Hello freecooperators,
I've been a member of the list since nearly the beginning, but only
occasionally read the posts and apologise for not posting an
introduction until now.... I have been completing my PhD dissertation
for the University of Sunderland (UK) in practice, as a new media
curator.
My thesis explores models of curatorial practice in response to new
media art... and seeing as collaboration is one of the defining
characteristics of new media art (in both its production and
distribution), it figures prominently in my discussion of curating
(both in an out of the institution, both on and offline).
Projects I have been involved with recently (as a curator or theorist)
which gave me time to think about collaboration and participate in
collaborations include:
The Art For Networks exhibition, curated by artist Simon Pope:
www.newmedia.sunderland.ac.uk/artfornetworks
The Bridges Symposium at the Banff Centre for the Arts:
www.banffcentre.ca/bnmi/bridges
The launch of Jonah Brucker-Cohen and Tim Redfern's simpleTEXT:
www.simpleTEXT.info
and my work with artists Jon Winet and Margaret Crane, such as the
piece I commissioned, Monument: www.locusplus.org.uk/monument
In the UK I have been tracking some new media artist collectives who
use re-enactment as an artistic strategy and use technologies of
real-time (or real-time as a technology!) to document and provide
access to their work (Nina Pope and Karen Guthrie:
www.somewhere.org.uk; Rod Dickinson: www.jonestownreenactment.org and
www.milgramreenactment.org; Kris Cohen and Ben Coode-Adams:
www.issomeonecomingtogetme.blogspot.com; Jeremy Deller; Marcus Coates).
Following from some of what Charles Green has written in the Third
Hand, I have been discussing with these artists how technology
facilitates or camouflages their collaborations, who exactly the
audience is in re-enactment projects and how those audiences change
based on whether they access the project by collaborating in its making
or by use of a technology. Naturally, as a curator I'm interested in
how these works can be represented in gallery contexts also.
I look forward to more time spent reading and responding to the list
after my defense!
Sarah
*********
Sarah Cook, curator and co-editor
CRUMB: The Curatorial Resource for Upstart Media Bliss
www.newmedia.sunderland.ac.uk/crumb
www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/new-media-curating.html