What is an Exhibition? Why Mediate Art?

According to Filipovic, what is an exhibition, and why is Graciela Carnevale’s 1968 exhibition considered one?

What should an exhibition “incite”?

“The ephemerality and lack of absoluteness of an exhibition might be its most important features” (78). How does a statement like this one fit well with digital media exhibitions like the ones we are doing in this class?

What does Susan Sontag means when she says, “Art is not only about something; it is something” (79)?

Explain this statement: “To propose a reading of an artwork is different than to claim to know what that artwork ultimately or definitely ‘means’: the artwork” (80).

What is Lind’s general perspective of the Museum of Modern Art’s approach to “mainstream museum education” (85)?

What is “[c]ollective spectatorship” (87)?

What is “didacticism” (88), and why does Lind not like it for museum education?

What can social media offer “experience-based guided tours and workshops” (89)?

For Next Wednesday

Your first Inventory Assignment will be due Sunday night by 8 p.m., and you must comment on two classmates’ blog post by the next class (3:10 p.m. Wednesday).
Many of you have not yet finished organizing your blogs and will need to get this done before next Wednesday. I have asked Kate to contact you to see if you need help with understanding how to upload images, make a menu, or create pages or posts.
Here is more information about the assignment:
Your Post
1: Look at the archival site for Game Changers 2015 (http://dtc-wsuv.org/projects/gamechangers2015/)
2. Find one theme from the four chapters of Ten Fundamentals as they are reflected in this exhibit.
3. Write a post consisting of 300-500 words on that theme. Be sure to run your post through Spellcheck and use excellent grammar. In other words, do college level work.
Your Responses to Other Posts
1. Pick two blog posts written by others in the class.
2. Read the two posts.
3. Write a response to each of the two posts. Your response should focus on ideas and away from evaluation. In other words, don’t say the post was good, but say why you agree or disagree with the view expressed and why.
Finally, I have updated the schedule to reflect the new students who have enrolled in the course.

Update, Questions

Don’t forget to choose a game to research for Game Changers. Madeleine has made a page on our website with all of the links you need.

We will take a look at previous exhibits that we have mounted. Visit the curation section of http://nouspace.net/dene. There are numerous exhibits sites to look at. Pick 2. Be ready to talk about your observations.

Finally, your first inventory will be due NEXT Sunday night. So, make sure your curated Word Press site is ready.

Here are the questions for Wednesday’s class:

  1. What is your general take on Chus Martinez’s chapter, “What Is Art?” Does it provide you with any new insights about art?
  2. Look up some of the contextual elements found in Martinez’s chapter. Who is Franco, for example, and why would he have exerted such influence upon the writer?
  3. Check out Hegel and Danto. Who are they? What is their relationship to art?
  4. Finally, what is the overall tone of this chapter?
  5. In regards to Chapter 4,”What about Collecting,” what does Sofia Hernandez Chong Cuy say about collections?
  6. Google the Guggenheim Bilboa. Look at images of the building.  What kind of art do you expect to see exhibited there?  Compare it with WSUV’s gallery located next to the cafeteria in the Administration Building. What kind of art would you see shown there?  Why the difference? (Think beyond money and costs).
  7. Chong Cuy asks the question, “Could a collection of contemporary art remain contemporary?” (65). What is contemporary art? (hint: look it up). Based on your findings, how would you respond to this question?

For This Wednesday’s Class

Just a reminder that we will start the class on Wednesday with two student presentations. Madeleine Brookman will give a 10 minute talk about Jessica Morgan’s “What Is a Curator?” (chapter 1), and Justine Hanrahan will give a 10 minute talk about Juan A. Gaitan’s “What Is the Public?” (chapter 2). Both chapters come from Jens Hoffman’s Ten Fundamental Questions of Curating. We will follow these presentations with a general class discussion. Here are some questions I would like you to consider as you are preparing for the class:

  1. What kind of curating activities have you participated in?
  2. Have you ever visited a gallery or museum? If so, what do you remember about the presentation of the works you saw? Think broadly about the term museum so that you include science & history museums.
  3. What have you collected in your lifetime, and how have you presented this material for others to see? What steps did you take to make the collection understandable to others? Did you use different tactics for different audiences?
  4. What do you expect as a viewer from a museum or gallery experience? What goals, experiences, or learning opportunities?
  5. What is the role of an exhibition, according to Gaitan? Do you agree? Why or why not?

 

Welcome to Curating Exhibits & Archives

 

“Curating, after all, produces ephemeral constellations that disappear, and, as a consequence, there are no memories of curating.” — Hans Ulrich Obrist, 2007

This course focuses on the development, organizing, and mounting of exhibits. Students in this course will work on two specific shows: Game Changers video game exhibit to be held during the month of March in downtown Vancouver and a special exhibit of media art ephemera for the ELO 2016 Conference & Media Art Festival taking place at the University of Victoria from 10-12 June 2016.

Students in the class will also gain background in theories relating to curating and come to understand it as a critical practice.