, minimizing transport and technology costs.
In his work i Garden, Marton Andras Juhasz examined the borders between science
and art, trying to illuminate the invisible, quantitatively inexpressible relationships
between people, technology, and nature.
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In her composite, interactive video Rendez-vous à seconde, Julia Vecsei explo-
red urban and everyday life by shooting the video in the very same location at
different time intervals.
In the video-installation Mute, Janos Sugar ironically transformed TV broadcasts
of actual electoral debates from different countries into a discussion about power
relations within the system of contemporary art.
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The WIFI camera of this installation revealed the electromagnetic space of our
devices and the shadows that we create within such spaces. With the camera WIFI
camera real time “photos” were taken, showing physical structures illuminated
by this particular electromagnetic phenomenon
Resonance, Electromagnetic Bodies celebrated the 150th anniversary of visionary
Nikola Tesla’s birth with an interdisciplinary adventure reflecting on Tesla’s world
of magnetic waves, light and vibration. The project explored the nature of invi-
sible yet discernible material forces and examined how these dynamic energies
impact on our cognitive and sensory perception. Following preliminary research
including site visits of the Tesla Museums in Belgrade and Zagreb, we approached
ten Canadian artists, who have either worked already with this concept or were
interested in the electromagnetic spectrum.
From the very beginning we planned Resonance as a touring project. Based on
initial Canadian funding, after the Montreal premiere at Oboro and Occurence,
Resonance successfully toured in five European countries including ZKM, Karls-
ruhe, Conde Duque, Madrid, Tent & V2, Rotterdam, Ludwig Museum Budapest,
Outsiders Festival, Paris. I am talking of a project rather than an exhibition as I
always attempt to work on modular bases, meaning the inclusion of closely con-
nected conferences, performances, film or video programs. This method requires
great flexibility as the events differ from place to place, but produces fascinating 147
results. Concerning Resonance, the artwork of the Canadians formed the base
of the project, however in each city working with local curators we shaped the
events such as exhibitions, conferences, performances, workshops and concerts
with the inclusion of local artists and events.
A “historical” cornerstone of the Resonance project is Norman White’s Abacus.
White is best known for his pioneering robotics artwork. He produced Abacus as
early as 1974. Employing random and structured principles working in harmony
to produce a chance effect.
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In 2000, Catherine Richards continued to explore the metaphor of our plugged-in
existence by creating Shroud/Chrysalis. The visitors are wrapped in a protective
sheet of copper taffeta – a shimmering material known for its electrical and ther-
mal conducting capabilities. They are safely shielded from the electromagnetic
surroundings. Richards conveys the notion that to separate ourselves from our
mediated environment we have to enter a shielded cabinet or “wrap” ourselves
into the safety of copper taffeta.
It is outside the framework of this lecture to detail all the works included in Reso-
nance, however I would like to mention that most of the artworks were created
directly for this project. We have insisted on hiring a technical coordinator for the
tour, who based on a so-called “bible”, was able to help remotely or on occasion
personally with any installation and maintenance issues.
The creative use of light –light as a dynamic medium– preoccupied György Kepes
and Frank J. Malina throughout their artistic career, it is a common element in
their artwork and forms a bridging concept for The Pleasure of Light project. Their
vision and work is best characterized by a distinct combination of interdisciplinary
thinking as well as aspiration and creativity expressed through experimentation
and radical innovation.
148 Kepes and Malina were pioneers of these ideas in the middle of the last century.
They shared a humanist ideal, which was perceived by many as utopist. They
worked ahead of their time on demolishing the previously sharp division between
art and science, producing a fundamental shift and making the results accessible
to common perception.
They bridged the divide between the humanities and techno science by a deep
involvement in education and dissemination of interdisciplinary information with
an enduring effect on successive generations.
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Frank J. Malina trained in engineering and became involved early on in rocket
science research and aerospace innovations. On October 11, 1945, the young
Malina led the team that launched the WAC corporal rocket to an altitude of 43.5
miles, setting a new world record.
Mailna joined the newly founded UNESCO in 1947 in Paris as the deputy scien-
ce director. As the result of the McCarthy FBI/CIA investigations in 1953 he left
UNESCO and focused mainly on his art projects, pioneering new technological
art forms.
In 1968, Malina founded Leonardo –a pioneering journal interweaving art and
science and technology-, with an unbroken publishing record over four decades
long publication history.
Kepes, a Hungarian-born painter, designer, educator and art theorist, moved
from his native Hungary to Berlin collaborated on many projects with László
Moholy- Nagy first in Berlin and later in the US, continuing the (new) Bauhaus’
theory and practice.
Kepes summarized his concepts in “The language of vision”, his world-famed
book:
149
[…] it is our task to establish organic interconnections of the new frontiers of knowledge, the goal is a
new vital structure-order, a new form on a social plane, in which all present knowledge and technological
possessions may function unhindered as a whole.
In 1947 Kepes accepted an invitation to teach at MIT, where in 1967, he founded
the Center for Advanced Visual Studies, dedicated to advance new technologies
and creative collaboration between scientists and artists.
György Kepes is often referred to as a “light artist”. He was the first artist in Ame-
rica to use neon tubing on a grand scale,
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The project research for The Pleasure Light including NASA, JPL, MIT, UNESCO,
museums, the families of the artists and private collectors lasted nearly three years.
I worked closely together with Rona Kopeczky, the Hungarian co-curator of the
Ludwig Museum. In addition to the exhibition, we developed and published the
catalogue, including essays from interdisciplinary professionals.
The exhibition opened on September 2nd, 2010 in the Ludwig Museum, Museum
of Contemporary Art in Budapest. To illustrate the complex connections linking
the worlds of the two artists, a dynamic interactive map greeted the visitors in
the entrance hall.
The international conference linked to the exhibition was a closely linked inte-
gral part of the project. Now together with Rona Kopeczky, we are working on
the next exhibit of The Pleasure of Light project premiering at the end of April in
Gdansk, Poland.
And now I would like to focus on projects at the intersection of Art and Biology
and by extension Medicine.
The Digitized Bodies Virtual Spectacles project was inspired by the realization
that biosciences, communication, and information technologies have produced
150 the fastest growing industries of the last two decades. The rapid development of
digital imaging technologies has already reshaped biomedicine in ways that could
have been barely imagined a decade ago and has permeated our everyday life,
significantly shifting the common perception of the human body. In addition,
the products of the most recent visualization of our bio beings permeate popular
culture, leading to new economies of information. These new discoveries are pre-
senting fundamental challenges to traditional societal values, but can science and
industry really tell the whole story? We are still faced with serious, fundamental
questions. How can we obtain precise information about ourselves, particularly
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in the coded terms of medical science? How can we decipher the ambiguities
surrounding the mediated, documented data body? How can we preserve our
individual integrity without becoming mere electronic spectacles? A critical dis-
course on the objectification of the human body is debated and represented by
contemporary artists.
The curatorial aim of the Digitized Bodies project has been focused on the investi-
gation of these unresolved issues regarding the body politic, objectification of the
individual, bodily ethics and the sometimes-contradictory discourses surrounding
certain clinical and experimental technologies that seem to reinterpret the place
of the individual as a corporeal entity in society. One of the primary aims of the
Digitized Bodies—Virtual Spectacles project has been to survey and present inter-
national artwork and projects related to this topic, and to create interdisciplinary
communication in cyberspace.
Accordingly, the project included an international online exhibition, a virtual
forum and electronic catalogue, the on-site presentation of artworks, film/video
selections, public forums, publications and performance events in three countries:
Canada, Hungary and Slovenia. The participating artists challenged established
paradigms and pointed to debates in contemporary art, medicine, communication,
ethics and technology.
151
The project was developed over a four-year period and from an independent con-
cept it grew into an international and multidisciplinary collaboration of significant
scope. Over a hundred people from five continents have contributed or partici-
pated actively in this co-production, each of them adding their own views and
energies in a unique manner that promises further collaboration. The interaction
between scientists and artists took a variety of forms such as active participation in
forums, round table discussions, writing for our catalogue and being involved in
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the CD Rom. As a result, the digibodies events, revealed an eclectic and complex
picture of the shifting perceptions and paradigms of the human body.
The Digitized Bodies Virtual Spectacles Project was presented over a decade ago.
In the last couple years, I began to work on SPLICE At the Intersection of Art and
Medicine. This project is still in progress, we organized two sold out Hacking
the Body- Prosthetics Workshops at the Thing Tank Lab in January and March of
this year.
SPLICE presents a scientific gaze at the human body by showcasing historical
anatomical art, both complemented and challenged by contemporary artworks.
The exhibition showcases a specific international selection of relevant contem-
porary art works and at the same time it is the first large-scale public showing of
a large archival collection of images from the beginning of the last century at the
University of Toronto.
This project is still in progress, the first exhibition was in January of this year in
the West Vancouver Museum. The project is still in progress. We organized two
successful Hacking the Body- Prosthetics Workshops at the Thing Tank Lab in Ja-
nuary and March of this year. I am working now on exhibitions at the Blackwood
and UTAC Galleries in October this year with venues in Canada and New York
152 to follow.
We are all aware that for thousands of years –notwithstanding the difficulties and
complexities of representation– the human body has been revealed and depicted
by various mediums. Lately, artists have been initiating a fresh discourse that
involves experimenting with a wide range of representation and body imagery.
The contemporary artists included in this exhibition address representation of the
human body from current prevailing perspectives, such as authenticity, validity,
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substance, intervention, mediation and provocation. While frequently referring
to science they operate in a different context from the anatomical artist whose
approach is a direct representation of the body.
Thus art that sensationalizes the body, or investigates it microscopically is absent.
Instead, the participating artists are prompted by concepts in which the body is
objectified, or used as material in an installation, interactive work, performance
photograph or a video.
The scientific renderings from the middle of the last century include pen and ink
drawings, watercolour and carbon dust created by Canadian women medical
illustrators. Many of the archival artworks have been commissioned by JCB Grant
to illustrate his world famous Grant’s Atlas of Anatomy, first published in 1943
and still in print
Women at that time were discouraged from entering professions such as medical
research or clinical medicine. Consequently, Maria Wishart’s establishment in
1925 of the Medical Art Service at the University of Toronto remains a pioneer
initiative.
While based on factual information and scientific data, these drawings are also
personal, frequently beautiful and yet sometimes frightful or grotesque. By loo- 153
king at the images within an exhibition space and viewing them as art rather than
as strictly scientific, we pay tribute to the mastery of these creators who remain
hidden in background roles, and the publications in which their work appears.
In contrast to these important historical Canadian renderings, contemporary artists
take vastly different approaches in how they depict the human body. Today, for
instance the body is frequently politicized, symbolized, digitized in order to ma-
nipulate, to dissect and provoke. This provocation is clearly evident in the work
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of Dana Claxton’s Paint Up #1, a striking ceremonial color print confronting the
viewer, unflinchingly returning our gaze.
Confrontation is also apparent in Wellness Totem #1, by Jon Baturin, who has
spent much of the last decade investigating scientific representation and the ma-
nipulation of relative truth.
Orshi Drozdik’s exploration of mediated realities and her search for a feminine
aspect is clearly palpable in her Brain on High Heels installation. The bizarre
multitude of brains forced into tight shoes, the simple and symbolic meaning,
the density and irony of the statue all have a similar effect on the viewer as one
of the iconic pieces of surrealism.
Eric Fong’s Phantom Series focuses on the body as a technological, ideological
and aesthetic construct. Trained as a physician as well as an artist, Fong brings
to his work both aesthetic considerations and a distinct analytical point of view.
Joyce Cutler Shaw’s interdisciplinary What comes to mind, on the brain, and art
and neurobiology combines electronic imagery with analog tools, while Catherine
Richard’s interactive L’Intrus installation interprets the internal electromagnetic
fields of the body as she comments: “The human heart, the symbolic seat of the
emotions, is also one of the body's better known electromagnetic fields”.
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Jack Burman’s exquisite photographic images from Medical Museums around the
world evoke the memory of the human being in preserved and dissected bodies.
Rebecca Cairn´s, photographs and Fred Laforge’s drawing represent the generation
of emerging artists. The Æ lab’s Dark Room installation aims to create a contact
with inner & outer space, death and the sensuous, while Diana Burgoyne’s also
demarcates the boundary between the internal and the external in her What do
you think the mind is? – Interactive sound performance.
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Khadija Baker will perform My little voice can't lieat the opening.The viewers are
invited to hear recorded text from displaced women. Their stories emanate from
speakers embedded at the ends of the performer's braided hair.
Additional performances, video screenings and round table discussions are also
planed as well as a student exhibition. The metaphors and symbolic language
used in all these works assign specific meanings to explain the function of the
body in a contemporary cultural context, thus the project demonstrates parallels
and contrasts, reflecting the social environment of our era.
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