GIVE TO TAKE / Intellectual Property Agency / QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Question by ephemeral8
Question:
Do you think that curatorial role is needed in the Internet Art?
Answer by Kathy Rae Huffman (Curator at Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK)
Let me reply rather spontaneously, because if I sit and think about this, it might become 'a job' to do, and I think there are some very obvious ways to look at it. I'm quite bored with artists who feel curators are simply out for themselves, building their own careers on the backs of artists. In my experience, there is a real partnership between artists and curators, mutually appreciative roles (that sometimes even, become blurred). OK, here are some thoughts:
Curator issues:
1. A Curator of Internet Art might seem like an oxymoron -- after all, Art online is really interesting exactly because it bypasses institutional standards, taste and rhw gatekeepers who set the market value of art sales (i.e.: collectors, gallery and museum curators).
2. Independent curators have become more prevalent, more proactive, and many of them disassociate themselves from institutions, and take the side of the artist (sometimes the curator is also an artist, even). This curator looks for the fresh, inspiring, new work. Gallery and museum curators look at the exhibitions, selections, and texts of independents for inspiration. The Internet has helped make this category of curator visible, and more possible, and has even given a new voices of authority to 'the independent'.
Internet issues:
1. On the one hand, the internet is simply a platform for artists to explore. There are access issues across the globe which makes it more likely that Austrian artists use the Internet, for example, than Chinese artists. Internet provides opportunities that video doesn't provide, for example.
2. Internet Art exists outside the influence of the rest of the art world, both for aesthetics and for commerce. Only when artists are commissioned to create an Internet work of art, do they have a chance to realise profits (and then the artists' time consumed is rarely part of the calculation).
Curating for Internet Art.
1. In the mid-1990s, hardly anyone outside a small group of like minded artists and curators was aware of the intelligent work that artists were accomplishing on the Internet. It was a exciting, and a privilege, to curate 'exhibitions' of Internet Art, as special projects for domains such as the Ars Electronica, for festivals, and even for institutions.
2. The proliferation of websites, art portals, art projects online (don't forget those that involve real-time events), blogs, vlogs, streaming events, podcasts, sound files, ring tones by artists and so forth presents a situation of absolute oversaturation and extreme pressure to keep up. What is valuable, what is good, how do you find this work, how to you evaluate it? What is Art for the Internet worth as cultural phenomena?
3. Curating Internet Art brings the concerns that curators have (for example a theoretical position, looking at technical discipline/style, looking at national trends) together with their network of artists and audiences. This can bring about a much wider discussion, much needed critical response and a context for the work, into the discourse of the contemporary art. This can be curating by an artist (sometimes looking for like minded works to fit with their own), it can be curating for an online platform, or for an institutional venue.
4. What does a curator mean for an artist? The curatorial pov can enhance the artists intention, can bring a new audience to the work, and can help audiences understand the work by describing the value of the work (hopefully in plain language). Curators also often have the capability to commission new works.
5. Every curator has their likes and dislikes, their history, their point of view -- just as artists do also. It is the magic of finding the fit, and the resulting dedicated communication about a certain work between artist and curator that creates a bond of trust and respect. The risk that a curator is willing to take, by bringing an artist into a publically 'curated' situation, is what gains their reputation -- which allows them to continue to work and curate again and again.
Note: most curators work very hard, are dedicated to artists and their ideas, and are not selfish, pompous or lazy in their quest for answering questions raised by artists and their works.
